Think About It

Take this challenge: Without looking at your computer printer, can you identify the exact model that you own?

If not, you’re not alone. Printer manufacturers aren’t known for giving their products memorable names. Instead, they typically assign printers an arbitrary combination of numbers and letters.

That’s not a big deal, really – until the time comes to replace the printer’s ink cartridge.

Buying replacement ink cartridges has become so frustrating office supply stores now parody the experience in their TV commercials. So, we were more than a little impressed when we recently heard a customer complimenting Epson for making it easy to identify replacement cartridges.

Epson’s happy customer writes a column for the local newspaper The Dunwoody Crier. She owns three Epson printers. As she explained, the Epson ink refill boxes are labeled with memorable icons. So she didn’t have to commit to memory the obscure model numbers of her printers. Instead, she simply remembered that she needed two rubber ducks and a teddy bear.

All hail Epson! Where other printer manufacturers leave their customers to languish in an inky mess, Epson has realized that aftermarket purchases were part of its ongoing brand experience. And they found a simple way to make that experience more positive.

Or so it seemed.

When we started to dig a little, we found that Epson didn’t follow through as thoroughly as it should have. The company’s Web site does not include a single reference to rubber ducks, teddy bears, pineapples or any of the other icons that adorn the packages for ink cartridges. The only way to purchase ink online is to – gulp! – select a printer model number  from a pull-down menu.

When we called Epson, we learned that the sales reps in the call center have no way to search for an ink cartridge based on the package icons – only by model number. The sales rep we spoke with admitted that he had never thought about those little pictures on the boxes serving to help customers find the right package of ink.

It would seem that Epson has come up a few dots short of a matrix. It had the makings of a system to make customers’ lives easier. But the company failed to follow through with the right support, nor did it bother to promote the icon system in the first place.

But there’s hope for Epson yet.

When we told the telephone representative why we were calling, he was intrigued. He instantly caught on to the potential value of the packaging icons. And before we hung up, he assured us he would ask the webmaster if the Web site could be altered to let customers choose a product based on the picture on their package. He sounded excited at the prospect of proposing it.

So in the end, while Epson isn’t perfect, perhaps it has the single most important element for brand building: a cadre of employees who care about the brand experience and who are ready to seize opportunities to improve it.