HP Launches MarketSplash - A Design and Print Fulfillment Service

[Cory Smith]

There was an interesting post at PrintCEO yesterday about HP launching a new Design and Print Fulfillment Service:

The MarketSplash platform and application can be licensed to retailers for co-branding, allowing them to offer MarketSplash design and print services directly to their customers. The interactive web pages that deliver MarketSplash tools were designed to easily transform and adopt the co-branding of a retailer’s website.
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Is your vendor also now your competition?

Print CEO - Printing Industry News Blog - HP Launches MarketSplash - A Design and Print Fulfillment Service

 

[lfelton]

This is an interesting development, and I can't figure out the end game.

I'm fairly convinced that SMEs are using "physical" print shops less and this trend will accelerate as the on-line print aggregator business model matures.

The big fish in the aggregator print service provider world is Vistaprint and what do they use for short run production? Indigos.

So, on the one hand, I can see why Staples would be interested. They get a bit of revenue and more importantly they get footfall.

On the other hand, why would HP wish to compete directly with their own customers? The $$ upside is tiny in HP terms, but the potential damage to their brand image among print service providers is immense.

Consumable sales are where the big bucks are, but there is no way to make sure that the PDFs generated are printed on an HP printer, so there's no incentive there.

There are a rash of template driven "DTP as Web 2.0 App" type vendors nearly ready to launch and I can see what's in it for them. I just can't figure out why HP would want to join the crowd, especially as their offering appears fairly weak.

 

[dj]

I've been following the marketsplash story and I think its a idiotic move by HP. My fearless prediction is that the Indigo division of HP will get it killed by end of year at latest.

Prepress Pilgrim

 

[Internal_R&D_Analyst]

HP is not printing the stuff themselves. Just as the article calls out they are using Print Service Providers.

When you chose to print it at home there is no control over it being printed on a Epson, Canon, Brother, Lexmark, Xerox, Samsung, Ricoh, or Okidata printers.

In Staples and the other office stores almost all the equipment there is Xerox. If anything Xerox should be marketing that HP is designing product and printing it on Xerox.

MarketSplash is providing design services to customers. If someone wants to let HP know how they can use their HP printer to do embroidered hats and shirts or website, they might listen, though probably not.

 

[Sherbert]

Is your vendor also now your competition?

Well, they already own Snapfish. Which uses Indigos.

 

[lfelton]

HP is not printing the stuff themselves. Just as the article calls out they are using Print Service Providers.

When you chose to print it at home there is no control over it being printed on a Epson, Canon, Brother, Lexmark, Xerox, Samsung, Ricoh, or Okidata printers.

In Staples and the other office stores almost all the equipment there is Xerox. If anything Xerox should be marketing that HP is designing product and printing it on Xerox.

MarketSplash is providing design services to customers. If someone wants to let HP know how they can use their HP printer to do embroidered hats and shirts or website, they might listen, though probably not.

While they may not physically be doing the printing themselves, HP are clearly operating a print-for-pay online portal (in fact two). This is without a doubt in direct competition to their own customers.

As a decision maker in a company that operates on line print-for-pay, this confuses me. What are HP to me: a partner or a competitor?

 

[Internal_R&D_Analyst]

While they may not physically be doing the printing themselves, HP are clearly operating a print-for-pay online portal (in fact two). This is without a doubt in direct competition to their own customers.

As a decision maker in a company that operates on line print-for-pay, this confuses me. What are HP to me: a partner or a competitor?

Every time HP sells a machine to another company with online portal they are selling to you competition. What about when Xerox sells a machine to a office store or a Fedex Kinkos, the or Kodak Gallery website.

This isn't new at all LogoWorks by HP has been running for awhile. They didn't start it but bought it.
Logo Design by Logoworks®

 

[dj]

Hey, it's okay that a vendor sells to your competition. That's what vendors do. But HP is BECOMING the competitor but still wants to sell gear to you.

Ummm, some people might have a problem with that.

 

[Internal_R&D_Analyst]

Is anyone going to stop using FedEx because if the new partnership with VistaPrint?

 

[lfelton]

Is anyone going to stop using FedEx because if the new partnership with VistaPrint?

Kinkos (now rebranded "FedEx Office") announced earlier this month that they will be using Vistaprint as their trade printer. In return Vistaprint will use FedEx as their preferred courier. It seems a good fit between the two companies, good for them.

Sorry, am I missing how this has any relevance to the HP Marketsplash question?

This thread doesn't really illuminate the core issue as I see it: is Marketsplash a competitor to other on line print-for-pay portals? And the subsidiary question is of course: if HP is competing with me, how does that affect the relationship between our two companies? There is an awful lot of proprietary data that a print solutions manufacturer will get from their customers in the normal course of doing business with them. If those customers are also HP's competitors, then clearly there's a potential issue.

 

[Internal_R&D_Analyst]

It's been discussed in other locations and on other web sites that when vender's get to close to things it makes people nervous and uncomfortable. Kodak tried a web2print site and closed it down after receiving push back. Adobe got it when it did the send to FedEx Kinkos, and now HP is presently stimulating a lot of conversations.

4Over has a website where there have blog discussing this same things (the site was already mentioned on Print Planet). In addition to HP possibly competing with your customers their pricing is along the lines of VP which makes it difficult for everyone to compete with and keep pricing stable where everyone can make a profit.

I guess my question is at what point do companies partnering together stop bothering you as a threat to your business or employer?

 

[Cory Smith]

Looks like HP is re-thinking things
Print CEO - Printing Industry News Blog - HP Announces Changes to MarketSplash

 

[SlaveToTheMan]

Yep, we're an Indigo shop and Dscoop Member so I sat in on that webinar. It was, mildly informative. There was much more "corporate speak" than actual details presented. I had the distinct feeling that they were back-pedaling & in Damage Control Mode more than anything. It should be interesting to see how they proceed from here, at least they're listening to the shops that have invested (heavily) in their products but it remains to be seen if this MarketSplash actually brings in the work they believe it will.

 

[dj]

Marketsplash is sooooooo dead. And the geniuses who thought of it are sooooooo not going to have much of a career at HP... ...anymore.

 

[SlaveToTheMan]

Really? The site is still active, although I'm not sure how far into an Order you can proceed I took one through designing using their happy online application. I was under the impression they were taking it down pending the new Terms. Who knows.

 

[Cory Smith]

They were going to phase it out over several months I believe.

A bit of info here:

Print CEO - Printing Industry News Blog - HP Announces Changes to MarketSplash