Impress Thermal Printer

The thermal printer market in India is a fast growing one thanks to rapid automation in various segments likeRetail, Micro finance, Rural banking, UID implementation, M Commerce, Ticketing and Healthcare. The Impress wasa versatile wireless thermal printer, and the only onethat could take up the varied demands of all those mentioned above. However this market segment was saturatedwith largely undifferentiated, unremarkable brands that lackedpersonality or a clearly articulated benefit.

Our study of this market segment helped us understand the buyer perceptions or the lack of it.Thermal printers had no customer visible face and were relegatedto being backend devices,like mobile chargers, for instance. We saw an opportunity here to introduce a sleek, smart looking gadget that would completely redefine the category, making it an accessory that added class to the business or the individual and thus bring it to the front-end, to customer’s focus! In other words we needed to produce a ‘looker’!

The Impress design strategyworked towards a stylish, compact, lightweight product, in line with the technology gadgets of today. The styling was modern, minimal and consisted of just three pieces that could be put together. The contours are smooth, and the paper roll flushed to the top surface, giving it a tight compact look that can be easily slipped into the pocket/carrying case. The silver ‘ribbon’ wraps around the Impressadded to its attractive looks.

The constant consistent demands of portable handheld devices are its size, weight and form factor. The weight of the product was optimized (220gm without paper roll) by the ‘chassis’ approach to the enclosure design. A thick-walled chassis, where in the electronics was assembled was completed with thin walled top and bottom covers. This also made assembly easy. All this was achieved without compromising on any of the functional and regulatory requirements of the product.