Case Study: Building a Competitive Edge Through Storytelling

Ricoh, a Japanese company and one of the global leaders in the printing equipment market, approached us for PR and marketing support for the launch of its new SP 400 printer line. The upgraded model had just hit the market, and the task was to raise awareness among the IT channel and end customers about the product's advantages — and to drive sales of the new devices.

The company was struggling to sell its new line of MFPs for small and medium-sized businesses due to the lack of a compelling unique selling proposition.

What We Did

Before launching the PR campaign, we studied the end-customer audience — the small and medium-sized businesses that would be the right target for the campaign. In developing the new line, the company's engineers had managed to deliver a device that outperformed the previous generation across the board: the new printers were 5–10% faster, more energy-efficient, and featured a lighter, more intuitive interface.

These characteristics allowed us to identify the SMB segments for which the differences would be genuinely meaningful — where dry technical specs could be translated into features that actually mattered to the business. The most promising potential customers turned out to be companies that generate large volumes of documents when serving clients and for whom faster client turnaround was a real priority.

To test this hypothesis, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with target audience representatives: the owner of an English language school, a car dealership manager, and an insurance company office manager. The interviews surfaced several important insights — notably, that document printing is perceived as an "unavoidable" burden and a cost line item, not as part of the customer experience. We also found that the 2014 exchange rate shock had forced many business owners to put equipment upgrades on hold, and that breakdowns of overworked devices had become increasingly common.

Our communications objective was to shift the prevailing perception that printing equipment is nothing but an unnecessary expense. We needed to show that upgrading office printers is an investment in service quality — one that helps businesses serve customers faster and, in turn, drives higher customer satisfaction.

To back this up, we ran a consumer survey with 1,043 respondents. More than a third said they were dissatisfied with the speed of service at various organizations — and linked that directly to the time spent printing documents.

We packaged the research findings and brought them to the public across several formats:

• News coverage and editorial articles based on the press release and infographic;

• Native advertising

• Facebook promotion

• A video on the brand's YouTube channel

• Contextual advertising

All campaign materials drove users to a purpose-built landing page where they could explore the research findings in depth, learn about the advantages of the new printers, and follow through to the partner's website to place an order.

We delivered motivated, purchase-ready SMB buyers directly to Ricoh's sales page.

Results

• 100% — sales plan fulfilled

• Search query volume tripled;

• Landing page views reached 35,300 (116% of KPI);

• Click-throughs to the partner's website reached 4,400 (147% of KPI).

• 4,400 clicks on the sales ad

• Silver award for Best Infographic Campaign at the NATIVE ADVERTISING AWARDS industry competition in Berlin

The campaign's success was largely driven by the right message — one that resonated clearly with the target audience. In recent years, RICOH has significantly expanded its product lineup: today the company offers not only printing equipment but also projectors and interactive whiteboards. That made it critical for us to move away from the language of technical specifications for individual products and toward broader narratives applicable across the company's entire portfolio.

Andrei Burkin

Head of Distribution, Ricoh Rus LLC