HP sees a clearly written future for Print 2.0
Hewlett-Packard Co. is spending $300 million on its new branding and Internet initiative to build a bigger base in the digital content business.
As a manufacturer and online retailer, HP is no stranger to the printing business – 2006 sales for its imaging and printing group grew by 7% to $7.3 billion. But now HP sees a bigger opportunity in helping businesses and consumers create and print digital content.
HP’s new Print 2.0 strategy focuses on two areas: delivering a next-generation digital printing platform that increases print speeds and lowers the cost of printing for high-volume commercial markets and extending HP’s digital content creation and publishing platforms across all customer segments.
HP’s goal is to acquire a significant portion of the 53 trillion pages expected to be printed by 2010 and a market valued at more than $296 billion, the company says. The strategy is clearly Internet-driven and involves HP Home & Home Office Store, the business-to-consumer e-commerce arm of HP, and No. 5 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
In October, the company plans to add the HP Print Studio to its portfolio of microsites. The site will feature free templates and designs for making greeting cards, letterhead, business cards, invitations and other content. HP also established two print communities for consumers and small businesses which allow customers to collaborate on print projects across the globe, share ideas and access tips and “how-to” information on subjects ranging from printing, crafts and digital photography to small business marketing and branding.
Small to medium-size businesses can also find free templates that can be customized to print business cards, letterhead and brochures using templates developed by well known designer Paula Scher. Another microsite allows users to print greeting cards, CD labels and other content using design templates created by singer Gwen Stefani.
By developing more ways for customers to develop digital content, HP is creating bigger opportunities in manufacturing, e-commerce and social networking, says Sam Taylor, senior vice president, consumer direct. “We are giving customers more ways to express themselves with digital content and getting even more into Web 2.0,” he says.
The HP Home & Home Office e-commerce site will be integrated with all of the newly launched microsites and the new Print 2.0 campaign, Taylor says.
HP has been building up a push into digital content development for about two years. In 2005, HP acquired online photo service Snapfish, which has more than 14 million registered users, and in April purchased Logoworks, a distributed web-based graphic design service provider. Terms of the acquisitions weren’t disclosed.
Content from the Internet accounts for about 50% of all printing done at home. Yet many of the most popular destinations on the web – such as blogs and travel sites – have limited or non-existent printing capabilities, HP says. To broaden its market, HP says Print 2.0 is creating technologies to make it easy to print content from the Internet in a useful format.
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