Business SMART:

It's All About the Photo!
 

By: Dennis A. Conforto
A-Z Media Group

Last week I attended the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Show in Las Vegas. PMA represents 20,000 retail members in over one hundred countries worldwide. They conduct ten to twelve large trade shows per year. Their main show, however, is the Las Vegas show. I wish that the entire scrapbook industry could have attended the PMA Show. It was amazing!

That wish got me thinking about the future of both industries. Currently, there are about 335 million scrapbook pages produced each year. This is less than the number of pictures taken in a single day. Statistics also indicate that the number of women who purchase cameras is up from a few years ago. If the trend continues, women will dominate the photo industry as they now dominate the scrapbook industry. Both industries have loyal followings but as you now know, more people are taking photos than are scrapbooking. That statistic alone indicates the potential of the marketplace is huge. It also demonstrates that the scrapbook industry has barely scratched the surface in terms of market share.

Jeanne Wines-Reed, one of the scrapbook industry’s leading visionaries, saw early on the linkage between the two industries and helped start the Professional Scrapbook Retailers Organization (PSRO). PSRO, a section association of PMA, is working to bridge the gap between the two industries.

Independent photo retailers and scrapbook retailers have many things in common, the most obvious one being the photo. I think we all agree that scrapbooking wouldn’t be scrapbooking without the photo! Both groups want consumers to take more photos. They also want consumers to print more photos. Photo retailers are willing to train their consumers how to take photos so they enjoy photography. Scrapbook retailers are willing to train their consumers how to crop a photo so they enjoy scrapbooking. While these two groups have similar goals and needs, it is possible that in the future they could stop communicating from fear of “getting into each other’s space”. Although such an approach is understandable, it is a knee-jerk reaction that will ultimately stifle growth and profit for both industries. It would be a far wiser approach to use that fear to bring the groups closer together.

While the commonality of the two groups is compelling, there is a big difference between the skill set of photo retailers and scrapbook retailers. Neither skill set is easy to learn or master. However, there is much these two retail industries can and should learn from each other.

There is no question that most scrapbook retailers will remain scrapbook retailers with a small digital component. There is no question that most photo retailers will remain photo retailers with a small, digital scrapbook component. There is also no question that there will be hybrid stores that will provide both components. These hybrid stores will comprise a very small percentage of retailers because they will require both skill sets. For most retailers a hybrid store poses too much risk and work so the fear of “getting into each other’s space” is unfounded. Instead, both groups should be reaching out and looking for ways to increase each other’s sales. Fewer photos processed means less scrapbooking, so the truth is that both industries are already joined at the hip.

We have talked about cooperation among scrapbook retailers for years and are just now starting to see the fruit of those efforts. It makes no sense to always be going it alone. There are many ways both industries could and should be cooperating with each other. The scrapbook industry could benefit from the knowledge the photo industry has about such items as increasing inventory turn and co-op advertising programs. The photo industry could benefit from the scrapbook industry’s extensive knowledge about female consumers.

In the end, the scrapbook industry is best served when it cooperates in as many areas, both internally and externally, as possible. Other industries get it and it is time we do as well. That’s what being business SMART is all about.