Lexmark channel gets some Colour Therapy
Vendor hopes to open better communication line with channel with lauch of new strategy
Printer vendor Lexmark has unveiled its new channel strategy, which it has claimed will give channel partners more consistency and enable them to plan ahead more effectively.
Mark Seaman, SME director at Lexmark, said: “The way we communicated to the channel didn’t make Lexmark’s strategy clear. We would run numerous promotions
on an ad-hoc basis: in the fourth quarter last year we had eight or nine promotions going on at the same time. So we have decided to create an umbrella that all future promotions will fall under.”
To kick-start the launch of Colour Therapy, Lexmark’s new umbrella campaign, the vendor has unveiled a cash-back promotion on its C522 network colour laser printers, and it will be running an iPod Nano promotion starting on 1 February.
“Colour Therapy will give Lexmark a consistent identity, and it will give us and our partners a chance to better plan ahead. We deal with about 1,500 resellers in the UK, but we are always looking for more. The more accounts I can trade with, the better,” Seaman said.
“We will be communicating to our channel partners a lot more in advance than previously. I will be going to partners in the middle of a quarter to get them aware of the next promotion.”
Mark Bayliss, product manager for printers and imaging at Lexmark VAR Integrex, said: “Lexmark does need something firm in place, rather than to keep on saying it has got this promotion and that promotion; it needs a set strategy.
“However, I’m not a fan of cashback schemes because they create more administration for us and the vendor. It would be easier for vendors just to sell us the product at the reduced price in the first place.”