Alan Logue - Hutt St Photos - Adelaide, AU (yes, there are IPI members outside the USA) http://www.huttstreetphotos.com.au/huttstreet/index.htm

Chris

I know I keep harping on about this, but we have just finished our sales figures for May, and we are up double digits again. That means 8 straight months of growth during a recession.

Why are we up?

Thousands of slides scanned to DVD's, tens of thousands of feet of movie film to DVD, and a growing "wholesale network" of country customers.

We are advertising on radio every month for 1 week (approx 45 ads) to promote our slide scans and movies service. We outlab the movie films which come back to us on VHS tape, and then we transfer the tape to DVD in-store. We are also getting increasing numbers of VHS-C, Beta and 8mm tapes which we are transfering in-store. At $30/hour sell, and a cost of 1 DVD, plus a staff member to set it up to record, the profits are HUGE.

Our "wholesale" network consists of remote country chemists and newsagents who want to offer a processing service for their customers. Our deal with them is "you get it to us, and we will get it back to you!". In general, they post the orders to us once or twice a week, and we post them back same day.

We are getting rollages as high as 180 rolls a day with this work coming in, plus we are also offering to "process only" films for labs who want to dump their film processors.

In short, the Global Economic Recession is passing us by, and we are definitely making hay while the sun shines on us! But you do have to get out there and market and promote to make it all work

Glen Hodges - Specialty Color Services - Santa Barbara, CA - www.specialtycolorservices.com

Hey Chris / Bill,

Recently Gabe and I gave a presentation at the local university about our marketing. The course is new and the subject is Social Media Marketing.

There were approx. 40 people in the class and the response has been fantastic. The class is taught by two people and below is a link to a story the instructor wrote about our presentation: http://www.webmarketingtherapy.com/blog/social-media-marketing-boosts-business-and-cool-factor-for-these-wmt-positive-role-models/

Like you, Chris, when you were asked by the school to share something with the students. We were doing the same in this instance. It goes back to what you said in your DIMA presentation and I quote from your friend Adrienne Zoble: "education equals marketing and marketing equals education."

Hopes this helps keep our subscription current.

Take care,
Glen

Sid Davidowitz - The Picture Spa, Moto Photo Paramus, NJ, USA

Bill, Chris:

This may not be a revelation to anyone but it has generated some nice $$$ over the last 10 years. In our market many of the local high schools have a senior dinner as a way to keep the kids from getting into trouble celebrating their graduation. The senior class advisor works with some parents to run the event.

One school in my area approached me many years ago about blowing up posters for the dinner. They would collect baby photos of all the children and we would copy and make posters. They would post them all around the party and kids try to figure out who is who.

We always gave them a great price and the first year had a graduating class of 180 kids.

A few years ago I posed the idea to other schools in my area and for 2009 we just completed doing over 600 16x20's. What has changed since we started is their budget used to allow for 20x30s. Now we do 16x20's. We have also done video montages and make copies for all classmates. That has been on and off depending on the year.

Some schools have a senior class fund to cover the expenses. Others send out a letter about the dinner and include the cost of photos in the dinner. We collect one check from the class.

The way to get in place for this work is to contact the schools in your area and find out who is the teacher assigned to be the senior advisor for the next year. The advisor will know whether the school is having a senior dinner and who is in charge of it.

PMA Australia hit record attendance numbers and IPI and the PRO conventions look to do the same. (Disclaimer - official sources will not release preregistration numbers so we are listening to "informed sources who request anonymity due to the sensitivity of the data" ).

One aspect these three events share is a strong emphasis on the educational components.

Our cracker barrel analysis?

Smart operators want to stay, not just current with the industry, but ahead of it. And with the amount of technical, sociological and economic change right now, it's challenging.

Every attendee of these events is giving up time and money to come to these - and they think they're getting their money's worth.

Attendance is less at events that promise - and deliver - less.

Object lesson - what are you giving to your customers? If it's not more than the other channel, why should customers be coming to you?

July 15-19, 2009 PRO Convention, (Members and affiliates only) Rancho Mirage CA, USA

September 10-11 PMA Canada Exposition 2009, Toronto, Ontario Info

October 22-24, 2009 PDN PhotoPlus Expo Jacob Javits Center, NYC, NY, USA - info

November 10-12, 2009 - 6Sight Future of Imaging Conference being held in the Monterey Conference Center, Monterey, CA, USA. www.6sight.com

February 19-23, 2010 - PMA '10 kicks off in Anaheim, CA. Conferences begin the 19th and the trade show begins the 21st.