The HP LaserJet blog by Vince Ferraro : Marketing

Keeping Up With the Needs and Expectations of HP’s Customers

Tac Anderson — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:27:00 GMT

My HP colleague Chris Hawkes has some interesting insights on how hp works with customers to keep updated on their current and future product requirements - Vince

How does HP know what their customers want and why? Sometimes it’s a simple “launch and learn” where we try something and see how it goes over with our customers. However, mistakes in our business where our printers are designed 12-18 months before they are introduced to the market and the pipeline has thousands or tens of thousand of those printers boxed up and ready for customers can be very, very costly. They can also cost us a great deal of customer loyalty.

Fortunately HP has an enormous number of engineers, product manager and other groups who help to put the whole product together, diligently working to make sure that we’re designing our products to be as feature-rich and simply to use as possible. Our employees also know a great deal about our customers and are constantly looking for ways to improve the ‘product experience’.

There are a number of mechanisms that HP uses to stay connected to our customers:

We have periodic studies that ask how happy our customers are with their products and whether they intend to purchase HP again.
We get feedback from the technical support calls – to understand what functions or capabilities are less intuitive than they could be.
We also conduct a good deal of market research to talk to customers, in different environments (home, small business and the enormous enterprise customers
We also do this across the globe to understand how people on different continents and in different countries want their printers to work, what functions are critical and which ones could be taken out, so we can meet their expected price-point on certain types of printers.

Some of the issues that we have conducted market research on include:

Understanding how price sensitive customers are.

We can always add impressive capabilities to our products, but if they’re not expected or desired by our target customers, those functions should be taken out so we can give customers a better price on their next printer purchase

We have also researched want advanced features such as ‘fax to e-mail’ (or Digital Send in HP terms) our customers want

Are smaller companies interested in having these higher end capabilities which have yielded great efficiency improvement for the larger businesses? If so, are they willing to pay more money to see those capabilities built into their products?

HP conducts dozens of market research projects every year; it is our marketing priority to understand what you as a customer, would ideally want from the perfect printer or MFP. We consistently seek out and value customer’s opinions and do everything that we can to see that they are included in the next generation of our products. Of course conducting market research doesn’t mean that we also always hit the perfect mix of capabilities and price for all of our customers. That’s not an easy thing to do, but it is considered everyone’s job at HP to do as much as we can to match our product offerings to the customers’ demands and do that better than the competition. The team works very hard at that. We’re trying to make your life easier and it’s important that we can talk to you, our customers, to understand how best we can serve you – now and in the future.

Best Regards,

Chris Hawkes, Market Research Consultant

For more information on the types of market research that are available and how they work, you can go to www.MarketResearch101.com for more details on the processes.

Technorati Tags: Market Research,Customer Research

Logoworks by HP to Offer Free Blog Design Templates

Anonymous — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:38:00 GMT

Interesting developments are emerging in Logoworks, a division of HP. Beginning today, Logoworks by HP is introducing several new affordable and versatile blog design offerings to help businesses ride the Web 2.0 wave and start building customer interactivity and perhaps, even online communities. Along with free downloadable templates Logoworks is also offering custom blog design packages. Businesses can now communicate directly with customers in a more open yet still highly, professionally branded forum that adds a personal touch to any commercial website regardless of the business’ size (did I say free?).

As HP's top blogger I know a little about the infrastructure required to keep a blog up and running. Actually, the writing part is the easiest part of the blog. The two more complicated pieces are researching what to write about (that takes time) and the mechanics of posting and presenting a blog (online) on the web. The Logoworks announcement address the second of the two issues by providing you professionally developed blog templates which will enhance the presentation of your website to readers.

Developed by award-winning designers, the templates run the gamut from fun and whimsical to contemporary and elegantly simple. With such a wide variety of styles, we think you will undoubtedly find a template to suit your personality or business.

It is no wonder blogs are gaining momentum in business. It is an effective way to have direct dialog to keep your customers informed, but also as a way to solicit feedback and establish a two way conversation with customers. There is nothing quite like getting direct "in your face" customer feedback on your products. For example as an HP blogger, I have answered a lot of questions about printing using Microsoft's Vista OS.

According to a recent survey by Forrester (“Top Enterprise Web 2.0 Predictions For 2008”, Jan. 25, 2008), 24% of companies have considered implementing Web 2.0 initiatives as a priority in 2008 – and 27% of companies are specifically considering creating blogs.

Finally, there are two other things the people at Logoworks are doing which are also pretty cool. First, they have updated the Logomaker design tool for a dramatically improved logo design experience. Logomaker 2.0, which will be available the week of May 12, delivers an enhanced design experience with a new and improved user interface and updated design choices for the DIY small business owner. This enhanced functionality allows small businesses to create a free logo for their website in mere minutes.

Second as an added benefit, Logoworks by HP is also hosting a free webinar about business-related blogging on Wednesday, May 7. Chris Baggott, small business expert and successful business blogger and founder of Compendium Blogware, will share his insights about blogging for business purposes. The session will touch on a variety of issues from the basics such as what a business blog is (and can do for businesses) to how to setup and maintain a successful blog. Register here for the free Logoworks by HP Blogging Webinar on Wednesday, May 7.

For more in-depth information about blogs in general, I suggest you look here.

Happy Blogging!

Technorati Tags: Logoworks,HP,Logomaker,Blog Design,Blog Templates

SmallBizTechnology covers In-House Marketing

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:12:00 GMT

SmallBizTechnology.com recently posted about the HP Marketing Resources Center.

Ramon Ray featured the HP Marketing Resources site and describes the key elements of the software, pointing out the benefits of the HP Print Cost Estimator and HP Print View Software.

Ray called out the HP Print Cost Estimator and noted that it can help to determine whether a print job should be produced in the office or outsourced to a local commercial printer. HP Marketing Resources Center contains tools, training, and templates that allow businesses to create and print professional marketing collateral (e.g. business cards, postcards, letterhead, brochures, flyers, etc.).

There is incredible power in desktop color lasers today to do things that were once only the domain of commercial/offset printers. At low print volumes, color lasers can create short run collateral (with high quality) at an affordable price.

Conversations with Bmighty.com

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:11:00 GMT

As part of recent new product introduction conversation with Fredric Paul, of Bmighty.com, we spoke on a number of topics including in-house marketing, a comparison of ink vs. laser printers, the future of printing, and environmental issues. You can find the complete text of the article here.

Mono Lasers Reviewed by PC Magazine

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:06:00 GMT

This week, PC Magazine featured a roundup of four affordably-priced monochrome laser printers best suited for SOHO use – two of which included HP LaserJet Printers. The roundup included the HP LaserJet P1006, the HP LaserJet P1505 Printer (an editor’s choice pick from an earlier review), OKI Printing Solutions B4400, and the SamsungML-1630.

The review praised the HP models for their speed and small size, and reviewer David Stone said that while “the ML-1630, for example, offers a designer look, for those who care about such things, […] the P1505 and B4400 are noticeably faster than the other two models. Any one of them could be your personal monochrome laser of choice.”

There is a great deal of debate, in the industry, in terms of how fast the market (and users) will convert to color business printing. To be sure, the price and performance of color laser printers is declining - making them more affordable than ever. However, if you are not yet ready for color, mono laser printers in this price range offer surprisingly good value in terms of print quality, performance (usually faster than equivalently-priced color printers), and performance.

Xerox Solid Ink—Reality vs. The Hype

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:58:00 GMT

Xerox’s announcement on September 24^th, 2007, may have some customers taking a look at Solid Ink technology for their color business printing requirements. We hope customers take a close look at the technology, and the history of Solid Ink vs. Color Laser or business-focused inkjet devices and make an informed decision about which technologies are the best.

It’s important to consider that Xerox acquired Solid Ink technology when they purchased Tektronix in January of 2000. In the 1980’s, Solid Ink printers had captured an early niche in the graphics departments as proofing devices. Graphic artists liked the 11”X17” format and glossy, vibrant colors that solid ink offered. And, at the time, the nascent inkjet technology business was just emerging. Inkjet was delivering only 180 dpi on special paper. Color laser printers were not commercially feasible back then. We dreamed of someday selling a Color LaserJet printer for $1,000. Today, of course, the technology is much less expensive—HP Color LaserJet printers start at just $299.

But as the technology matured and color printing spread into other parts of the office, color laser became the dominant technology of choice. There were significant differences in the needs of the office users vs. the graphics department. (hp also has strong offerings for the Graphic Arts). Office users needed permanent output that could be handled, copied, annotated and archived. Permanence was especially important in contracts, legal documents, purchase agreements, proposals, etc. Solid Ink technology could not match color laser/dry toner technology in these areas. Also, color laser technology was able to deliver sharper text quality which was also critical in high-value business documents.

General office users also needed fast output. Again, Solid Ink technology had some drawbacks compared to color laser, many of which are documented in this side by side comparison. If a Solid Ink device is turned off, or if nozzles clog, there is up to a 12.5 minute delay to cycle the printer. A color laser printer can be power cycled in less than two minutes. This was another key advantage for color laser.

In addition, color laser technology provided simplicity at print time for users. With HP Color LaserJets users get best print quality in default mode. There’s no need to go into the print driver and fiddle with settings. But with Solid Ink technology, there was a dramatic relationship between quality and performance. If you wanted fastest performance you'd get a draft quality and printing would slow down to a fraction of the maximum print speed for highest quality. This extra complexity was an additional disadvantage for Solid Ink in the office. Users and helpdesks preferred the simplicity of the color laser user model–file print and great output without performance penalties, and no need to change settings in the print driver.

And the Solid Ink devices did not earn an Energy Star approval. They used 4 to 5 times the amount of power as color laser printers. Xerox created some special bundles that were Energy Star compliant, but the top-selling Solid Ink models were not and are still not Energy Star products. This was another reason to go with Color Laser technology.

Solid Ink technology maintained a niche with early adopters and graphics departments, but never experienced the mainstream adoption in the general office because it had fundamental shortcomings that make it inferior to color laser technology. As office color printing boomed, color laser technology boomed and became the de-facto technology standard and hp was, and still is, the leading vendor. Today, additional investments are being made in inkjet printing, like hp’s Officejet Pro and Edgeline Technology, that allow business quality results from inkjet printers tuned to SMB and Enterprise applications and customer needs. The result--as of 2007, Solid Ink technology is used in less than 5% of color laser class printer applications.

Will Xerox’s recent announcement change things? There’s a new pricing strategy-–more expensive printers and cheaper supplies. But has the technology changed? I don’t think so. Solid Ink still has inferior permanence to color laser/dry toner. Color Laser still warms up in 2 minutes (from Power Off, while printing much faster from Powersave Mode, using Instant-on Technology) vs. 12.5 minutes for Solid Ink. Solid ink still requires significant delays for best print quality and solid ink printers still use 4 to 5 times the power.

I wouldn’t be distracted by new cost per page claims from Xerox. This is a defensive competitive play—one that Xerox seems more comfortable initiating than something that is truly new and innovative. A while back, I wrote about how Xerox responded to hp’s hugely successful printer-based MFP. From a technology standpoint, nothing has changed.

Raising the price of the printers and dropping cost-per-page is an alternative business model not unlike what Kodak is trying to do with consumer inkjet printing. What is really important is Total Cost per Page (TCPP)—where you look at hardware prices, cost per page, up time, support costs, down time, etc., to derive the real cost of printing. Stick with the right technology for office color printing, color laser.

HP Fuels Growth with Print 2.0

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:43:00 GMT

Today was an incredible day in printer land, as hp had a massive new product introduction and strategy event in the Big Apple. We announced a slew of new products, solutions, and services, unveiled our Print 2.0 strategy, as well as unveiling a massive, uber, $300M global marketing campaign to support our plans.

Here's an excerpt from the press release: "HP today introduced a breakthrough printing technology, new web-based printing services, an expanded portfolio of printers and imaging products, and a host of alliances and relationships that serve the growing markets outlined in the company's Print 2.0 strategy.

In conjunction with the announcements, the company unveiled a $300 million global marketing campaign, called "What do you have to say?," that enables users to mash up their content with free, exclusive content from singer/fashion designer Gwen Stefani, Burton Snowboards founder Jake Burton and celebrated graphic designer Paula Scher.

HP's Print 2.0 strategy focuses on three areas: delivering a next-generation digital printing platform that increases print speeds and lowers the cost of printing for high-volume commercial markets; making it easier to print from the web; and extending HP's digital content creation and publishing platforms across all customer segments.

HP is executing Print 2.0 while continuing to drive innovation across its core printing business - an overall strategy designed to accelerate the company's ability to capture a more significant portion of the 53 trillion pages expected to be printed by 2010.

"Today we're igniting growth across every single part of our business and introducing market-leading imaging and printing solutions for consumers, small and medium businesses, the graphic arts community and enterprise customers," said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. "With Print 2.0, we're leveraging the power of the web as a gateway for our customers to communicate, collaborate and publish their content in ways they could not before.""

In future blogs, I will be spending some time dissecting some of these announcements as it relates to hp's LaserJet printer business. For now, I just want to leave you with some of the links to the information. When this blogger wasn't schmoozing with press, analysts, customers, and channel partners over sushi, gourmet burgers, and fine wine (I should also mention we also got a sneak preview of the "Bee Movie" from Dreamworks), we were running an SMB customer experience center, which showed the back end and front end operations of a mythical SMB customer (in this case, a winery).

We showed how hp's laser and inkjet printing solutions could be used in the back end (general office, administrative) and front end (in-house marketing (IHM)) of their operations. We focused in on how a small business (like this winery) could build a strong brand identity using new hp Print 2.0 online tools and services. We walked people through the various stations to demonstrate hp's broad range of affordable, easy-to use printing products, solutions, and services designed to maximize every aspect of operating a small business, while improving their marketing effectiveness and productivity.

-Vince

Thanks for making this a Top Marketing Blog

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:35:00 GMT

There was an interesting posting on the blog "Being Peter Kim". Peter is an analyst at the research company Forrester. His coverage area focuses on marketing strategy and organization, including advertising and accountability. He recently posted a beta blog list called "The M20: Top Marketer Blogs. Well, in reality, his list went to 31 and I was pleasantly surprised to find my blog was listed as 23rd on the list.

Peter goes on to describe the methodology for how he has created the list. I have checked out many of the blogs on the list and there are some pretty interesting sites that I recommend you also read. In addition, a fellow hp blogger, Eric Kintz, is also on the list at #8.

I’m very happy with the readership and the feedback I’ve received since starting the blog last year. In the last couple of months, this blog has become the top read hp executive blog by a significant margin, something my team and I are particularly proud of. Please feel free to leave a comment with any topics you’d like me to cover . . .

Printing your Marketing Materials In-house

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:51:00 GMT

Last week’s blog, “HP’s Nor Rae Spohn on Print 2.0” featured a podcast in which Nor- Rae described the changing role of printing for our SMB customers. In this discussion, Nor Rae described some of the specialized products and services that will help you publish marketing materials in-house (we call this In-house Marketing or IHM). This week, I want to describe some of these IHM resources in greater detail so you can get a feel for how they can immediately add value to your small business marketing and printing efforts.

The place to start your investigation is the HP Color printing center, which is essentially your portal for hp’s IHM resources. In the HP Color printing center, you’ll find a number of tools, templates, links to partners services (like stock photos, SMB blogs), and training that will help you create marketing collateral to improve the effectiveness in your own products and services—from creating (or refreshing) your brand identity, through applying this to marketing materials (business cards, brochures, etc.); to figuring out the best way to print. While I’ve discussed branding and marketing material creation in a previous blog, I’d like to expound on how you can use HP Color LaserJets and business inkjet printers and the tools on the portal to print in ways that save you time and money, while giving you the flexibility to print what you want, when you want.

On the lower-right nav-bar of the Color printing center, in the “Produce” section is a link to HP Marketing Resources software. Upon downloading this new, free software, you’ll find the HP Print Cost Estimator to be a very useful tool to estimate the cost for printing one or two-sided marketing materials on your Color LaserJet device. You’ll also gain info. that will help you compare the estimated cost for printing that same document at an external print-service provider. In most cases, you’ll find that it is more cost effective, and timely, to print in-house on your Color LaserJet for print runs up to 2,000 sheets--and much better for printing smaller runs. In many cases, the cost savings of printing in-house allows you to justify the cost of the printer in a very short amount of time. And that is money you can take to the bank! Check back to this web site often, we will be refreshing the software to broaden the number of printers that are supported—including business inkjets.

I think you’ll also want to use the HP Print View Software, which will help you optimize printer settings before you hit the “print” button. With this new software, you can change your printer settings and immediately see how changes affect your materials with a print view of the final output. Then, when you know you’ve optimized the settings (and you’ve already determined that it is better to print this run on your LaserJet)—you can hit “print” directly from within the software. Then you’ll have printed pieces that are optimized for cost and attractiveness, all when you want them.

You’ll find this whole process very easy and more than a little interesting. The key thing to keep in-mind is that, by using these software tools, you’ll ultimately be saving time and money, while you regain more control of your marketing process. You won’t be dependent on a printer’s schedule and having to print large runs that often have to be scrapped due to changes or come with exorbitant set up charges. You can also print short runs, customizing them for particular proposals, customers or events—making your communications pieces more effective.

And like other hp software solutions like Web JetAdmin and Universal Print Driver, these new software applications are absolutely free! Please feel free to let me know your experiences in using HP In-House Marketing Resource Center . . .

Imaging and Printing 2.0

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 14:30:00 GMT

Last week, I had a chance to participate in hp’s annual Imaging and Printing conference in New York City. These events, which are exceptionally well-planned, give hp a chance to review new product introductions, and share our future vision and strategies. More importantly, it gives us a chance to interact and, often times, have engaging discussions with key industry analysts from companies like IDC, Gartner, and InfoTrends, to name a few.

Some of the highlights included a vision and strategy presentation by Vyomesh Joshi (VJ), hp’s Executive Vice President for imaging and printing; an enlightening Web 2.0 presentation by John Topping, Director of Google’s B2B Technology Verticals Market Group; and John Battelle who is a an internet visionary, journalist, blogger, author, and entrepreneur. We also had a number of breakout sessions where we shared our thoughts and strategies on various markets we sell into - enterprise, supplies, graphic arts, moms-consumers, and SMB. In addition, I was fortunate to host a session on In-House Marketing, a strategy I have talked about in the past on this blog and will continue to blog about in the future.

During this event, we unveiled our Print 2.0 strategy where our company plans to make it easier to print from the web, extend the company’s digital printing content creation and publishing platform capability, and capture a greater share of high volume analog printing through increased speeds and reduced costs.

Let me say a couple of things about what hp is doing. First of all, there is a tremendous opportunity to shift pages printed elsewhere-–whether it be office documents from copiers, marketing collateral from commercial printers or photos from photo labs and re-purpose those pages on more local devices. Within certain parameters (like job length, required finishing) there are reduced costs and increased flexibility and control associated with this transformation of pages. We’re not disabling other ways to print these documents such as online or through retail.

The web is a key enabler to this document transformation. The Web 2.0 or second generation web enhancements are fueling the trend of creating-user generated content from some sites as YouTube, Wikis, Second Life, and MySpace, and making user generated content like Yahoo maps, blogs, and web images easier to print out. I'm sure all of us have been frustrated from time to time printing out web pages, when content gets chopped off on the right margin. We are also enabling web services that could serve up and deliver specific applications and solutions for certain types of customers. Finally, we’re backing-up this strategy with acquisitions that help make printing from the web easier. These include Tabblo and LogoWorks.

Tabblo is providing a tool kit for web developers that will help improve print functions on companies’ web sites. We are also working with SixApart to build technology into their Moveable Type blogging software and TypePad blogging service to add a “print” button to their products. LogoWorks helps small and medium businesses (SMBs) create professional looking logos for their business and marketing collateral. As the web branches out into “mashed media”–-words, pictures, video, and music–-people will need to new ways to be able to consume this information. We want to empower people to print this complex media as one method of consumption.

The world is changing. I think static documents of the past are transforming into digital media--rich documents, user generated content, and mashed-up information. I think we are leading the industry right now in identifying the future challenges of printing and in developing real world solutions to address them. In my next post I will share some thoughts from our leadership team on their views around Print 2.0 and how it will change their business focus and direction in the future.

What do you think about the future of printing? Are we on the right track?

HP LaserJet Printers in the “Web 2.0” World

Anonymous — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:59:00 GMT

You might have tied into discussions on “Web 2.0” in the blogosphere, as in this blog “Cisco CEO: Web 2.0 will drive the industry.” This discourse tends to be around how people are using the web in new and unique ways. I’ve noticed that some folks are a little skeptical of “Web 2.0”, probably because of the history and speculation on the “new economics” around Web 1.0 and the original dot-com bubble bursting deflated a lot of expectations. Remember Napster (music), WebVan (groceries), Pets.com, and eToys.com? They are gone.

It pays to be skeptical about the future promises of the web. Even I have fallen victim to the allure of the web. As marketing manager of the newly founded Internet Appliance Operation in 1998, we conceived of a home appliance where grandmas, that were not technologically savvy, could share and communicate pictures and ideas with their digitally savvy family. That did not really become reality until Presto launched a product, in collaboration with hp last year. However, while the Web itself hasn’t really changed significantly, how people are using the Web merits a fresh look into Web 2.0 as an evolved communications and social networking platform.

Some great examples of how web communications have evolved are reflected in such social networking sites as YouTube and MySpace--both great examples of how people are now using the Web as a communications platform (hp also has a social networking site in Snapfish). These sites are all essentially designed around the idea that you can share creative media (videos, avatars, images) amongst friends and communities of people who are interested in similar subjects and content. While these sites have now entered the mainstream (they'll even be posting presidential debates) they came from grassroots beginnings, growing from devoted followings until the networks of people involved became large enough to gain general awareness. Fortunately, people still want to print content from their web experiences (like photos, chat histories, and news)

One such grassroots “Web 2.0” application that has recently come to my attention is in the area of business networking. A “twenty-something Londoner”, named Richard Moross “was bored” with the standard business cards that people tended to exchange and came up with Moo cards. These cards are exactly half the height of your standard business cards and are often printed with your picture on them. These pictures for Moo cards can be uploaded from a social networking site, like Flickr, bebo or FOTOLOG and images of Moo cards can be used on social networking sites, like Second Life.

By doing this “mashup” between digital imaging sites and printing for a business purpose, Moo cards bridge the gap between social and business networking in the Web 2.0 space. What interested me personally about this Web 2.0 application is that, in using color LaserJets to print Moo cards, they are basically making LaserJet printers, Web 2.0 fulfillment solutions.

Another site I like is scribd.com. While some users might find some content on the web site objectionable (consider this a warning for those of you behind the corporate firewall), I like what they are doing because they are essentially trying to create the YouTube equivalent for documents and this content ultimately needs to be printed.

It looks like Web 2.0 communications are moving from early adopters to the mainstream—this trend can only accelerate as unique communications tools, like Moo-cards and Scribd, sweep through social and business networks. Please feel free to comment on any unique Web 2.0 communications vehicles that you’re seeing . . .

HP and Logoworks-Design your own Brand Identity

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2007 14:57:00 GMT

Last week, hp announced it is planning to acquire Logoworks, a graphic design firm that provides company logo designs through an e-commerce model over the web.

To quote our EVP Vyomesh Joshi, "Today's small businesses are increasingly turning to the Web for marketing tools and services that strike a balance between affordability and quality...By adding Logoworks' Web-based graphic design service to our portfolio, HP can now provide the right mix of cost savings, flexibility and professional quality to help make a small business look big".

Ben Nelson, HP's general manager of destination Web service, described the acquisition of Logoworks as a "natural fit" that will help HP tap a potential market of nearly 18 million small and medium-size businesses in the United States. "HP now provides template designs that its small and medium-size business customers can use. Logoworks is not a template-driven design service but provides custom designs for a fraction of the cost," he said. "The idea is to build brand equity around Logoworks' distinct brand and service that customers can relate to."

I am not going to elaborate much further on their quotes except to say that we are building a broad strategy to help SMB customers develop and print their marketing collaterals in a flexible way, at a quality level that is comparable to traditional commercial print shops, but at a cost lower than traditional outsourcing. You will hear more about this over time so stay tuned!

Producing Marketing Materials In-house

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:08:00 GMT

I’ve written about a lot of subjects that might be considered pertinent to large enterprises over the past few months. This week I’m going to shift gears and talk a little about small and medium business customers (a.k.a SMBs). This week’s blog speaks directly to those SMBs that need printed marketing materials--flyers, brochures, etc.--to help sell their businesses, products, and services. While outsourcing has traditionally been a popular option for these types of marketing materials, many SMBs are now turning to a “do-it-yourself” model to stretch their marketing budgets. And “do it yourself” doesn’t mean you will have a “lemonade stand” or “garage sale” sign level of quality. What I am talking about is level of quality that is equal to what you would get from a commercial print shop.

Marketing can have a significant impact for many small businesses as most want to look as professional as possible (like the big guys) in order to generate revenue. However, budget constraints limit what SMBs can afford to outsource to design shops, commercial printers or agencies. Because of these challenges--more than 50% of small companies print either all or some of their marketing materials in-house (Internal Communications Research, Feb., ’05).

Hardware and software manufacturers have noticed this trend and now offer solutions specifically designed to allow SMBs to quickly and easily create marketing brochures, flyers and other collateral in house. This top trend was recently cited in a PC magazine article entitled “In-House Copy Shop.” To print these materials, printer manufacturers now offer high-quality color ink and laser printers at lower costs—by 2005, sub-$1000 color laser printers had reached mainstream status (InfoTrends, Feb, 2006).Today it is possible to find an entry level color laser around $299

On the software/services side, SMB’s can save money by using some of the free marketing resources now available on the internet. For example, HP hosts an in-house marketing portal for SMBs that offers how-to seminars and free templates to develop materials including brochures, business cards and customer logos. These resources are helpful for companies looking to create a whole new corporate identity or simply to produce a brochure to promote a particular product or service.

If re-branding is one of your Marketing strategies, you can use the business marketing identity kits as well as services from companies like LogoWorks and iStockphoto, found on the portal, to redesign fliers, business cards, newsletters and even PowerPoint templates—creating an attractive, unified look across all your marketing materials. It would then be important to leverage this look into other communications tools, like your website.

Or you might want to create a singular brochure, flyer, business card, calendar or other piece for which we offer templates. The HP in-house marketing portal also offers free seminars. You also might be interested in the related Small business marketing toolbox blog by John Jantsch, the Creator of Duct Tape Marketing.

Another thing to consider is how frequently your business might need changes or updates to your marketing materials. While companies often order large quantities of brochures, etc. in order to get price breaks, very often the underlying information changes before the inventory of printed materials runs out, making for wasted budget and paper. By printing materials in-house—you can print what you need, when you need it and even customize information for particular opportunities. This creates a level of empowerment to the SMB that previously has not existed.

The opportunity to apply color to your marketing materials should also not be overlooked as color documents tend to be more persuasive. The print quality of color laser, combined with glossy paper meant to replicate the look and feel of a commercially printed page, is creating some great in-house marketing alternatives for the SMB. This and other issues SMB marketing decision-makers might face are further discussed by Larry Trevarthen in “Marketing Your Business On a Dime”. Jim Lyons also has some interesting insights on “do-it-yourself marketing” in the second half of his blog article “Observations: Low-end Color Lasers—Build Them and They Will Come?”

With all these resources available, my question to you is—What’s keeping your business from producing marketing materials in-house? Feel free to “comment” on what you are doing to produce in-house marketing collateral and the issues and challenges you are facing . . .