Printing by numbers
Published July 13, 2007 at 3:06 pm · Filed under Features
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Canon’s entry into Europe - just one of many milestones announced by the company at a celebratory exhibition and conference in Monte Carlo
When Canon opened its first European sales office in Zurich Switzerland in 1957, it laid the seeds of a huge pan-European enterprise that is projected to generate 10 billion euros in sales by 2008, accounting for about one third of Canon’s total worldwide revenues.
Fifty years ago, Canon Europe started out as a camera vendor and images remain central to its business today, as its new ‘We Speak Image’ marketing campaign reminds us.
The difference now is that ‘images’ are digital and originate in and are processed by a wide range of devices including digital cameras and camcorders, mobile phones, scanners, multifunction printers and medical equipment. Canon’s great achievement is that these are almost all areas (mobile phones being the obvious exception) in which it has market leadership.
Images today are central to our lives and unlike in 1957, almost all are captured in colour and increasingly displayed, reproduced and distributed in colour too. Not just in the consumer market but in business too.
In a classic case of marketing serendipity 2007 is not just Canon’s 50th year in Europe (and its 70th year anywhere), but also the 30th anniversary of its first colour device, the 20th anniversary of its first CLC digital colour copier/printer (the CLC1) and the year in which Canon sold its 1,000,000th colour multifunction printer (MFP).
So much to celebrate - and still Canon found time to work out that when placed side by side 1 million MFPs would stretch from London to Paris and back (almost).
Such an achievement demonstrates Canon’s history of innovation and its staying power in an industry that has seen many rivals fall by the wayside. Canon is still the No. 1 brand for colour and colour capable MFPs and while there are major challenges ahead (the rise of A4 MFPs and the development of HP’s Edgeline technology spring to mind), it continues to break new ground in the colour printer market.
It has just introduced its most advanced office engine to date, the flagship iR C5185i, which has print speeds of 51 pages per minute in colour and black and white, and last year launched the imagePRESS C7000VP production printer, which is claimed to be the first digital colour press that delivers the output and feel of offset.
An even greater challenge than technological and commercial pressures is the one that we all face: climate change.
For the moment the environment is a useful marketing fillip. From the exhibition tickets, which included information that Canon Europe had offset 0.4 tonnes of CO2 per person, to its sponsorship of a WWF campaign to tag and track polar bears in the Arctic, Canon is making environmental responsibility central to its appeal. More concrete examples of this commitment are its new generation of energy-efficient MFDs and the Factor 2 programme to double lifecycle environmental efficiency by 2010.
Ultimately, of course, Canon’s printing and MFP business exists to encourage people to print more pages -a highly damaging activity from an environmental perspective, albeit one that is fundamental to business success and personal happiness. The risk for printer companies is that as businesses in mature markets try to reduce their carbon footprint they will take advantage of existing software tools to reduce print volumes.
Under such circumstances, winning market share will become ever more important, and the company with the greenest image will be in a strong position to capture print volume from competitors. It is Canon’s great fortune that they have a strong brand and a highly polished marketing machine. Or as Canon might put it: ‘We Speak Image’.
For more info visit www.canon.co.uk/
