There’s a wonderful story to be heard, in Elliot Williams’ estimation, when it comes to Epson’s PrecisionCore Heat-Free Technology. But a small hiccup occurred around the time the manufacturer played host to InkBoldly—its inaugural business inkjet dealer conference—in early March 2020. It was the last true industry event for the next two years, as COVID-19 put the kibosh on public gatherings.
The OEM was undeterred. It continued to spread the PrecisionCore Heat-Free message as it applies to inkjet during February’s triumphant return of InkBoldly as an in-person event, with an audience of nearly 250 attendees in Huntington Beach, California—a stone’s throw from the company’s Los Alamitos headquarters.
As Epson continues to position PrecisionCore as the preferred print vehicle against the longtime laser printing incumbent, Williams—recently named director of product management, Business Imaging for Epson America—used the dealer meeting to further evangelize the technology’s numerous selling points.
But extolling Epson’s virtues is a team effort, and the OEM has a larger-than-life pitchman in former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal. The seven-foot-one-inch basketball legend is taking center stage in Epson’s B2B print ads, an extension of his appearances in commercials for consumer products. As for Williams, he’s driving to the B2B basket by sharing the success stories of dealers who proffer a technology that offers high productivity, higher reliability, reduced energy consumption and less waste. Delivering that gospel to a larger audience is priority one, and Williams provided some perspective into the quest.
Provide some insight into Epson’s financial performance during the past 12 months. What were some of the variables that played into how the company performed?
Williams: At a high level, we performed well. There were some headwinds in the industry, such as supply chain challenges, semiconductor shortages and the economic uncertainty in North America. Despite those, Epson continues to be on plan. Our business growth and profits are on track. We maintain our supply chain pretty well because we design and build the products in our own factories. That enables us to have better control and visibility over it despite being challenged with freight cost and variable cost increases, among others. Overall, our market leadership in several categories aided in the process.
What were some of the highlights for Epson during the past year?
Williams: With an eye toward office printing in particular, it’s been our continued business growth as well as the launch of our flagship AM Series models. Across Epson, particularly for North America, we’re pleased overall. In December, looking at third-party data, we captured the number-one position in revenue share for retail printing for the first time. Another OEM held that distinction for a long time. Taking over the top spot is a testament to Epson’s long-term approach and strategy as well as our commitment to garnering leadership positions in various markets over a period of time.
By all accounts, February’s InkBoldly dealer conference was a rousing success. Tell us a little about the messaging you provided dealers and what you hoped to accomplish.
Williams: We reinforced that Epson is a large company, particularly in printing—roughly 70% of our $10 billion total business worldwide is in printing-related categories. We’re in this for the long haul, backed by a unique technology. We start with our purpose, which is to enrich the lives of others and create a better world with compact, precise innovation. PrecisionCore technology is simple, smart and clean. It’s advanced printing technology engineered by Epson to power the world’s top-performing printers. A simple design replaces complex parts with an all-in-one chip designed for reliable performance. Fewer imaging parts leads to higher reliability. The smart design is scalable and works in various printhead configurations in office printing, as well as photographic, wide-format and industrial printing. It is highly scalable and enables superior image quality and high productivity. The clean technology supports efficient ink usage and low power consumption. Consistent with our purpose, it makes a more reliable product with less waste and less energy consumption, which benefits the planet. And reliability benefits our dealers so they can reduce their service costs and have more productive customers since the products require fewer repairs. The point of it was to show people that it’s an advanced, proven technology backed by a sound strategy. We have tremendous leadership committed to it. During COVID, other businesses were retrenching, laying people off and reducing investments. We didn’t; we invested more. We wanted to show our commitment to the market, highlight our successes, convey that Epson has a bright future and confirm that we’re the right partner for the long term.
What’s been the feedback you’ve received from attendees? Did anything in particular resonate with them?
Williams: One thing they cited was hearing from Epson senior leadership that we’re committed to this business. They see our continued investments not just in products—which are exciting to them—but also our marketing investment and our sales enablement tools that are helping them be more successful. Also, they liked how we reinforced the uniqueness of PrecisionCore Heat-Free Technology and that it delivers benefits to the marketplace. We provided them with examples of how customers have benefited from it, whether through productivity, profitability or reliability.
Attendees felt the event was professional and polished. They liked the ability to speak with Epson’s upper management and visit with the team from our headquarters in Japan. They enjoyed walking through the solutions showcase, which was presented in a workflow configuration. It wasn’t just about speeds and feeds. Many attendees also liked the efficiency of InkBoldly. It didn’t require a four-day investment on their part—there was a reception the first night and the one full day. Actually, some of the dealers said they would’ve liked more time to interact with product managers or management. So we’re having ongoing discussions around striking the right balance of time in order for attendees to visit with us. We provided them with a ton of content and want to make sure it’s not a one-way dialogue. They shared the desire for more product features and a broader portfolio. Our roadmap is ongoing and will continue to grow and improve over time, so we’re speaking to that desire. We’re far from done.
One of the most significant initiatives Epson has embarked on recently is the new WorkForce Enterprise AM Series, which was released last month. It speaks to many of the key selling points: low energy usage, a small footprint and fast speeds. What else sets this A3 line apart from the pack?
Williams: It all starts with the PrecisionCore Heat-Free Technology, which is simple, smart and clean. The third-party data that we shared at InkBoldly shows Epson is the most reliable. Also, we offer high-yield consumables designed for less waste when compared to competitors. Another element is our elegant design. It looks modern and sleek, both with the UI—which is more like a smartphone with a more colorful and bolder interface—and the ability to customize it. In addition, it offers an elegant design, including visibility to the ink cartridges, as well as soft-pull drawers like you see with kitchen cabinets, where the drawer pulls itself in when you get within a few millimeters of closing. The idea was to make it more harmonious and elegant in the office environment as opposed to being a piece of iron that prints out pages.
Late last year, Epson announced it was investing $25 million to build a new factory that will triple printhead production. Talk a little about your confidence in the future for PrecisionCore Heat-Free Technology and your quest to build market share.
Williams: It’s a multifaceted approach. PrecisionCore technology is smart because it’s scalable and can be configured to work across all our businesses—office printing, industrial printing, large-format and label printing. In all those markets, we continue to push the envelope and gain market share. That’s really going to spark the demand for increased printhead production. These benefits—the high productivity, high reliability, low energy consumption and low waste generation—are valued across all the markets that have demand for these machines. Obviously, that also applies to consumer printing and photo printing. It further underscores our commitment to growth.
As the market conditions continue to evolve, what will be the keys to growth for both Epson and its dealer partners?
Williams: It seems as if we’re all waiting for the new normal to take shape, whether that’s hybrid work, more time in the office, working remotely more or some combination. The key from our vantage point is being flexible. We believe our dealers are well positioned courtesy of our product portfolio. We’re not focused only on the big A3 iron—we also have a very broad desktop portfolio for remote employees as well as the office environment. End-users may not need as big a unit because page volumes are migrating. Thus, it’s critically important for Epson to have the right portfolio to offer our dealers so they can be responsive to the evolving needs of end-users. Customers are trying to understand how to manage a print environment in which people are printing at home and in the office. So it’s important to deliver those solutions and provide customers with comfort and security to ensure they’re printing in a cost-effective way, whether it’s supplies management for work-from-home employees or tracking pages that are printed on devices. Products such as Epson Remote Services (ERS) allow the ability to look at page counts wherever pages are being printed through our cloud-based solutions.
What else can we expect to see this year from Epson in terms of new product rollouts, and is there anything new on the horizon from a program or partnership standpoint?
Williams: We just launched our flagship A3 models, the WorkForce Enterprise AM Series. Over the next year, we’ll continue to refresh our desktop portfolio. Epson continues to get on more contracts to make it easier for customers to buy our products in a standard way. That’s probably the most relevant thing. We’re trying to give more visibility to our products. Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal will be a key feature of our marketing assets for the office print category. When you look at that space, you don’t see other companies having a name-brand spokesperson to talk about the product, its technology and benefits of it. You’ll also see us more strongly emphasize our PrecisionCore technology, the unique qualities it offers and the fundamental differences between that and laser technology. It’s a message people can understand and appreciate, and we’ll continue to push it with the help of Shaq.
What are your goals and what do you hope to accomplish in 2023?
Williams: We’re investing in more capacity and we want to continue to gro w our business. What we really want to do is get our message in front of more people. We think we have a great story to tell, a fantastic product and a superior value prop, and we feel more people could know about it. Our goals are to continue to recruit more dealers and get our message out to not just more dealers but more customers as well. Our current dealers and customers are happy, and we want to take these benefits more broadly into the marketplace.
We’re making investments in sales enablement. One of the big pushes we’re making is improving our customer briefing center in Los Alamitos, our headquarters for the Americas. Historically, we’ve had the briefing center for the office print, projection, color labels and retail teams in Los Alamitos. Our large-format and industrial print teams were off-site at our facility in Carson, California, due to space considerations. However, we’re in the process of bringing all of it on-site in Los Alamitos. That allows us to bring all our customers into one location and tell them the whole story—not just about the products, but also Epson’s history, culture and innovations. So now, when customers come to hear our story, they’ll get a much better appreciation of who Epson is and why we’re the right partner for them. That bodes well for the future.
