Making Printer Ink More Expensive (But Worth It)?

Overhype

from the nice-try dept

Printer companies are facing a lot of problems recently. As people have realized that the strategy is to sell the printers cheap and then price the ink higher than vintage champagne, they’ve gone looking for alternatives — which aren’t so hard to find. The printer companies have been fighting back. Lexmark failed to block competition using the DMCA, but other moves have been a bit more subtle, including a marketing effort to convince people that off-brand and counterfeit ink cartridges are bad news. However, it appears that strategy hasn’t accomplished as much as some had hoped. So, rather than just trashing the competitors, printer companies are looking to convince people their branded ink is really worth it. Yes, that’s right, HP and others are now trying to go with a “premium pricing” strategy, where they admit that they price things higher, but try to convince people it’s worth it. They’re out promoting the branded ink much more heavily, sometimes giving it “luxury” style names (“Vivera,” “Evercolor”) and claiming that it prints better and faster while also lasting longer. So far, however, it appears that most consumers don’t really care and are still sticking to the cheapest ink they can find.