What does HP want to ask us today?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 10 December 2007 07:34

Opinion and Analysis

HP says that the “What do you have to say?” campaign will “kick-off with two dynamic and interactive portals targeting consumers and small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs). The dynamic portals serve as the hub of the marketing campaign, along with a mix of print, outdoor, and online advertising, new product packaging and in-store activity driving people to these website portals”.

Their press release continues that: “Visitors to the portals will be able to find information about how they can improve their personal and business processes through HP printing innovations and find the right printer and supplies that best suits their needs”.

Well, that’s no surprise, I wouldn’t imagine that HP’s portals would be recommending other manufacturer’s equipment. Still, as consumers turn to the web for pre-purchase information, there’s no doubt that the sites will be visited by the public, especially if a multi-million dollar campaign is asking consumers to visit, learn more and ‘have their say’.

To ensure that HP’s new portals are actually relevant to consumers and businesses with more than just specifications and online services, HP have decided to showcase local and global ‘achievers’ who will “share their success stories through interactive Web pages that showcase their business advice, creativity and marketing tools”.

Examples of these achievers include a Melbourne based residential construction company whose growth has improved by 300% in the last 20 months thanks to one of HP’s office based ink-jet printers, a healthcare provider that rolled out a ‘multi-function printing strategy’ across 11 sites, a camera store retailer that emphasises the benefits of digital photography and pop-singer and designer Gwen Stefani who is offering “free designs of the Harajuku Lovers line to create unique greeting cards, CD labels, paper dolls and more”.

HP are also promoting their HP ‘Imagination Centre’, which HP says is “an online portal for parents and children that allows kids to experiment with technology while expanding their creativity”.  
 
HP also says that in 2008, the “What do you have to say?” campaign will be expanded to include the graphic arts and enterprise communities.

HP are already one of the ‘big guns’ when it comes to printing and imaging, and clearly they want to make sure that they retain this position in 2008, under strong competition from Kodak, Canon, Epson, Brother and the rest, and will likely be quite successful, as HP seek to hear what their customers have to say (in many ways) today, tomorrow and into the future.