Here's Bill McCurry's "blog" from the Australian PMA just concluded in Sydney:

Wow!

Attendance broke records . . . at least that's the buzz . . . PMA hasn't released "official-audited" attendance - but sessions had lots of bodies and the trade show was crowded. Exhibitors reported solid sales and good interest in new products.

It grew the pie . . .

The show was trade only (think retailers, framers, professional photographers) on Friday and opened at 2:00pm Saturday and all day Sunday for the general public. The public paid $20 or went to their local photo retailer to get free tickets. Very effective for driving traffic to local retailers. The show generated good traffic for local photo retailers who sold what was shown at the show.

As an example of what one switched-on distributor did here's the Maxwell's brochure (see images) they handed out to customers. It didn't favor any specific retailer; it was an industry-wide promotion that drove traffic for all participating retailers. Obviously those retailers who supported the show and distributed the free tickets were likely to gain the most. It's fantastic when the industry comes together to promote photo products and services. The sales made didn't come at the expense of other photo products, more than likely they shifted dollars from TV sets, new household furnishings and other consumer disposable spending into photo. This show grew the overall awareness and fun of photography . . . along with growing sales.

Disclosure: Maxwell sponsored some of my presentations at PMA Australia - However, I had to go to their booth before I found out about their marketing tool to drive consumers to buy at retail.

Additional things worthy of your attention . . . .

Glynn Lavender, from Melbourne, (many of you know Glynn from Marketing Idea Exchanges) He's now representing Mack Warranties in Australia as well as writing for trade magazines and conducting classes and photographic field trips. Glynn's always good for inspiring stories of retailing success . . .

Photographic field trips are more than just "knowledge". Glynn has a customer who has been on 5 identical trips @$200 each. Why? He likes the social interaction with 10-12 people who are as passionate about photography as he is. He's paying for social time as much as knowledge. Since each field trip has potentially different weather, different models, etc. he does get a chance to shoot slightly different things, but it's the social activity he's buying, not the education.

Glynn tells the "Story of Sam". She bought a $299 camera and went on a $200 photo shoot. In the next 12 weeks she spent $9,000 on hardware plus another $2,000 on classes and trips. Additionally Sam has brought along two friends and got them involved in taking pictures.

While talking about Glynn Lavender . . . . He and Andrew Dorward from Croydon Camera House broke new ground in market research presentations. They spent 11 hours with a video system at Croydon Camera House outside of Melbourne interviewing Australian consumers. The challenge given to them by Peter Rose, PMA Australia's Top Kahuna was make the research come alive instead of boring charts/graphs. Glynn and Andrew did just that . . . the audience was wowed, entertained and educated like never before.

These videos were shown to supplement the results of the first ever Australian Consumer Photographic Survey. We're hopeful we can "repurpose" these videos and the market research information so you can see them on PMA TV later this summer. This survey was funded by the earnings PMA and PICA generated from these annual conventions. The survey had some expected results as well as a possible surprise. It showed (ready for the surprise?) that households with kids took lots of pictures . . . Wow, what a surprise . . . (ok, no more sarcasm . . . )

Possible new market

What was unexpected was that the category of "households with head of household under age 30 without kids in household" were significant buyers of digital cameras. We're hopefully going to be delving into the data that was collected and see what we can uncover that may help you explore a new market for you. We understand that the advent of video "game" Guitar Hero has boosted the need for music teachers specializing in guitar. Is it possible all the mobile camera phones is spurring the younger generation to want to be more serious about capturing images? Stay tuned to the market research news coming from PMA . . .

Not Your Father's Kodak

Another shocker came from our Kodak friends out of Rochester, NY . . . It seems Kodak has a new sheriff in town . . . Jeffery Hayzlett. He's not from your father's Eastman Kodak Company. His language is a bit rough for a Yankee, but the Aussies loved him . . . There may be light at the end of the Kodak tunnel, and if there is, then it's a fireball called Jeffery Hayzlett. He's been around Kodak since 2006 . . . his official Kodak business portrait shows him in a button down shirt . . . it's fraudulent packaging. . . he's anything but button down. His speech likely drove the legal team nuts . . . he's not traditional Kodak in any sense of the word . . . and he's got a (slim) chance of maybe making Kodak relevant in consumer imaging again. Would be fun to see Kodak emerge? We need stronger players in the industry. Jeff shared a couple of points you might want to know about . . .

• 60% of Kodak's employees have been there less than 4 years . . . (my take on this is there is now zero Institutional memory at Kodak . . . virtually nobody there remembers enticing retailers to embrace Picture CD, Kodak POS, Advantix or any other product prior to 2005 . . . So quit your bitching and move on . . . it's a whole new Kodak in a whole new world, good or bad, it is what it is.)

Hayzlett says purpose of business getting involved in social media is the four "E's"

• Engage
• Educate
• Excite
• Evangelize

The new measure of engagement is ROI - Return on Ignoring . . . You want buzz, you want to be talked about. Worst thing is to be ignored by the world and marketplace. Almost any news is better than no news.

It was good of Mr. Hayzlett to travel all the way to Australia primarily for PMA, it does speak well for the importance of the show and Kodak's interest in the marketplace.

You Never Know What A Mad Customer Will Do

There's rich irony in this next story from Sydney. Be careful what you say to people . . . . In 2001 Celeste Hough went into a large Sydney retailer, Digital City, to buy a 64mb memory card for the then princely sum of $165, the price on Digital City's website. Whoa, they told her, that's the on-line price you have to pay $240 . . . She negotiated them down to $220 because she needed it now and went home thinking, "There has to be a better way". So, she started Digital Camera Warehouse (DCW). Today DCW is projected to do $35 million in annual volume with 40 employees in two locations and more coming. Celeste had 3 other partners that were in a software consulting company in 2001. DCW became so successful the women sold that business and are now focusing solely on DCW. Digital City is no longer in business.

Some have called DCW Australia's B&H. That's not totally accurate. DCW stocks cameras pretty broadly but not everything else. For example, they stock every Lowepro bag imported into Australia. Very impressive presentation. The rationale is that Lowepro has such a complete line there is nothing a customer needs that Lowepro doesn't have so why duplicate inventory? They stock virtually no other bags. No confusion for the customer . . . simple operation . . . low cost. Interesting model to be sure.

Interesting environment in Australia . . . CE chains like Bing Lee advertise "everything's negotiable" while JB HiFi has signs with prices on them saying "We will beat this price. Ask for a JB Deal." In this marketplace comes Digital Camera Warehouse which won't dicker on pricing. Granted, their price off the blocks is very hot. Still, one posting on a consumer website was, "I paid $6,000 for all my stuff and they wouldn't cut a penny off any stated price." It is DCW's attitude, they offer good prices for one and all - very straight forward. I just became aware of DCW and convinced them to allow me to do a DIMAcast with them . . . not sure when it will air but watch (listen?) for it. And keep an eye open, these ladies are going places.

Could Red Be A Color In Our Future?

Canon . . . clearly one of the leading brands (Nikon has been nipping at their heels in US lately - depending on how you keep score, Nikon could claim leadership in some categories) . . . Officially, Canon said "Photo specialty channel is important to us worldwide" and they would have "the camera store of the future on display at PMA 2010 in Anaheim". Canon uses Australia for test marketing and has a research center there. The Canon watchers we talked to expect to see Canon in the dry photo lab business at PMA 2010. Start planning now to be in Anaheim, February 19-23, 2010.

Lots of coverage of the Australian PMA show at "The Other" PIN. . . . http://www.photoimagingnews.com.au/news/pma-now-bigger-brighter-than-a--trade-show-

McCurry Missed An Opportunity:

An audience member suggested I missed a great opportunity when a question was raised by a retailer about how to compete on 6" x 4" print pricing. I thought I did a fair job of suggesting to this retailer that the industry had to get over the fact 6" x 4" prints (or what Yankees call 4x6) was a loss leader for many. Perhaps the retailer would better understand the logic if they listened to DIMAcast #151 from May 3, 2009 where Ray Bailey talks about why he occasionally runs 9 cent print promotions. My critic suggested that I missed a great opportunity to wake up my questioner with a more abrupt, "What year does it say on your watch? Mine says it's now 2009 where have you been the last decade?"

The insinuation is that anybody in 2009 who doesn't understand 6x4 prints are a commodity and won't be the profit source they used to be hasn't been listening. While I'm not sure dressing down (or as they say Down Under, "giving him a serving") would have been the right approach it is clear that worldwide, 4 inch prints are not the margin source they used to be. However, many are making some money with them and the evidence is clear that these prints are ordered with other (more profitable) things as well.

Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Promote all your services and you'll see the not-so price sensitive customer bring you their 4" print business. There are a lot of prints being made.

It was a great show . . . next year it's in Melbourne, June 4-6, 2010 . . . plan now to attend. Haven't you always wanted to visit Australia?

See you there.

Bill

William J. McCurry, Chairman