Printacom`s Oki bus completes highly successful nationwide road show

Printacom, brand representative for the Oki range of printing solutions in South Africa, has announced the successful conclusion of its countrywide road show, during which the `Oki bus`, loaded with the vendor`s latest printing offerings travelled to numerous locations, wowing resellers, consumers, distributors and government alike.

Peter Vieira, Oki corporate solutions division manager at Printacom, says: "The main objective of the road show was to create a greater awareness of the Oki brand. By using this very effective marketing tool, we hope to have created a better understanding of the solutions within the Oki stable, as well as the benefits in terms of reducing total cost of ownership and administration overhead that the Oki products bring to the foray. With over 500 people visiting the bus, we believe our mission was accomplished with a resounding success."

Vieira says the reports from resellers, distributors and users have been overwhelmingly positive. "One of our distributors in Bloemfontein declared a threefold increase in colour unit sales during the month of August and seems well set to match those figures in the coming months. He attributes his success to the excitement created by the bus`s presence.

"And then there`s the positive feedback from our reseller base," Vieira continues. "One reseller reported that after spending time familiarising himself with the range, a customer is placing an order for 600 printers. Another perfect example that our efforts are already reaping the rewards," he enthuses.

Vieira explains that aside from increasing the awareness of the Oki brand throughout South Africa, the bus has also been used as a valuable sales and training tool by Printacom.

"In many of the areas we visited, we engaged with several resellers that were interested in the Oki brand, but till then had not been able to take the product to market. We also used this opportunity to provide them with some hands-on training, equipping them with the knowledge to sell this value proposition to their customers."

Certain resellers also found it to be particularly valuable to take the bus along to customer meetings. "This allowed them to demonstrate the Oki products to their corporate clients first hand, letting them vet the solutions for their environment by printing test samples of their own print jobs using the Oki printers and gain a clearer understanding of the units` capabilities."

Overall Vieira says Printacom is extremely happy with the results the bus has yielded and believes it was a sound investment. "If we look at our own sales, we`ve just reported a bumper month for colour lasers. With these kind of results, we will definitely continue with this strategy and schedule more time between our resellers, their clients and the Oki bus. With such an effective marketing tool, we are bringing Oki to the doorstep of our resellers, and will be back on the road in November," he concludes.