A Close-Up on Photo Books By Jeffrey Steele Can the world’s obsession with selfies build your business? It would seem so, given the huge growth potential offered by the photo merchandise market. Putting yourself in the profit picture just may be possible if you leverage the latest market data and choose the right product offerings and partners. Industry veterans are convinced our premise is correct. Of the photo books marketplace, Kent Dalzell, president of Fastbind USA said, “I absolutely believe it offers tremendous potential. Now, every person on the planet has a camera. They’re predisposed to take a lot of pictures because there’s no cost involved. There are more images than at any time in history, and people are becoming more sophisticated at taking better pictures. In this generation the storage is not given a thought. It’s natural, and it’s free.” While many of those images will stay on the camera or phone, others will be treasured and reproduced. They capture distinct moments in time important to the individual taking them. The convergence of two trends—having the camera as part of your existence and the lack of cost in taking as many images as desired— means there are more images that are valuable to that individual, and the pool of images usable in other products is greater, Dalzell said. Larry Corwin, president of Rollem International, is also upbeat. “What photographs do to any piece of print is raise the value of that print,” he said. “Say you get a holiday card in early December, and it has a high value through the holidays, then after four or six weeks loses its value. Put a photo print on it, and it can become a collectible with great status.” Ways to Market Avi Basu, director for Graphic Solutions, Americas with HP, said two different approaches to the photo book market are viable. One of them is to aim at the consumer market, comprised of many folks taking selfies and keeping the vast majority of the images they capture on their cameras. Perhaps 10 percent to 12 percent of all photos taken digitally are actually printed out in the form of a photo book, calendar or card, Basu said. “You could make the premise there’s a great potential to unlock maybe another 10 percent,” he said. “That’s not easy because it enters into changing human, consumer behavior. The factors include the ease of interface, because many in the market for photo books are not all that tech savvy. “And many of those who start photo books don’t finish them, because they consider it too hard and it takes too long to finish. So the easier we can make it for consumers to find the photos, use them for the project, tag the images, sort through them, and create the photo books, the higher the adoption rate will be.” Building both the awareness and the adoption rate—and making sure more consumers try and like ordering photo products—is the top concern. One aspect that is not an impediment, he said, is that quality won‘t be acceptable. “The product is fantastic,” he exulted. “Quality issues are no longer a concern. People are actually replacing portraits with these photo products. A large portion of photo providers are using HP’s Indigo technology. For the quality expectations, for the look and feel; it’s best in class.” A second distinct market is serving the corporate or business-to-business market, Basu reported. Many PSPs serve corporate clients that regularly capture images at corporate events, product launches, or other mass media activities and want to create mementos. Those PSPs also are able to create photo books for employee celebrations and milestones. “Every one of these is an opportunity for service providers to innovate, create new concepts and price points,” he said. In corporate settings, the photography is typically done by a professional, not a 40-year-old soccer mom, 14 Printing News | October 2015 PrintingNews.com
Printing News October 2015
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