The Campaign

In 2006 HP launched its first generation of Inkjet printers in China, aiming to tap into the growing business and personal computer market. Yet, as of 2012, Inkjet printers significantly lag behind Laser printers with only 32% of the current market share. One of the main obstacles to growing their market position resides within the common misrepresentation through many SMEs which regards Inkjet printers to be of a lower quality and higher costs when compared to its Laser printer cousin. How do you take an existing product with stagnated market share and reinvigorate its reputation? Our decision was to take the launch of the new generation of inkjet printers and focus on delivering a core message to our core audience – that of higher quality and lower costs for SMEs. At our launch event ‘HP IITO China Big Bang’ in Beijing, we repositioned the Inkjet printer to be simply known as the next generation of printers, removing the negative connotations associated with the name, and launched a key narrative that outlined why they were faster, had better performance, and saved cost. The event was attended by over 50 enterprise customers, analysts, and over 100 journalists representing a diversified spectrum of media including newspapers, business, industry, IT, online and also media from key sales region. After the launch, over 400 clippings have been collected and a report regarding this event was aired on CCTV2-Worldwide Exchange, the most influential TV station in China.

The Brief

Our comparative ethnographic research comparing China and USA served as a backdrop to our work and importantly highlighted the potential for shifting the perception of Inkjet Printers if the strategic execution was done smartly. Therefore, our objective was: • Product: Aggressively launch HP IITO products focused upon driving interest through the SME market. • Brand: Build HP’s dominance in the commercial inkjet category and communicate with the extended portfolio of all business customers. • Business: Grow business segment with IITO and achieve sales target.

Results

Our launch event was extremely successful, which included being witnessed by 100+ journalists, and 50+ enterprise customers and analysts, with their coverage being a PR Value of around $ 3500K+. So far over 400 clippings have been monitored, a significant report on CCTV2 and 30+ instances of coverage from business and general media. Moreover, we have seen enhanced IITO category, 6 Web Live Columns, 4 Web China Debut Evaluation Columns, and 40+ Product evaluation articles. Importantly, in an industry that relies upon peer impression, the products have received 8 editor choice awards. Online, here are just some of our Weibo stats: 11480 article forwards, 7370 comments, 1466 votes, leverages lots of famous KOLs, even one of the most famous movie stars @liuye(刘烨) who has 6 million fans involved in this topic

Execution

• IITO category build up: Construct strong product road map to enhance the business printing eco-system. • Product Ranking: Influence media to enhance the new product ranking for IITO and lead the rankings throughout the campaign. • KOL Topics：highlight influential users to leverage further promotion and subsequently impact enterprises of different sizes and industries of all kinds. • Media Column/Testing/Recommendation：Increase customer attention and gain greater understanding of the details of IITO products. • Social media communication: Build the connection between the socio-demographic make-up of our target audience and the products to help build positive connotations. To this end we have been engaged in the form of quality commentary, sharing, and repeat visits for this program

The Situation

Unlike other markets in the world, China’s business community have strongly preferred laser printers over inkjet ones. Many organizations believe that there is a significant difference in the quality of the product and relative to cost they represent better value for money, this drives the unique consumer habits. HP had unsuccessful launched its first generation of inkjet printers in 2006, in 2013 they were hoping a new generation of printers could help them tap into the 83% of PC who do not have a PC to printer connection.

The Strategy

Based on the detailed research we had conducted we realized that solving the problem would require a twin strategic approach of changing perception and shifting market position. The numbers from the USA showed the potential, but it would need to be filtered through a nuanced understanding of the printer market in China. Product positioning: • Instead of going against the ingrained perception of inkjet printing, we positioned products as “next-generation business printers” that provide a smart alternative to laser for SMEs. To achieve this end we: • Used the full product portfolio to get users to rethink laser as the gold standard of office printing • Through the launch event, let the audience experience the products’ laser-like speed and print quality for themselves