SCORE!
“Hey, Dad! Did you see my goal,” my 10-year old son Michael shouted. His face beaming.
Of course I saw his first goal in his first soccer game of the year. It was a fantastic play. The midi passed the ball from near the sideline to my son right in front of the goal. A quick little tap was all that was needed for the score. Michael’s team won 7 to 2. In large part, they won due to their passing abilities versus the other team.
Watching the practice the day before, you never would’ve imagined the boys would pass the ball at all. At the scrimmage, the players looked more like NFL football players in a huddle instead of a 4th grade soccer team. But Coach Dave was confident everything would be fine – and it was.
Today, Xerox is announcing a brand new offering for offices everywhere. With the new Phaser 8860 or 8860MFP, customers can now print in color for the price of black & white. Here in Wilsonville, Oregon, the engineering, manufacturing and marketing teams have been working feverishly on this significant announcement over the past year.
At one of the first meetings during a pricing discussion, we where acting just like my son’s soccer team at scrimmage. Pricing, always a heated topic, was being talked about like every other product on the market. With customer opinion survey results sitting on the table, every team member picked their favorite data point to defend their point of view. We were all huddled around the “business as usual” ball.
We don’t have Coach Dave, but our “coach,” Jim Rise, the vice president of the Solid Ink Business Unit, thoughtfully said, “Could we price color prints at the same price as black & white prints?”
Silence. “Surely, pricing color prints at the same price as black & white prints can’t be possible ... or could it,” was on everyone’s mind.
Suddenly, like Michael’s soccer team on game day, we started passing this new idea back and forth. Phrases like “Marketing needs to...” or “The machine must be able to...,” or “We have to make this real ...”, and “No gimmicks, no tricks ...” were being used to describe this new offering. In the intervening time, the group has labored to make “color for the price of black and white” a reality.
It’s too early to tell if we scored. But one thing is certain - businesses will win by purchasing the Phaser 8860 or Phaser 8860MFP.
Shell Haffner
Product Marketing Manager - Office Group
Xerox