LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD FOR GROWTH: A CONVERSATION WITH IMAGE STAR’S PHILIP CREEN
For more than three decades, Image Star has been a familiar name in the imaging channel, evolving from early days of floppy disks and stationery to a specialist in print supplies and now a broader office technology distributor. The product set has changed repeatedly, but one principle has stayed constant: a focus on cost‑effective solutions for the independent dealer. “We’ve always been focused on helping dealers create value for their customers.” says Chief Commercial Officer Philip Crean. “And specifically the independent dealers that are looking for a different type of support and a different type of offering.”
That focus shapes how Image Star defines its role in today’s channel ecosystem. Crean describes the distribution landscape being reshaped by consolidation, e‑commerce, and the rise of direct‑to‑consumer giants, yet there remains a large amount of IT spend flowing through resellers in the $1 million to $3 million range. Those resellers still need a distributor to aggregate brands, simplify logistics, and provide true value‑added support. “Different types of resellers need different things,” he explains. “When you’re looking for support, calling into a $60 billion company can be a really difficult experience…you’re trying to make a $60 billion company work at the scale of a reseller doing a million or two a year. They’re totally incompatible.”
The challenge facing many independent resellers today is not simply winning business — it is finding new areas of growth. Print volumes are under pressure, hardware refresh cycles have lengthened, and customers increasingly have access to low‑cost products through online marketplaces. As a result, many dealers are looking beyond their historical product mix, exploring adjacent technologies and recurring revenue offerings that allow them to expand wallet share within existing accounts. Crean believes distributors have an important role to play in helping dealers navigate that transition.
Image Star’s answer is to engineer distribution around the independent dealer’s reality. That starts with portfolio design: combining major OEM brands with high‑performance private brand offerings — such as its long‑running Hyperion line — so dealers can compete on both quality and price. Equally important are the services layered around that portfolio, from blind dropship and nationwide fulfillment to outsourced MPS program management and structured subscription programs. Many dealers simply sell the program under their own brand while Image Star runs the back end, turning traditional transactional relationships into recurring‑revenue services without requiring the dealer to build all the operational capability in‑house. Crean is convinced that distribution can no longer rely on the old model of receiving boxes and shipping them out at a few points of margin. As resellers shift from selling hardware to more comprehensive managed services offerings, he believes their distributor must support them in making this happen. One example is how Image Star structures hardware‑plus‑software offerings as simple monthly subscriptions. Instead of asking a dealer to pay upfront for multi‑year licenses and equipment, Image Star spreads the commitment over time and allows the dealer to mark up a monthly, as‑a‑service price to the end customer. “We’re pre‑structuring a subscription for them,” Crean says. “Dealers can mark up the subscription and resell it, which basically eliminates all term risk for the reseller.”
That consultative approach reflects how Image Star itself has evolved. While the company has long been known for compatible toner and print supplies, Crean says the business has steadily expanded its focus around a larger mission: helping independent dealers identify profitable growth opportunities. Today that includes a combination of traditional distribution, private‑brand products, subscription offerings, managed services support, and emerging technology partnerships. “The products have changed over the years, but our objective remains the same: helping resellers compete more effectively and grow.”
The same strategic thinking is behind Image Star’s Capsul line, a new house brand built for today’s price‑sensitive categories. Capsul launched with small desktop printers aimed at SOHO and work‑from‑home environments, then expanded into keyboards and mice, and most recently, a line of monitors designed for simple, economical bulk deployment. “A printer or copier today doesn’t fundamentally do different things than it did ten years ago,” Crean says. “You don’t see the same demand to upgrade, you don’t see the same willingness to pay.”
Capsul is designed to capitalize on that reality. By stripping out low‑value complexity, Capsul can deliver compelling end‑user price points while preserving robust margins for the reseller, creating a channel‑centric alternative to anonymous online generics that often lack support and local presence.
Underpinning all of this is a deliberate approach to portfolio strategy. Crean describes three parallel pillars: established blue‑chip brands, value‑based alternatives like Capsul, and a set of “innovative insurgents”— under‑the‑radar vendors that bring fresh capabilities but lack deep reach into the North American channel. Image Star’s role is to connect those insurgent manufacturers with the independent dealer landscape, help them gain traction, and support resellers in positioning and selling solutions they might otherwise never encounter. “We’ve been able to make great connections between brands and resellers that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to find one another,” he says.
In a mature market where growth is hard to find, the through‑line in Image Star’s strategy is clear: distribution as a strategic lever. For independent dealers willing to move beyond a transactional view of their distributor, Crean sees real upside. The most successful partners, he notes, are those that engage at an executive level for portfolio planning, sales enablement, and marketing support, rather than relegating the relationship to a junior buyer placing orders. In practice, those conversations often extend well beyond purchasing. Dealers may work with Image Star to evaluate new categories, test emerging vendors, structure recurring‑revenue offerings, or develop go‑to‑market plans for products they have never sold before. Crean believes this type of collaboration is becoming increasingly important in a market where organic growth is harder to find and every customer relationship carries greater strategic value.
The promise behind that shift is straightforward: with the right distribution partner, an independent reseller doesn’t have to be big to play big.
CAPSUL: A NEW OFFICE BRAND FOR A CHANGING CHANNEL
For years, Image Star has been quietly helping office technology resellers build profitable businesses around print. Now the company is telling a broader story. Through Capsul, its line of everyday office essentials, Image Star is giving dealers a practical way to diversify as print margins tighten and customers look to their existing providers for more of the technology they use every day.
The premise is simple: resellers need adjacent offerings that fit their existing relationships without forcing a reinvention of their business. Capsul answers that need with a curated range of desktop printers and office peripherals designed for small offices, home offices and hybrid work environments. But the work behind that line, and the way it reaches the channel, is anything but simple.
Inside Image Star, two perspectives help explain how Capsul came to life. Terri Dowler, a 27‑year veteran of the company, represents the behind‑the‑scenes discipline required to build a credible private‑label brand. Carrie Erwin represents the reseller‑facing side of the launch: articulating the value, listening to feedback and helping dealers turn a new name into a familiar part of their portfolio.
BUILDING A LINE WITH DISCIPLINE
Capsul began with an analysis of where Image Star’s resellers want to go, not only where they’ve been. Print and toner remain foundational, but many dealers are adding a variety of other products and services ranging from IT and cybersecurity to office water replenishment and furniture. Image Star recognized that hybrid work has multiplied the number of small, distributed offices and home workspaces. This cohort needs basic hardware and accessories.
“Our focus has been on net new opportunities that live inside the small office and home office environment,” Dowler explains. “We’re asking: what else can our resellers offer their customers that’s natural to their business, but not something they’ve traditionally sold?” Capsul’s initial lineup — a streamlined range of printers, monitors, keyboards, mice and related peripherals — is her team’s answer to that question. The decision to launch Capsul was driven as much by reseller economics as by product opportunity. Image Star observed that many dealers were being asked to support increasingly diverse workplace environments while facing pressure on traditional print revenue streams. Rather than asking partners to reinvent their business, the company set out to create adjacent product categories that fit naturally into existing customer relationships and sales motions. A focused assortment was a key part of that strategy. Dowler and her team worked with Image Star leadership to keep Capsul deliberately narrow. She makes the case that too many models can turn a good idea into noise, while a carefully edited lineup gives resellers a better chance to understand, stock and sell with confidence.
Achieving that balance requires more than choosing features off a checklist. Dowler describes a merchandising process that includes canvassing global manufacturers, meeting potential partners at industry events and testing their alignment on quality and pricing discipline.
PROTECTING MARGIN IN A DIFFICULT MARKET
That focus on economics is central to Capsul’s identity. Dowler points to the reality that many dealers have seen promising products undermined by pricing structures that leave too little profit in the middle or by online undercutting that erodes confidence. In her view, a private‑label line only works if it is built from the outset to support sustainable margin, not just attractive list prices.
To address that, Image Star spends significant time on channel pricing architecture, defining distribution and dealer pricing along with minimum advertised price guidelines and working with manufacturers who are willing to support those structures. Dowler explains that the goal is a pricing framework where “everyone in the chain has room to win,” rather than one that forces dealers to sacrifice margin just to stay competitive.
Recent years have added another layer of complexity: tariffs and logistics. Dowler notes that importing product has become a challenge across the industry. Image Star responds by considering geographic location, shipping options and the ability to mix loads to avoid the cost of bringing in full containers of a single item. An overseas quality specialist inspects products and packaging before shipments move, checking build quality, output and presentation so that the line that arrives in the U.S. matches the intent the merchandising team designed. Those details may never show up in a spec sheet, but they reinforce the brand’s promise that Capsul is both reliable and visually consistent across categories.
TURNING STRATEGY INTO A RESELLER SOLUTION
Where Dowler’s work sets the foundation, Erwin’s role is to make that foundation meaningful for the channel. She faces a familiar reality: most dealers do not need more brands for the sake of variety. They need offerings that solve real problems — declining print margins, customers buying devices elsewhere, and the ongoing pressure to grow wallet share with existing accounts.
Erwin frames Capsul as a solution to those issues without asking resellers to become something they are not. The brand is designed to feel familiar: devices that are simple to install and support, with a cost structure that is attractive for end users and margin‑friendly for dealers. She returns often to the idea of “everything they need and nothing they don’t,” whether that means trimming legacy features that add cost but little value, or keeping the lineup small enough that a sales team can learn it quickly.
Erwin notes that many dealers are already being asked by customers to provide monitors, desktop peripherals and other workplace technology products. Historically, those requests often resulted in the dealer sourcing products through channels that offered little differentiation or profit opportunity — or simply directing the customer elsewhere. Capsul seeks to keep that business inside the reseller relationship by providing a curated, channel‑focused alternative backed by Image Star’s support infrastructure. Just as important is the way Capsul is introduced. Erwin describes beginning each engagement by asking about a reseller’s business — verticals served, current offerings, customer mix — and then tailoring recommendations accordingly. Some partners start by testing a single model in a live environment, using real‑world feedback to build confidence before scaling. Those early deployments generate testimonials and case studies that help other dealers see how Capsul fits into their own operations. Support is part of the equation. Capsul carries a one‑year guarantee and a direct technical support path that routes questions to Image Star’s internal team. Erwin also points to marketing resources and sales assistance designed to make Image Star feel like an extension of the reseller’s own staff rather than a distant vendor. Her approach is to listen first, then help resellers position Capsul in ways that match their customers and business model.
While Capsul is a product line, Dowler and Erwin both view it as part of a larger trend within the independent channel. Dealers are increasingly looking for practical ways to diversify beyond traditional print revenue without abandoning the customer relationships and service models that made them successful. In that sense, Capsul represents more than a new logo on a box — it reflects a broader effort to help resellers capture a larger share of workplace technology spending.
A BROADER STORY FOR A FAMILIAR PARTNER
Taken together, Dowler’s and Erwin’s perspectives show that the Capsul line is a natural extension of Image Star’s mission to support resellers while remaining true to their core. Capsul gives partners another way to serve their customers, with products that fit the way people work now and still deliver the kind of margins they need. For resellers facing shrinking print volumes and pressure to diversify, that combination of simplicity and margin protection may prove just as essential as the products themselves.