While the vendor is starting from “quite a low threshold in Ireland”, the plan is to “at least align it with our UK market share”.
Why would Irish resellers take Kyocera on board? Kelleher says a big attraction is that the company “has the broadest product range of any print vendor in terms of business print categories. We’re able to offer users and partners a one stop shop and the opportunity to fulfil all their requirements around their print. Perhaps we haven’t put enough focus around that to date. Some partners have said we’re almost the best kept secret in the print channel”.
She says the vendor also has USPs around cost of ownership and its “unique manufacturing” in terms of its use of ceramic technology. In addition, Kyocera “provides a margin opportunity to the channel and we’re a disruptive bid, because we give them the opportunity to sell something different, but it’s a product that’s proven and ticks the green box”.
Kelleher adds that the vendor also has strengths around partner support and the ability to work with partners in developing joint business plans that align with them around verticals or a particular value add.
She acknowledges that the vendor has “more work to do around our own brand recognition” but stresses that “those that do know us recognise the brand as a quality, professional and secure brand. We have more to do to get that messaging out there but we have a lot of work and initiatives around making sure that messaging is going out there. We’re starting to put forward promotions online”.
Recognition and focus
Kyocera is “not a consumer recognised brand, but what we do, we do very well. We focus on the business market, we are B2B, our products are not being devalued to target the consumer channel”.
There are many reasons why resellers would consider an alternative brand such as Kyocera and the vendor is “making it worthwhile for partners that take the time to do that by ensuring we have a very good reputation. We’re confident partners will get happy, satisfied customers from it”.
It is also introducing cash-back promotions around some of its key selling products. “We need to ensure we can make it attractive for customers to want to look at Kyocera,” Kelleher remarks. “With cash-back, the customer claims directly from us, so that protects the channel price. It doesn’t affect the margin to the channel.”
One of the initiatives Kyocera is planning to introduce in Ireland is the Commerce Connector, already operational in the UK, which provides a ‘where to buy’ link from its website through to key partners. Kelleher says the initiative has already provided 900 sales leads to partners in the UK over the last three months.
The vendor is focusing on boosting communication to partners, such as providing roadmap and promotion information, outlining its advantages against competitive products and highlighting its strength in particular verticals. For instance, Kyocera is “strong in education because of our low cost of ownership”, she says. “The education market doesn’t buy on brand but on value add and recommendations from other schools and universities.”
Kyocera is also very strong in the legal sector in managed print because of the security it provides and its software capabilities. “The managed print opportunity is the next step for us,” Kelleher says. “We can cover pretty much all the requirements in most commercial organisations.”
The vendor’s focus has been on the public sector for a long time but there has been a change in the business development programme to make sure it is also targeting the mid-market and SMEs. “It’s about understanding the market better, coming in to it with the best intentions. We’re coming in relatively uneducated about it and we want to be able to deliver the right value add into the verticals.”
Kelleher claims that Kyocera understands its partners’ value add and their market, so it can align them together. Because it doesn’t fit into the consumer market, “no one will be selling our boxes cheaply on line. We’re not getting everybody competing on minus margin”.
Also, it recognises that partners might be selling end solutions where print is just a part of the overall sale, “so we’re making life as easy as possible for partners selling print as part of their solutions or because they’ve been asked for it”.
“The contribution of our partners is crucial,” she concludes.
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