Another gorgeous day in the city that never sleeps. I have a new-found jealousy for westerners. They’ve got the weather, the desert’s mysterious vibe of energy that seems to flow through them and they can see Cirque de Soleil, Elton John and party at the Palms all in one week. 

Friday, I began my day with a morning session, “Marketing Ideas Exchange” moderated by William McCurry of McCurry Associates. What was interesting, was how many of the dealers/retailers’ ideas translated to promotions a pro shooter could offer to his or her clients. Here are some of the best presented: offering free prints (no strings attached) when customers purchase a camera, which can be presented via punch card or coffee card look alike; offer one day a week discounts, such as a Free-Friday; have people get on photo kiosks by offering the first 30 prints free, this gets them to use the kiosks; present customers with specialty-made mouse pads with your company logo and information, to cut costs make it yourself by using a copy machine and a heat press; create a slogan that can be used on the radio or on print promos; and offer discount cards to  community-based locations, such as the PTA and schools. At the forum, the owner of a small company in Barbados said a monthly competition with a camera prize, significantly added to their customer base by asking the customers who completed the entrance form add the email addresses of three other people. This caused their email list to inflate, jumping from 3,000 names to 10,000 names. Other retailers mail out color newsletters, offer kids $25 to stuff mailboxes with flyers and offer events with give-aways such as a “Girls Night Out” event offered by a store in Australia. While at the talk, I met the self-acclaimed “oldest photo retail operator” 80-something Fred Ernst.  Meanwhile, at an afternoon press conference, a small, but growing company, Albumprinter, popular in Europe, is banking on interest in America. The maker of desktop photo book solutions announced an alliance with Lightening Source, the on-demand-based book manufacturer, to publish personalized soft and hard-cover albums. I thought they would make a great option as a photographer’s portfolio. My favorite was the personalized day planners.

Later in the day, Photo Trade News (PTN) honored its Dealer of the Year, Bedford Camera & Video, out of Little Rock, Arkansas, with a reception at the Vegas Hilton Hotel. It wasn’t hard to see why the photo retail chain  is successful after watching a DVD presented of its catchy TV commercials shown and the humility, spirit and leadership of their CEO, Stan Bedford, who gave a moving and inspirational speech before about 100 people. We appreciate Olympus letting us try out their newest digital recorder model to podcast the event. Later, at an Apple-friendly Aperture event it looked like Adobe’s similar product, Lightroom 1.0, could have a run for its money or maybe earn a good friend.-a.s. 

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 10th, 2007 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Alysha Sideman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.