EVIL HP

HP is a well known brand for electronic devices such as laptops and printers.

I personally owned a HP 3in1 multi-function however it's now broken down and I have startd to search for a new one.

Only then I realise the "evil" marketing strategy adopted by HP. It's commonly known that specific printers will require specified model of ink cartridges. So the common sense strategy will be either selling the printers at a higher price but with a lower price in ink cartridge or vice versa. HP followed the latter. HP printers are sold much cheaper among the other brands such as Epson or Canon. The price is as low as 30+ to 40+ which also comes up with new colour and black ink cartridges. Because it's not a large expenditure the consumers rarely devote time into information search since the opportunity costs will be too high. So a buyer like me, especially a first time buyer, was rather uninformed about the general price of its ink cartridges. When I realised I fell for HP's "trick", it's already too late. I was in a dilemma of either buying a new printer or a new cartridge since a cartridge is equivalent to half the price of a new printer.

HP knows pretty well that many consumers are not inclined to throwing their old printer away after the ink is used up. So many will still stick to buying it's specified ink cartridges even though in a long term perspective it might be more economical to buy a brand with cheaper ink.

The low price of HP printers actually captured buyers' attention at very first sight with many purchase decisions are made instantly and what goes on will be the endless vicious cycle set up by our "kind" print manufacturer.