The ink cartridges introduced by HP

Bangalore: Customer resistance can sometimes make even powerful corporations change their marketing ways. Hewlett Packard, makers of the biggest selling computer printers in the country, has shrewdly read the inky message from lakhs of its customers: ``We like your inkjet products; we just can't afford the high cost of a replacement ink cartridge, for which you charge almost half the price of the printer itself. So we will go for local refills, even if the quality is not too good.''

On Wednesday, the company offered its customers the option of two different black ink cartridges for a wide range of budget printers: One is a superior quality product with good water and fade resistance, to be called ``P+'' and available at the same maximum retail price of the existing black cartridge — that is Rs. 843.

The other is a more economical option to be called ``Simple Black, priced at Rs. 499 and aimed at weaning customers who have hitherto have been persuaded to go for third party cartridges or locally refilled options.

The dual pricing option will be available for what are known as type 27b black cartridges that are used by a number of budget HP deskjet models, including the 3320, 3325, 3420 and 3535, as well as the multi function printer-scanner-copiers 1110, 1210 and 1315.

Same quality

In a special briefing to The Hindu on the eve of the launch, HP India's Country Manager Raj Kumar Rishi said both options provided the same HP quality and reliability; but the Simple Black would appeal to users whose work was less critical: that is, average home users who printed letters and brief documents or downloaded web pages.

For them the cheaper option would make sense, because they would avoid the hassles and imperfections of a refilled cartridge by paying very little more than what a non-original product would cost.

For corporates

HP was also launching this week incentive schemes for corporate customers, especially for the small business sector, which Mr. Rishi likened to the loyalty programmes of airlines.

As this newspaper had reported a few weeks ago, the introduction of the Simple Black option, flows from a successful strategy that HP tried out in another extremely price-conscious consumer market: China.

The company seems to have seen economic sense in creating more purse-friendly options for its printer customers, rather them losing them to third party providers, after the initial cartridges run dry.

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