Photo Industry Reporter's Retailer Roundtable : Imaging Dealers Present Their Own Photo Book of Profitable Ideas

August 2011

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We sat down with a select group of imaging retailers to chat about what’s working in their stores. In an industry that is all about telling stories in the form of picture books, we thought we’d borrow a page, so to speak, from that mission statement and put together a little visual tale of our own.
We’ve gathered a few stories and pictures from retailers around the country that center around what they do best—catering to their customers. For some it’s all about merchandising, while others excel at promotion. You’ll see great customer service still reigns supreme, and in many instances it’s technology from the manufacturer that spells profit for the dealer. You’ll also see it’s sometimes the simplest ideas that yield the greatest gain, so you don’t always have to shoot for the stars with your thinking.


Social Media Mavens
Frank Tona, Store Manager, Crown Camera, Redding, California
Crown Camera always tries to embrace new technologies and this includes social media outlets Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Store manager Frank Tona took a 4x4 flip book from Lucidiom that walks consumers through the company’s white-label photo site, Photo Finale Web, and converted it into a YouTube video (youtube.com/watch?v=rlEMlmm1zqE&fmt=18). Now his customers can learn more about the website’s features—RSS, sharing, editing, member benefits, etc.—by watching a brief video.
“We have put some of our manufacturer videos from YouTube on our website in the past, but this was the first time I took a printed marketing piece and converted it to video,” said Tona. “We simply used ProShow Gold to input the slides and add music and then converted it to a YouTube video.
“With the current business environment, we need to take advantage of any media that might drive more business to our store. The more your store becomes a destination, the more likely you’ll survive a downturn. With that in mind, we are offering more classes on more subjects. We also had several Ladies Nights that have been very successful.” crowncamerashop.com


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