HP is launching campaign to boost printer’s presence
san francisco -- Hewlett-Packard Co. is trying to bring sexy back . . . to printing.
HP today is launching a $300-million marketing campaign to get digital-age consumers to think more about print.
The world’s largest printer maker plans to offer on its website a wide range of customized products from pop star Gwen Stefani and esteemed graphic designer Paula Scher.
HP will print high-end products such as photo books and ship them to customers for a fee, plus offer free products such as paper dolls, CD covers and business card templates that consumers can print themselves.
The goal, of course, is to get people to use more HP printers and ink. The marketing campaign coincides with the introduction of more than 20 new printers for consumers and small to medium-size businesses.
With about 50% of the global printing market, HP’s reign as the king of printers is not in question. But the Palo Alto company is seeking new ways to grow its imaging and printing revenue, which reached $26.8 billion in 2006.
Digital content presents challenges for HP: With their lives stored on their computers, will people print more or less? Will family photos remain digital or be put on paper to show off? Will blogs be read only on computer screens or printed in a way that people will still want to read them?
HP wants to bring some excitement to printing.
“We rode the wave of the PCs, and we’re going to ride the wave of the Web,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP’s imaging and printing group.
Joshi said he has pushed HP to see itself not just as a seller of printers but also as a facilitator of printing in all forms.
“What is the meaning of printing in this world?” he said. “It’s a conversational tool.”
To that end, Stefani fans will be able to visit HP’s website to create memory books that consist of personal photos they upload mixed in among 50 pictures the singer selected from her Sweet Escape concert tour. HP will print and mail the custom books for $30 plus shipping and tax.
Consumers will be able to print greeting cards, baby shower invitations, paper dolls and CD covers, all designed by Stefani, for free.
HP also enlisted Scher, a New York-based partner at design firm Pentagram, to create templates for business cards and letterheads from which small businesses could make their own.
The computer giant is trying other things to keep print products en vogue. HP has set up kiosks in retail stores for customers to print photographs.
This year it acquired Tabblo, a Web printing service based in Massachusetts, and Arteis, a small Utah company that runs the Logoworks online service for creating company logos.
“They are going to continue to make it easy for people to print and make customized content,” said Peter Grant, an analyst at Gartner Inc. “It’s part of the company’s efforts to get people to rediscover printing from the Internet.”
HP’s marketing campaign, which includes the creation of two online communities around printing, is part of a trend of creating a two-way street between a company and consumer, according to the advertisers who developed it with HP.
“It’s enabling customers to participate and do things,” said John Coyne, HP’s account director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. “They can print out business cards while making them feel good about HP as a brand.”
Stefani, who declined to disclose the financial arrangement with HP, has worked with the company before. In 2005, the two put out a line of cameras.
In a telephone interview, she said she wasn’t immediately interested in the HP project when she first heard of it. But when she saw her designer brand, Harajuku Lovers, turned into customized baby announcements, paper dolls and CD covers, she was intrigued.
“I’m not super-duper computer literate,” she said. “These kids, it’s their world. It’s a way for me to give all these things to my fans for free.”
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