Welcome to Issue 129 of McCurry Associates' Marketing Idea Exchange.

Please send us your marketing idea as well as comments on those ideas posted by hitting your reply button or emailing to editor@mccurryassoc.com. You may offer free subscriptions to your colleagues by telling them to send an email to editor@mccurryassoc.com - Ask them to include their name, store name and city in the body of the email - privacy is protected, see below.

Please Enjoy, Consider and Profit from these ideas.

All the Best,

Bill
 

Idea 1 – Wrapping up the reader comments about inkjet printing
Brian B. Ainsworth - Photos ar’ Nice - www.showprints.com

Subject: Our feelings about ink-jet large prints
We have three wide ink-jet printers.
• A Colorspan 60" using long life inks.
• A 44" Epson using pigment inks,
• and a 44" Epson using Photographic inks that were supposed to last for 25 years, as per the best research image lasting company.

Prints from the Epson with the photographic “25 year” inks started showing a color shift after just 6 months, inside display. We found out that this happens with these type of inks. It has been out of service now for 4 years, with the last payment just made. We had to redo several hundred prints that didn't hold up. The printer could not be converted to better ink. Prints from our pigment ink Epson appears to hold up well, but we use it only for art texture paper (watercolor) and have a good amount of business. The big Colorspan we use only when we need to go wider than 30".

Our wide 30" photographic printer is a DURST, L.E.D. RGB printer that uses photographic paper and the prints require that they go through a processor. The total investment is about $130,000.00.

This amount would purchase a lot of ink-jet printers. Most of our wide prints are made on photo paper, and we feel that the prints in for most subjects are better than ink-jets that we have made. We do a lot of enlargements for other photo shops and framers, and the frame shops in many cases like the real photo prints, for both their quality and the trust factors. Of our wide prints, 85% are photographic and 15% are ink-jet. I do believe that ink-jet keeps getting better, but it is hard to beat a good photographic print, but it will cost you in big dollars to get into it.

Working with a partner works well for us and many of the shops that use us. Most all of the large prints that we make for others come in to us as digital files, and we usually ship them back in two days. Our packaging is nice and our accounts like the product.

Editor’s note – to sum it up, “Home inkjet printing by uneducated consumers, BAD. Professional ink jet printing with color management, GOOD”

Idea 2 – Elements of the Mom Factor

Stephanie Fisher – Education Director of PMA (and a Mom) – www.pmai.org

Hi - regarding my "past-due notice" I cannot offer tips from a business owner's perspective, so I'm submitting part of one of our speaker's presentation on The Mom Factor. I thought it may be helpful to your subscribers. Nora Lee will be speaking on The Mom Factor at PMA Fall in San Diego. She was recommended to us by Mike St. Germain, who always has great ideas. We've featured a number of speakers at PMA events on this topic, but Nora takes a slightly different angle . . .

1. Health and Safety: Planting the Seeds of a Customer Dynasty. Moms can see danger around every corner. Spills in the aisle, cholesterol-laden food, inedible decorative plants, rickety roller-coaster wheels, bad sightlines at the arcade, and nasty restrooms at the stadium all represent a very slippery slope. On the other hand, if a business provides quick cleanups, appetizing healthy alternatives, barriers to overly inquisitive little fingers, evidence of regular safety inspections and maintenance, a clear view of the little ones, and sparkling restrooms, it might well have a customer for life, or, even more important, the beginnings of a customer dynasty with Mom at the center.

2. Customer Service: The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow. Mom says, “Pay attention to me,” but often in a soft, self-deprecating voice. Snooty waiters who prefer adults lose both tips and repeat business, but the waiter who brings the toddler some crackers and the first-grader a set of crayons—without being asked—is golden. In good mall design, service and safety include a well-marked pickup and drop-off location for the teens who don’t want to be seen with Mom. The clerk who is empowered to make a decision on a return or a sale price beats the heck out of “Duh, I’ll have to get the manager, who might be back after lunch.”

3. Value: Cheap Does Not Always Equal a Good Deal. Some of the wealthiest among us could be found at Target on a Saturday afternoon. Mom’s idea of value translates to a balance of reasonable prices, decent quality, and good selection. Just as Mom will pay more for good customer service, so will she pay more for good quality, but it’s always a balancing act. Cheap flip-flops make sense for one summer of beach-going. But it might be worth it to get a good, warm, more expensive coat (maybe a size too large) to last her youngest the whole winter.

11. Connection to the Heart: A Moving Experience Doesn’t Mean Installing an Escalator. Care, concern, conscience, community, wonder, engagement, love, comfort, fun, enjoyment, loyalty, pleasure, delight, and passion. These words all denote a personal, emotional connection between Mom and her world. In an increasingly impersonal, technology–addicted society, Mom is the touchstone for matters of heart. Even in commercial transactions, Mom takes things personally. If a business demonstrates disregard for the safety of her kids, or inattention to its own responsibility to her community, or disrespect for her or her family, she won’t just turn away—she’ll get angry. Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned.


For more on The Mom Factor, go to www.momfactor.com or buy the book! Available in your favorite bookstore by special order and online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the Urban Land Institute bookstore.

Idea 3 – Letting customers know you print from phones

Glynn Lavender - Camera Action Camera House – Melbourne, Australia - www.cameraaction.com.au:

We have a small crowded shop in downtown Melbourne Australia that currently has four Fuji Kiosks perched in the small amount of space we had available. All were BlueTooth and IR capable, we had promotional signage up in the store stating we could print from mobiles but, like many dealers, we were finding that we were not printing any where near as many images from mobile phones as we would have liked.

We had just replaced two of our kiosks with the latest generation Fuji machines and had the old ones just sitting in storage upstairs wondering what to do with them when we decided to put one in our front display window. We made up a screen shot showing a person taking a photo with a camera and placed it on the screen to make the kiosk look 'alive' and attached a couple of Nokia demonstration phones to it. This, coupled with “We print from Mobile Phones" (Cell phones), signs and we were away. So far we have had the display running for 3 weeks and have seen a marked increase in print from phone orders.

We have even had our competitors, of which there are 4 in the same block as us, remark to us that we must be doing well if we can afford to have a kiosk just sitting in our window not being used. It's always nice to have a psychological edge over our competitors.
 

Upcoming Bill McCurry Imaging Industry sessions . . .
PMA Canada Expo 2005 - Hamilton Convention Centre, Hamilton, Ontario
> Friday, September 23, after dinner discussion- "Signs of Success"
> Saturday, September 24, "All New . . . Big Bang - Little Bucks" Marketing on a shoestring budget
Wednesday, October 12 - PMA Birmingham, England - PMA Birmingham, England - Bill will be showing "Real Life Examples of Effective Marketing" based on his international research.

February 2006 DIMA/PMA/PPFA in Orlando is coming . . .
> (DIMA) Saturday, February 25 - 2:30pm
DIMA Marketing Idea Exchange - Session D63
From big marketing concepts to little promotional gems, the DIMA Marketing Idea’s Exchange is sure to bring at least three actionable ideas to implement into your marketing plan immediately.

> (PMA) Tuesday, February 28, 2006 – 8:00am
Minilab Roundtable Discussions -Session 701
PMA favorite, Bill McCurry, will moderate our roundtable discussions. Bring your ideas to share and be ready for some real enlightening, interactive discussions.
 

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