Printer
Canon scores an ace
Created for the first time in the Channel Champions survey, the consumer printer category polled respondents on products sold to home and small offices. These included entry-level inkjets and MFPs, and entry-level lasers and MFPs.
Canon toppled the market leader HP to emerge as the most preferred vendor in this category. Its aggressive marketing, streamlined distribution model, refreshed product portfolio and improved warranty support helped it clinch the title.
Samsung ranked third, followed by Epson.
Product availability
On this parameter, Canon scored ahead of its competition. It also refreshed its portfolio at the beginning of the year and included price-effective consumables.
Many respondents opined that Canon has the best distribution structure among its peers. The company has put checks in place to ensure that there is no compromise on the market operating price (MOP). In fact, it removed a few of its distributors who were indulging in price discounting.
HP suffered from serious shortage starting July, and this is the primary reason for the company losing its printer crown. Many of its popular models were in short supply including the inkjet AIO 2418, standalone inkjet 1688 and the entry-level laser printer models 1006 and 1007. While the supply of lasers has improved since December 2009, the inkjet models continue to be in short supply.
Samsung’s stronghold is clearly the south where it ranked number one in overall rankings, with nearly 65 percent of its votes coming from this region.
Epson’s strength is photo inkjets. It polled 85 percent votes from south and west, while only 15 percent of its votes came from north and east. The company enjoys a strong channel connect.
Price-performance
While HP is ranked higher than its peers on performance and features, it is Canon that ranked first on the overall price-performance criteria.
HP had an issue with pricing; on many of its entry-level products the MRP was too close to dealers’ market operating price (MOP), forcing them to sell above MRP to protect their margins. A few respondents said HP urged partners to charge customers extra, camouflaging it as service charge, instead of rectifying the issue.
Respondents in south offered that the price-performance of Samsung’s entry-level laser printers is unmatched.
Epson price-performance in the photo printer segment is better than HP and Canon, however respondents said that it lacks a strong inkjet MFP product in its portfolio.
Partner profitability
Canon ranked higher than its peers on this parameter, followed by Samsung, Epson and HP. Respondents opined that Canon’s channel policies of maintaining MOP ensures good margins for partners. Also the company ran some aggressive channel schemes that added to partner profitability.
Both Samsung and Epson leave good margins for partners. However, respondents said that Samsung provides better back-end rebates and channel schemes compared to Epson.
HP was ranked last as a large number of respondents gave it a negative rating. Majority of respondents said that over capacity in HP channels has led to over-distribution and price undercutting. Many said that HP had more sub-distributors than the market can take and they were given targets that were twice the size of the market for printers in their respective city.
Marketing and training
With its aggressive customer and channel marketing schemes, and engagement with resellers on a regular basis Canon has won many channel hearts. Its training programs like Gurukul are well appreciated too.
HP continues to enjoy a strong customer pull; however its market share suffered due to availability issues. And even though HP was aggressive with its customer schemes, there were serious delays in customer redemptions.
Samsung’s customer scheme that provided 2-year warranty on its products was well appreciated. However, the company undertook very few channel training programs during 2009.
Epson was ranked lowest on this parameter as respondents said that the company needs to substantialy increase its customer marketing to generate pull for its brand.
Post-sales support
Canon ranked higher on this criterion, followed by Samsung, HP and Epson.
Canon has expanded its network of Canon Care and authorized service partners thus improving the response time to warranty complaints in smaller cities. Samsung’s one-year onsite warranty on all its printers and its customer scheme to provide 2-year warranty has put it ahead of HP and Epson.
Respondents complained that HP’s toll-free telesupport lacks trained manpower and even the company’s policy of consolidating its service partners has led to warranty response issues. As a result, even small warranty issues need to be escalated to the HP regional managers.
Channel policy and management
Several HP partners surveyed said that they were seriously thinking of moving to Canon. Although HP still is the most in-demand product, Canon’s channel policy and engagement is much better than HP, as per these respondents.
Both Samsung and Epson are doing a good job in managing partner expectations in south and west. However, respondents in other regions said that there is no channel engagement from these two companies.
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