INSTANT GRATIFICATION

Across America, photo retailers are quickly discovering they can meet their digital camera customers’ printing needs and increase their profits with Sony’s PictureStation™ digital photofinishing systems. Retailers are also discovering that the digital photofinishing system is a smart way to distinguish themselves from their competition. Not surprisingly, the PictureStation system is proving tobe popular with both franchise and independent retail stores.

One such franchise is MotoPhoto, which has four franchisees in the Northeast that have installed the PictureStation system in an effort to expand printing options for their digital camera customers. The stores—in Hamden and Cheshire, CT; Brookline, MA; and Albany, NY—adopted

“A new generation of picture-takers associate the Sony brand name with quality,” Green says. “They appreciate the instant gratification aspect of walking into a store and getting high-quality prints in a matter of minutes from a name they trust.”

Designed specifically for retail environments, the easy-to-use systems feature highspeed digital printers that can produce photo-like prints in seconds. Both types of the system, a countertop unit and a free-standing kiosk, accept a wide range of digital media and can print in four borderless sizes: 31/2” x 5”, 4”x 6” and 5”x 7” and wallet.

Green first saw the PictureStation system at an annual gathering of photo professionals last spring and immediately began promoting it to his franchisees. He says the system’s $8,000 price tag offers a low-cost and attractive option for franchisees to enter the digital photofinishing market. The system, he says, is a viable, low-risk alternative to more expensive digital mini-labs, which require sustained significant volume just to break even. STRONG CUSTOMER RESPONSE Since installing the systems earlier this summer, the four MotoPhoto stores have seen

At each location, the systems appeal to a wide range of customers, from amateur and professional photographers to everyday picture-takers, such as parents and business professionals who use digital cameras in their line of work. For instance, Green says professional photographers are relying on the PictureStation units to create wedding and event proofs. Real-estate agents are shooting images of properties, and owners of body shops are taking photos of damaged automobiles for insurance claims.

“Our customers have come to appreciate the speed with which the units can make prints, the highquality nature of the prints, the fact that they can use it themselves, and their overall ease-of-use,” says Green.

The system’s graphical user interface has also scored points for its ability to walk customers through the process of making a print, and coach them along the way. The system will alert a customer if a file size is too small for the selected print size. It will also remind them to take their media card. “The interactivity is teaching the customer as well as servicing them,” he says. “It’s a very well thought-out piece of equipment.”

“The systems scream digital, and that’s what we need to be doing to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace,” says Green.

He also encourages other franchisees to adopt the systems as a marketing tool to distinguish themselves from competitors and to meet the growing number of digital camera users who are relying on retailers to make their prints.

Recognizing the opportunity to distinguish its stores from its competitors on a national level, MotoPhoto recently issued a corporate directive encouraging all of its franchisees to adopt digital printing solutions.

ADDRESSING CUSTOMER DEMAND

Like MotoPhoto, Alex Bell, owner of the Photo Fast store in Hawthorne, CA, is offering digital photofinishing services to distinguish his store from the competition. Since installing a PictureStation system in early July, Bell’s independent specialty store has seen a spike in business, addressing what Bell calls the “pent-up demand” among digital camera owners for retail-based digital printing services.

The picture’s the same up the coast in Pacific Palisades, CA, where Cathy Rodriguez, proprietor of Harrington’s Camera Corner, noticed a “significant” increase in foot traffic when she introduced the PictureStation system.

Nestled near residential and commercial districts in the South Bay section of Los Angeles County, Photo Fast has been an instrumental member of the community since it opened its doors in 1980. It was an early proponent of one-hour processing in the Eighties. The following decade, as digital cameras gained widespread acceptance, Bell noticed a phenomena he dubbed the “Monday Morning

“Like clockwork, we would get calls every Monday from people who wanted to know how they could get their weekend pictures out of their digital camera and onto a piece of paper,” says Bell.

To meet his customers’ needs, Bell says he invested in an expensive digital photofinishing system but he—and his customers—quickly grew disenchanted. That system, which cost more than $32,000, was too large and too complicated for customers to use. It could only print on 8”x 10” paper, which meant Bell wasted paper if a customer requested a 4”x 6” print, he says. In addition, the cost of a print ranged between $1.19 and $1.99 each, which didn’t sit well with customers, says Bell.

“Although we could finally offer the service to our customers, we also had to tell them how much it was going to cost,” he says. “Often, they would scale back on the number of pictures they wanted, or we had to encourage them to print more to reduce the cost.”

When Bell saw Sony’s PictureStation system at an annual gathering of photo professionals earlier this year, he was sold, recalling that he thought it “was like a breath of fresh air.”

Since installing the unit in early July, Bell’s customers can bring in an array of media containing digital images, choose which they wish to print, crop the image, adjust brightness and contrast, and quickly and easily print. Bell says his customers also appreciate the fact that the typical 4”x 6” print costs just 69 cents each, nearly 60 percent less than the least-expensive print offered by the previous system. Bell says the PictureStation system has enabled him to win over new digital camera users and reclaim previous customers who grew disenchanted with the prior unit. Within the first two days of installing the system, Bell says customers had made about 100 prints, exceeding his initial expectations.

SMALL, VERSATILE AND USER-FRIENDLY

Harrington’s Camera Corner, situated between Malibu and Santa Monica in Pacific Palisades, was founded by Cathy Rodriguez’s father John Harrington in 1958. Many of Rodriguez’s customers are thirdgeneration family members accustomed to receiving
a high level of personal attention.

Several years ago, as her customers embraced digital cameras, Rodriguez kept an eye out for a small but versatile and user-friendly digital photofinishing system that would accept all forms of media and produce stunning images.

After checking out Sony’s PictureStation unit, she was impressed with the system’s wide range of media capabilities and high-quality printing, as well as the $8,000 price, which Rodriguez says fit squarely in her budget.

Rodriquez bought it “on the spot,” she says.

Prior to the system’s arrival, Rodriguez began to promote her store’s impending digital printing capabilities and, on July 3, hung a sign in her storefront that proclaimed “Pictures From Your Digital Camera While You Wait.”

On July 5, Rodriguez says she had “tons of people walking in to check out the system and make prints of their Independence dealer who often takes pictures of furniture in her store, then prints them out at Harrington’s so potential customers can discuss the furniture at home with their spouses.

“Usually we’ve found that all new customers will print one picture at first, then put the memory card back in and go to town printing many more,” Rodriguez says.

Customers have come to appreciate the system’s preview function, through which customers can magnify images well beyond what they would see in their camera’s viewfinder. Rodriguez adds that the system’s intuitive software has earned kudos for, among other things, providing a summary screen that details the number of images printed and calculates the total, including tax.

With the PictureStation system, customers are beginning to bypass the step of downloading pictures from their camcorder onto the hard drive of their computer.

“They don’t want to go through the computer because now they don’t have to,” Rodriguez says. “They simply want to print their images quickly and efficiently.”

The PictureStation system has expanded printing options for digital camera users nationwide, says Steve Blum, vice president of digital photography for Sony’s Business Solutions and Systems Company.

“With massive consumer adoption of digital cameras over the last five years, independent photo specialty stores have found themselves faced with a business challenge to begin offering digital services or risk going out of business,” Blum says. “For retailers, our PictureStation system is a low-risk investment that offers big dividends and helps set them apart from their competitors.”

Photo Fast’s Bell has sage advice for his peers throughout the photo industry.

“If someone doesn’t have a machine like this, they probably won’t be in business in 18 months,” he proclaims.

www.sony.com/digitalphotography