Issue #0736/2 - Adding to the enormous number of special offers and promotions, Hewlett-Packard brings the ‘Cashback’ concept to Europe and enables customers to buy colour laser printers at half-price.
Moving the US trend to offer Cashback on hardware purchases across the Atlantic, Hewlett-Packard is aggressively tackling the market with promotional offers that can result in an effective discount of up to 50% on the hardware purchase.
Specifically affecting business colour laser printers at the level of the Colour LaserJet 3600 and Colour LaserJet 3505, the offers are mixture of low prices, percentage discounts and cashback.
Cashback of £150 represents a discount of 35% on the price of the base model Colour LaserJet 3600, while the promotion above (relating to the network-ready model) is a 20% discount.
Moving on to the Colour LaserJet CP3505n, the price quoted actually represents a discount of 62% from the official List Price. It looks as if the ‘half price’ is relative to the previously advertised price at the store in question rather than relative to the List Price.
Either way, if it really is the network model, as advertised, this is a very attractive deal and suggests that Hewlett-Packard may be feeling the threat from other manufacturers.
Cashback (or rebate), as a concept, is more appropriate to the US market where it is well-established. European buyers are more inclined to respond to an up-front discount because of the impact that claiming a rebate has on busy schedules.
