Cheap Printer Ink: Kodak tried. Now Epson.

When I stumbled upon the Kodak printer at retail back around 2007-2008, I was impressed by the branding work they had done. It was cohesive, engaging and fun. On top of that, they seemed to have solved a major consumer pain point---the cost of ink. But wait a minute, that doesn't make sense. This is supposed to be the business model where you practically give the hardware away so you make money on the consumables. With digital photography on the rise and Kodak's ability to sell film going down, it was a logical product line extension---photo inkjet printers. Don't charge much for the printer, attach the cost of paper and ink. It's the same business model they had for their cameras but they weren't following that model.

 

It was a great brand name with ties to printing and photography. So why did this product fail? Bottomline, it just wasn't a very good printer. In addition to this, and I'm only making an educated guess, the margins on the inks were smaller and they didn't have the installed customer base to make up for this fact.

This article from PC World written by Melissa Riofrio in October, 2012, about the time they were exiting the market, sums up what happened:

"...Kodak’s printers have never been that good. The products tended to be slow, and while photo quality was excellent, other features and capabilities tended to be underwhelming."

In addition to this they were competing against some very established brands: 

"Scrappy Kodak pitted its small and unremarkable product line against a relentless flow of shiny new machines from better established and better capitalized competitors, like Brother, Canon, Epson, and HP."  

Kodak had a faulty business model and a bad product. By going against the competition with what they thought was an advantage, it ended up being their downfall:

"According to Keith Kmetz of IDC,  ' You have to sell the razor before you can sell the razor blade. But if your razor is mediocre, users will abandon your product for a better one. That’s bad news for razor-blade (or printer) sales.' " 

Fast forward to 2015 and the announcement that Epson just made regarding their new EcoTank "Super Tank" printers.  This Dealerscope article written by Nancy Klosek provided an overview of this new product line.  

"Seiko Epson Corp. president Minoru Usui was on hand in New York City Aug. 4 from Japan to inaugurate what he termed a “breakthrough business model to disrupt the world of office printing.” That breakthrough was embodied in the EcoTank brand of “supertank” all-in-one wireless color inkjet printers, introduced at the event where he spoke. The five models, which will range in price from $379 to $1,199 when they become available in September, are targeted at small businesses and heavy-use consumers and designed with ultra-large ink reservoirs that are loaded and ready for up to 20,000 pages of color or black page printing (depending on model) without needing to replace the ink." 

This isn't an apples-to-apples comparison to Kodak. The Epson Ecotank printer line targets a customer who requires higher volume printing. However, small businesses are always looking for ways to save money and if this is more economical than laser printers, this could be a very good choice. 

But I have some reservations: 

• The printers come with enough refillable ink to last two years. My experience with any ink sitting for a long period of time isn't good. Could it lead to more clogging? 
• In addition, it is much easier for 3rd party manufacturers to copy a bottle of ink to refill a cartridge rather than copy a cartridge. This could erode the profit margin.
•  Finally, they are also relying on the fact that customers will be willing to pay more for the product up front in order to save on consumable costs in the future.

I looked to Consumer Reports to see what they had to say about this new printer line because they offer an unbiased and frank opinion. Since the product hasn't been released, they can't give their standard review but they did say it has been released in Europe and they said the sales are OK but the product seems to fill a niche need. 

What caught my eye, were the comments to the article. Ink costs are truly the biggest pain point for customers. Even if a manufacturer comes up with a "solution" consumers are VERY suspicious because they have had a lot of bad experiences. Some think that printing issues are purposely planned to suck up and waste ink. Those that have previously owned an Epson printer seemed to be particularly vocal. 

Ironically, one consumer lamented the disappearance of Kodak printers. 

Only time will tell if Epson has come up with a practical solution for customers which will broaden their consumer base and catch up to HP. 

Patty Jensen is Vice President of Account Services at JDA Inc, a graphic design firm that specializes in supporting companies' branding and retail efforts with a Unified Marketing approach. To learn more, click here.