As the Photo Marketing Association’s (PMA) annual event kicks-off today in Las Vegas, I expect to see photo books as the big buzz item at the show along with a range of software solutions for designing photo books - making them easier for customers to create and for labs and retailers to sell.

Recently, I attended a conference targeted at small independent photo labs and photo retailers. For many of the attendees, it was the first time they had witnessed how simple creating photo-specialty applications could be, and it was refreshing to see this audience get excited about the possibilities and revenue opportunities beyond the standard 4x6 photo print. This excitement is definitely supported by market indicators as well. A recent study by InfoTrends predicts the specialty photo printing market will grow at a compound rate of 24.5 percent per year through 2010, reaching $800 million in revenues. The PMA estimates that sales of photo books alone will grow 42 percent in 2008 to $359M up from $253M in 2007.

For the retailer, there is huge profit opportunity. People are willing to pay more to see their memories preserved in the unique ways that photo specialty products offer. These new digital applications provide new revenue streams – ones that offer greater margins than what can be recognized from 4x6 prints. In fact, Don Franz from Photofinishing News points out that one photo book can offer as much profit as 500 4x6 prints. Case in point is Harold’s Photo Centers where demand for holiday gifts created with personal photos is expected to drive a 50 percent increase in photo specialty products. In the last few years, the company's film processing business has fallen by approximately 20 percent annually, but the firm's digital printing business has doubled, helping them to achieve new revenue growth.

For the consumer, this is an excellent way to capture the essence and context of the actual memory in a unique, tangible way. You’ll see more and more people start to create these applications as it becomes easier and as they gain greater awareness of the options. It’s the “ME generation” – and everyone wants everything personalized. From personalized M&Ms … to personalized Kleenex boxes. 4x6 prints or images held in computers or on cell phones are not able to be personalized. But, with digital printing, the possibilities are endless.

Personally, I’m no different. I recently reached a milestone birthday and my 3 year old daughter (with the help of her dad) gave me a photo book with captioned pictures since her birth. It was the best gift I’ve ever received, and I’ve already looked at it more times than all our old photo albums combined. I’m looking forward to watching the photo specialty market grow – and the incredible possibilities that will become realities as consumers and retailers unleash their creativity!

Tracy Yelencsics
Vice President, Marketing Communications
Xerox Production Systems Group

Xerox at PMA '08
News from PMA '08

Posted by In The Balance at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A group of environmental gurus, eco-friendly printers, designers, students and vendors got together last week at CalPoly for The Business of Green Media Conference in San Luis Obispo. Robert Tapella, public printer of the U.S. (and proud CalPoly grad) spoke at dinner. Other speakers included forward-thinking print companies like EarthColor, branding experts, folks from Seybold, and a production director from the eco-friendly, West Coast winery Fetzner Vineyards - to name a few.

During a panel on sustainable sourcing, Marcia Haynes, EVP of corporate sourcing at NBC Universal (check out "Green is Universal,") made an excellent point. "Sales reps need to sell differently in today's environmentally conscious world. If you get stopped on the first green question, you're not the best person for the job," she said.

Moderator Don Carli from the Institute of Sustainable Communication paraphrased: "If a sales person is putting a green fig leaf on in the morning and walking out the door to sell green, there's a problem."

There were many good points made by many speakers at this conference, but that one struck a chord. Amidst all the environmental hype, everyone who stands in front of a customer, whether you're a printer or an equipment vendor, needs to have a working knowledge about environmental issues, trends and advantages. That's a tall order in a world where environmental sensitivity is at an all time high. But it's a responsibility. And it requires a deeper level of understanding of what is being done and what remains to be done for all of us to be more environmentally aware.

This was one of a few green conferences I'll be attending this year, including SustainCommWorld in Oct. in Boston. There's a lot to learn at events like these and they are drawing decent crowds. About 200 people showed up at CalPoly in little San Luis Obispo -- and it's no easy place to get to (for me, 2 planes and a 4 hour drive from LA in pouring rain.) But it was worth the trip, especially if it helps keep me from wearing a green fig leaf.

Ed Gala
Vice President, Corporate Marketing
Xerox Corp.

Posted by In The Balance at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If we leave aside the problems of advertising for a while the world of digital printing is a much brighter place.

Consider book publishing. The book publishing process has three steps and two handoffs:
1. Gathering the Content (then handed off to) 2. Editing the Content (then handed off to) 3. Publishing the Content.

To a great hand-wringing by the traditional publishing industry, the Internet has made it technically easy to do number 1 and 2. That technology is spreading a wave of creative destruction through the publishing business that has not yet reached its crest. If your client is a publisher, their problem is your problem. Some digital printers have been doing a great job of working on small margins to solve publisher's problems.

This coming year could bring a solution to the hand off between step 2 and step 3. Anything that makes it easier to get to step 3 is good for digital printers.

My favorite, so far, is Blog2Print, a widget for Blogger. It was released in November by Shared Books. It is free. It took me five minutes to install at my blog. It creates a book formatted PDF file with one click of the mouse. I can order a printed book with a few more clicks. With Version 1.0, the book is a little too expensive and the layout options are a bit limited. But if the development of Google widgets is any guide that problem will be solved sooner rather than later.

Consider:
. . . as of August 2007, Technorati is tracking over 50 million blogs. The Blogosphere is over 100 times bigger than it was just 3 years ago. Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size every 200 days, or about once every 6 and a half months.

. . . not long ago making and editing a video was an expensive difficult process. But that changed and a new market was born.

. . . if 50 million people (doubling every 6 1/2 months) take the time and energy to write, edit and maintain a blog, how many of them do you think would like to have their content in a book format to share and keep and put on their mantle?

Michael Josefowicz

www.josefowiczassociates.com
My day job is project based team building.


Posted by In The Balance at 03:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Someone once observed that there are only two things in life: reasons or results. You either have the results you want—or a lot of good reasons why you didn’t get them.
How often have you heard:
“They were lucky.”
“Someone brought them a new product.”
“They hit the shelves just as the fad went national.”
“People were already doing it—they were in the right place at the right time.

Brand Managers, marketers and companies constantly struggle to break out…to find a new idea…to capture the public’s imagination. Yet most of them haven’t a clue how to do it. The unsuccessful ones think it’s all luck. But as those of you who’ve made the switch to digital printing already know, breaking the rules requires following a set of rules. They’re just different from the rules of same-old, same-old.

Paradigm Busting is a very real methodology. How successful could your business become if you could structure a way to develop, create and nurture new ideas that can become cultural and business phenomena? It can be done. In 7 ½ steps. And the first three are the most critical:

1. Get business buy-in. If the CEO isn’t comfortable with new ideas and new thinking, you’ve got a non-starter. Dead before arrival. The first step is figuring out if your company is truly committed—or can be committed—to change, innovation and new thinking. (Hint: If it isn’t, maybe it’s time to update your resume.)
2. Develop a paradigm-busting task force. If you use the existing structure to build a new model, you’re going to run into turf wars. Make sure the new-think team is interdisciplinary, the best and the brightest and report directly to the CEO. Make the Paradigm Busting team the team everyone wants to be on.
3. Fund the program. Thomas Edison had 3000 failures before his first success. If he didn’t have the capital, we’d all be reading this blog in the dark. There’s got to be R&D money in your company’s budget. If not, see #1 above.

Beyond that?

4. Put together a specific methodology;
5. Understand the new marketing and media;
6. Develop a plan, process & milestones; and
7. Monitor (and learn from) your successes and failures.

Easy? Not really. Frustrating? Occasionally. Challenging? Always. Fun? Definitely. Most important, it’s a process that will lead to success…for you and your company.
And what’s the “half step?” Well, it’s just “repeat, repeat, repeat.”

Paul Kurnit and Steve Lance
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Paul Kurnit and Steve Lance are co-authors and lecturers on the issues of advertising, marketing and management. You can join their conversation at PSInsights.com

Posted by In The Balance at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)