Here’s the idea, plain and simple. Why are printers so inexpensive to purchase, because replacement ink cartridges cost half the price of a new printer. Businesses are willing to take loses on certain products, such as printers, because they know they can make up the margin through replacement parts, such as ink cartridges.

So what happens when other companies, aka competitors, come out with cartridges that are much cheaper and are compatible with the inexpensive printer the customer just bought? Obviously, the customer is going with the less expensive ink cartridge! The printer developer is now not only taking a loss on the printers they are producing, but customers aren’t buying the printer’s brand of ink cartridges anymore either, since there are less expensive ones on the market. Now the printer manufacturer is suffering an overall loss, because they aren’t able to generate any revenue through their printers or their ink cartridges, because customers are jumping over to the generic cartridges. So how do we remedy this problem of generic replacements? The answer is GUARANTEED CUSTOMER LOYALTY! Guaranteed customer loyalty consists of customer’s commitment to repurchase or continue using a company’s product brand. Now the question is how do we create guaranteed customer loyalty? I’ll explain the answer to that question by using another example. Just like printers and ink cartridges, the same concept applies for water manifolds and water filters. Even though customers are purchasing one brands water manifold, they are electing to jump to another generic and less expensive water filter when the original filter needs to be replaced. This is where RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology comes into play! Matrix Product Development (www.matrixpd.com) has developed a product called The Octopus that solves the issue of guaranteed customer loyalty by effectively using RFID. Now, the water manifold manufacturer would imbed a small wireless chip to each water filter, and integrate an Octopus into each manifold. When the replacement filter is attached to the manifold the wireless chip would emit a radio signal, which is picked up by The Octopus sensor, to tell the manifold to allow this specific brand’s filter to work. So, if someone tried to replace a specific brand’s water filter with a generic one it wouldn’t work, because without the wireless chip to signal The Octopus, the manifold would not turn on! Meaning there is only one outcome, customers would have to buy a specific brand’s filter for the manifold to work, aka GUARANTEED CUSTOMER LOYALTY! The Octopus can also be used to verify that the correct size and type of water filter is installed in the correct manifold port. To find out more on The Octopus or are just curious to learn more about the benefits of RFID please visit www.RFIDHut.com. Thanks!