Unlocking the Creative Side of Digital

Unlocking the Creative Side of Digital

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Spring has sprung. Break out of the winter doldrums and shake a tail feather; a profit-making tail that is. This is the year consumers will realize the fantastic creations they can make with their photos, even if they’re the most basic photographer, and retailers can take those creations all the way to the bank.

Digital imaging gives consumers choice, choice to create whatever they like from the images they like best. No longer are consumers tied to printing out their bad photos with the good. Consumers choose what they like best, and most of the time, they choose to print only their very best.

However, retailers need not fret about the loss of 4×6 prints. We can use the infinite shelf space that digital technology allows to provide greater consumer choice and grow our inventory and profit-making opportunities. And, no longer do we as an industry have to fight amongst ourselves about which printing method is best as we scramble to compete with what seems to be a drop-off in printing. With new advancements in digital printing networks, we can let our consumers create the best prints from their images online, on their desktops, at kiosks and in our stores. The industry has the technology to tie all these printing methods together to offer a long line of expanding service, creating the long tail of high margin profit products.

Offer Multiple Printing Options

Retailers can have orders from online consumers, home users, kiosk users or walk-up counter customers run through a uniform, central piece of software and print that order to whichever lab they choose. Consumers, then, can be notified with a customized e-mail when their order is completed.

With more sophisticated networks, retailers even can auto-schedule promotions based on customer order history and promote discounts, prepaid plans and other store specials to their customers. Orders can tie in with a retailer’s customer membership program, allowing customers to store and share their photos with family and friends, thus further promoting the retailer’s brand to new potential customers.

By letting consumers print how and where they want, the retailer drives more printing, and more printing means more profits. But what are your customers going to print? With digital, you have to give them choices, creative choices, and lots of them.

Get Creative and Entertaining

There is no mega hit coming for digital photos. Photo books are not the be all and end all. Yes, photo books will make handsome profits for retailers, but the long tail of the industry shows that beyond regular 4×6 prints, there is no dominant print product winner. Consumers will choose how they want to preserve their precious family memories, be it in a photo blanket, a scrapbook, multiple posters, or yes, even a photo book.

What consumers want, more so demand, is choice. And our job is to give them every choice under the sun. So I ask you, ”Are you giving them a plethora of choices?”

At PMA last month, the industry showcased thousands of print products. Lucidiom alone offers more than 2,500 print products from double-sided photo products, photo books, folded cards, bound calendars, posters, enlargements, package prints, bordered photos, passport photos, greeting cards, scrapbook pages and gifts.

Mitch Goldstone of 30 Minute Photos Etc. in Irvine, Calif., who did a complete makeover of his photofinishing store last spring, saw a cascade of new photo ideas from unique albums and frames to bags and multimedia. “With some of the latest DVD options, I can create a slideshow with seasonal frames and music. This idea will work well with my Luci photo kiosks as well as my Kodak high-speed scanning service, so that from one shoebox full of pictures, say from a family reunion, my customer can have a customized DVD to give to everyone in the family.”

Gabrielle Mullinax of Fullerton Photo in Fullerton, Calif., came away from the show, saying, “I am tremendously excited about what the future holds for the service specialty retailer. We are perfectly poised to capture the market beyond the 4×6. We have solutions already in place that allow our customers to create many new and exciting products. The best thing to come from PMA was the fact that now from start to finish, these products can be created easily and inexpensively in house with a turn-around time that is sure to draw customers. As always, our plan is to introduce these new products and services to our customers through a special evening event.”

A leader in the field, Gabrielle has exactly the right idea, to take all those print products she will offer in her store, and combine them into cool, seasonal promotions. For instance, Mother’s Day is nearly upon us. Invite fathers and their children to come in for classes to make special gifts for their moms. With in-store displays and on your Web sites, showcase the posters, frames, albums and other gifts you offer that Mom will love. Even better, help your customers send Mom to a spa (one you partner with) for a makeover or massage, while Dad and the kids create a one-of-a-kind, personal gift for her. Trust me as a grandfather of fourteen, this is a winner promotion.

Be the Expert

Photofinishing retailers are boutique shops, thus you need to be the ultimate photo boutique with boutique expertise. Your customers come to you because you’re the expert, you’re the one who knows best on how to get the best shots and the best prints.

Offer hands-on classes on how to shoot your kids’ soccer game. Show them how to take the best prom pictures. Get them ready for summer vacations with techniques for taking great beach scenes.

If you see that they always have red-eye in their prints (and with advanced kiosk systems, you can tell if they do right from their media cards), then show them how to use the red-eye reduction feature on their cameras. Show them how to shoot in the proper light and spacing, so they don’t get red-eye in the first place.

Get your customers involved with their photos right in your store. Then use those opportunities to upsell them beyond the basic print. For example, graduation is right around the corner. Open up your studio for informal pose sessions with friends. Show them how to make DVD slideshows, poster collages, photo books and scrapbook pages from those studio sessions. Then, if they’re walking out with a poster, don’t they need a frame too? If they’re walking out with scrapbook pages, don’t they need an album? If you go to a boutique store, you want the whole package. That means don’t just sell them the print; sell them the whole assortment of accessories to make that print a lasting keepsake.

Digital gives you plenty of options for feathering your nest. The long tail effect allows you to offer so much more to your customers than we ever could in the analog world. Plus digital provides the tools to figure out what your customers want most. There’s gold in those media cards; they tell you infinite information on how your customers take their photos. Harness that information to optimize your inventory and sales promotions, so that that you deliver the creative, and profitable, choices your customers want this year. yy

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