oris642
natural person
From the National Post, which I subscribe to:
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=812391
The digital revolution has been with us now for 20 years, shaking up whole industries and forcing companies to rewrite entire business plans. But some sectors still are just learning to adapt.
In the photography industry, for instance, sales of camera film tumbled 40% last year. This year they're expected to dip another 40%. Independent retail outlets that depended on film-developing revenues are being closed across Canada.
All, however, is not lost. Compared with many sectors displaced by digital (say, typewriters or travel agencies), the outlook for the photo industry is bright.
If they can focus on the future rather than the past, Canada's photo retailers might notice that the technology tsunami has whisked them into the epicentre of the digital culture. They just have to make sure their business plans remain focused on the customer.
This month, I attended the Canadian conference of the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) in Montreal, where I was to speak about the future of the imaging industry. As someone who developed roll film in my bedroom closet at the age of 15, I relished the assignment. And the more I studied the landscape, the more opportunity I saw. If the photo industry can lose its film fetish, it will find many good omens: - Images are the lingua franca of the Web. All-text Web sites are as dead as the Pocket Instamatic. The Internet is a visual medium. Visitors demand photos, illustrations and diagrams. So graphic imagery is becoming a core concern to individuals and businesses; - The Web's biggest players are all about pictures. You-Tube (the third most visited site) and Facebook (No. 5) are defined by their role in distributing images. Even Google (No. 1) now returns image results with text searches; - With the advent of digital cameras, people are taking more photos than ever. Families now have four or five digital cameras, and the quality is improving fast -- especially with camera phones. Industry studies show that as camera quality increases, owners take even more pictures; - When digital cameras began edging out SLRs (singlelens reflex c amer a s ) , they choked off sales of accessories such as lenses and tripods. But the industry has responded with impressive new digital SLRs, whose sales are now growing 50% a year. Retailers can again ask, "Would you like a haze filter with that?" - Technology is generating undreamt-of new photo products.
At the PMA's trade show I gaped at high-capacity digital frames, glossy photo-books that are printed while you wait, gallery-quality canvas enlargements and custom 3-D "bobblehead" figures made from your photos. Suddenly, there are many more outlets for photos than just 4 x 6 prints.
The opportunities are many, but Canada's photo industry has yet to get this excitement across to consumers.
For instance, most digital photographers I talk to intend to get their pictures printed -- someday. But the industry hasn't created easy, timesaving ways to help people browse their bulging archives and select the best photos to print. This demand won't last forever. After all, who needs prints of birthday parties from 2004?
Similarly, the industry hasn't taken aim at home-printing. Lab prints are sharper, and cost less than printing your own. Quebec drugstore chain Jean Coutu prints photos for 15¢ each, and KodakGallery.ca offered a back-to-school special of 10¢. That doesn't cover the home printer's paper cost! (Photo paper at retail runs 20¢ to 40¢ a sheet.)
Where are the ad campaigns promoting these facts? (And why is the industry creating dangerously low price points such as 10¢? Canada's photo labs took a decade to shake off Direct Film's "Double your prints for a dollar.")
Meanwhile, the industry is promoting digital SLRs by talking about CMOS sensors and DIGIC III processors. It should junk the jargon and show the quality difference. At my son's winter Cub camp this year, all the fathers were slack-jawed at the crispness of the tobogganing pictures taken by one SLR-armed dad. Emotions sell, not tech talk.
And all those new innovations: photo-books and bobble-heads? Perfect gifts for grandma or the employee of the month. But who knows they exist?
I asked several vendors at the trade show how they're creating demand for these new products. None had any answers. The next day I visited a national chain to divine its solution. Amid the "Everything in the store is on sale!" signs, I glimpsed a catalogue of do-it-yourself photo products. It was upside-down on a back counter, out of customers' reach.
Every business today faces digital challenges. To survive, you must give up some ground and stake out new opportunities. But if you don't keep the customer in the loop, you might as well stay analog. - Rick Spence is a writer, consultant and speaker specializing in entrepreneurship. His column appears Mondays in the Financial Post. He can be reached at rick@ rickspence.ca
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=812391
The digital revolution has been with us now for 20 years, shaking up whole industries and forcing companies to rewrite entire business plans. But some sectors still are just learning to adapt.
In the photography industry, for instance, sales of camera film tumbled 40% last year. This year they're expected to dip another 40%. Independent retail outlets that depended on film-developing revenues are being closed across Canada.
All, however, is not lost. Compared with many sectors displaced by digital (say, typewriters or travel agencies), the outlook for the photo industry is bright.
If they can focus on the future rather than the past, Canada's photo retailers might notice that the technology tsunami has whisked them into the epicentre of the digital culture. They just have to make sure their business plans remain focused on the customer.
This month, I attended the Canadian conference of the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) in Montreal, where I was to speak about the future of the imaging industry. As someone who developed roll film in my bedroom closet at the age of 15, I relished the assignment. And the more I studied the landscape, the more opportunity I saw. If the photo industry can lose its film fetish, it will find many good omens: - Images are the lingua franca of the Web. All-text Web sites are as dead as the Pocket Instamatic. The Internet is a visual medium. Visitors demand photos, illustrations and diagrams. So graphic imagery is becoming a core concern to individuals and businesses; - The Web's biggest players are all about pictures. You-Tube (the third most visited site) and Facebook (No. 5) are defined by their role in distributing images. Even Google (No. 1) now returns image results with text searches; - With the advent of digital cameras, people are taking more photos than ever. Families now have four or five digital cameras, and the quality is improving fast -- especially with camera phones. Industry studies show that as camera quality increases, owners take even more pictures; - When digital cameras began edging out SLRs (singlelens reflex c amer a s ) , they choked off sales of accessories such as lenses and tripods. But the industry has responded with impressive new digital SLRs, whose sales are now growing 50% a year. Retailers can again ask, "Would you like a haze filter with that?" - Technology is generating undreamt-of new photo products.
At the PMA's trade show I gaped at high-capacity digital frames, glossy photo-books that are printed while you wait, gallery-quality canvas enlargements and custom 3-D "bobblehead" figures made from your photos. Suddenly, there are many more outlets for photos than just 4 x 6 prints.
The opportunities are many, but Canada's photo industry has yet to get this excitement across to consumers.
For instance, most digital photographers I talk to intend to get their pictures printed -- someday. But the industry hasn't created easy, timesaving ways to help people browse their bulging archives and select the best photos to print. This demand won't last forever. After all, who needs prints of birthday parties from 2004?
Similarly, the industry hasn't taken aim at home-printing. Lab prints are sharper, and cost less than printing your own. Quebec drugstore chain Jean Coutu prints photos for 15¢ each, and KodakGallery.ca offered a back-to-school special of 10¢. That doesn't cover the home printer's paper cost! (Photo paper at retail runs 20¢ to 40¢ a sheet.)
Where are the ad campaigns promoting these facts? (And why is the industry creating dangerously low price points such as 10¢? Canada's photo labs took a decade to shake off Direct Film's "Double your prints for a dollar.")
Meanwhile, the industry is promoting digital SLRs by talking about CMOS sensors and DIGIC III processors. It should junk the jargon and show the quality difference. At my son's winter Cub camp this year, all the fathers were slack-jawed at the crispness of the tobogganing pictures taken by one SLR-armed dad. Emotions sell, not tech talk.
And all those new innovations: photo-books and bobble-heads? Perfect gifts for grandma or the employee of the month. But who knows they exist?
I asked several vendors at the trade show how they're creating demand for these new products. None had any answers. The next day I visited a national chain to divine its solution. Amid the "Everything in the store is on sale!" signs, I glimpsed a catalogue of do-it-yourself photo products. It was upside-down on a back counter, out of customers' reach.
Every business today faces digital challenges. To survive, you must give up some ground and stake out new opportunities. But if you don't keep the customer in the loop, you might as well stay analog. - Rick Spence is a writer, consultant and speaker specializing in entrepreneurship. His column appears Mondays in the Financial Post. He can be reached at rick@ rickspence.ca