PH: Using Marketing Research to Gain a Competitive Edge

The PH company is known worldwide for its printers, personal computers, and related services.
With headquarters in Polo Alto, California, it has a global presence in the field of computing,
printing and digital imaging. It markets products such as printers, cameras and ink cartridges to
household and small business. It also provides software and services. The company once catered
primarily to engineering and medical markets but spun off that line of business as AT technologies
in 1999.
PH was founded by Stanford graduates William and David in Palo Alto in 1934 with an investment
of $538. The company incorporated 15 years later and went public in 1957. Not until 1960s and
1970s did PH recognize the market for information technology products. As consequences of
meeting this need, PH introduced the computer industry to Silicon Valley. At that time, products
from Silicon Valley were limited to calculators, converters and semi converters. 1980s, PH began
to develop industrial laser printers for desktop and prospered.
In 1990s, PH expanded its computer product line which initially had been targeted at University,
research and business customers, to customers. Later in the decade, PH launched
phshopping.com as an independent subsidiary to sell online, direct to customers; the store was
rebranded “PH home and home office store” in 2005. PH also grew through acquisitions, buying
APL computers in 1989, CVX computer in 1995 and CPQ in 2002. CPQ itself had bought TDM
computers in 1997 (which had been started by ex-PH employees) and DigEquip Corporation in
1998. Following this strategy PH became a major player in desktops, laptops and servers for many
different markets.
PH posted $91.7 billion in annual revenue in 2006 compared to$91.4 billion for IBM, making in
the world's largest technology vendor in terms of sales. In October 2006, PH gained the number
one ranking in worldwide personal computer shipments, surpassing rival Dell. The gap between
PH and Dell widened substantially at the end of 2006, with PH taking a near 3.5% market share
lead. In 2007 the revenue was $104 billion, making PH the first IT company in history to report
revenues exceeding $100 billion. PH posted $114.6 billion in annual revenue in 2009 continuing
its growth trajectory.
On October 6, 2014, PH announced plans to split the PC and printers business from its enterprise
products and services business. The split closed on November 1, 2015, resulting in two publicly
traded companies: PH Inc. and PH enterprises. As of 2018, PH is a global technology company
with a vision to create technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere -- every
person, every organization and every community around the globe. Its mission is captured in its
slogan "keep reinventing". PH Inc. provides products, technologies, software, solutions and
services to individual customers, small and medium sized businesses and large enterprises
including customers in the government, health and education sector.
 Marketing issues and marketing research

PH identified that the technical trials that customer often face crop up at the most unexpected
and inconvenient times in the daily course of business. Equipment and applications are going to
break down, most often right when a critical project is due or while the customer is in on the
road. The customers’ first line of action is usually to call in to the support helpdesk or perhaps
research the problem online. PH services address the customers’ pain points in these solutions
by understanding the critical role support plays and how quickly the customer needs resolution.
PHs award-winning support organization is dedicated to getting the customer up and running as
quickly as possible and preventing future problems so companies can continue to meet their
business deliverables. Infect PH services customer support organization is becoming increasingly
recognized as a leader.
As early as 2004, the industry acknowledged PH’s commitment to customer satisfaction with
more than 7 honors and awards. PH earned the highest overall rating from its customers in
Computerworld/Interunity group Inc. survey of nearly 1,200 information technology managers
and professionals. In this study customers gave PH the top satisfaction marks in six of eight
categories including meeting customer expectations, contribution to customers’ profitability,
product quality, product reliability, and in licensing policies. Customer satisfaction has continued
to rate high through 2018.
Given its commitment to customer services and satisfaction, PH conducted a survey of recent
purchase of PH PCs and notebooks. PH wants to understand how its customers use their PH
computers. It also wants to understand the level of satisfaction that customers are deriving from
PH’s products. PH wants to estimate the probability that customers will be repeat buyers and
whether current customers will recommend PH to their friends and family. Finally PH wants to
determine if there is any correlation on any of these identified usage factors and the underlying
demographic characteristics of its customers.