Kodak is back in the game by attacking competitors via its advertising campaign

Last week Kodak started a new advertising campaign meant to upstage its product and undermine competitors’ products. The Wall Street Journal wrote, Eastman Kodak is stepping up the aggressiveness of its marketing as it tries to jump-start its ink-jet-printer business and revive its falling brand.

This week, Kodak started a new ad campaign for the business that taps into consumers' frustration with the high price of printer ink. Its slogan: "Print and Prosper." The “Print and Prosper” campaign, begun in the U.S. and Canada, will use television, newspapers and the Internet to try to convince consumers to switch to Kodak printers, the Rochester, New York-based company said in a statement. Kodak will start marketing in other countries in coming months.

"Last year America paid $5 billion too much for ink-jet-printer ink," one print ad says, while a television spot likens ink to oil. "The world's most expensive liquid isn't found in the Middle East. It is found in ink-jet-printer cartridges," says the spot's voice-over. Eastman Kodak is spending roughly $30 million on the campaign, says a person familiar with the matter.

Since its core film business has faded, the former giant has been trying to remake itself into a digital-photo and printing company, selling consumer ink-jet printers and high-speed commercial presses.

In the past several years, as it struggled to turn itself around, Kodak eliminated tens of thousands of jobs and cut ad spending sharply. Last year, it spent $30.6 million in the U.S. on ad time and space, down from $205.2 million in 2001, according to WPP's TNS Media Intelligence.

The new printer pitch, which will appear in the U.S., Britain and Canada, is the latest from Kodak's new chief marketing officer, Jeff Hayzlett, who was promoted to the post in November. The 48-year-old Mr. Hayzlett has been pushing hard to reshape the conservative brand.

Mr. Hayzlett has abandoned the warm-and-fuzzy branding ads once typical of Kodak. Well-known slogans have included "You push the button -- we do the rest" and "Share moments, share life." Instead, he favors more product-specific ads. "We have to have ads that drive sales," he says.

With the new campaign, Kodak is targeting “high ink- burners,” or people who print a lot, Hayzlett said. The company set up the website www.printandprosper.com, where consumers can calculate the difference in ink costs if they switched to a Kodak printer. Kodak is also using blogs and social-networking sites to spread awareness.

Resuscitating the Kodak brand won't be easy. In 2001, Kodak was ranked the 27th-most-valuable brand in the world, according to Omnicom Group's Interbrand. Last year, it fell off Interbrand's closely followed list of the top 100 global brands. "It's still a highly recognized brand" but "you can't support a great brand without great products," says Jez Frampton, chief executive of Interbrand.

Sources: The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.com

Key words: Kodak, printers, ad campaign.