Photo Marketing Association 2006 International Convention & Trade Show: Connecting Wireless & Imaging Communities
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| Photo Marketing Association 2006 International Convention & Trade Show: Connecting Wireless & Imaging Communities |
| Rapid Technology Advances |
| Emerging New Buyer Behavior Models |
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The 82nd PMA International Convention and Trade Show convened in the magic city of Orlando February 26 - March 1 with over 600 exhibitors, more than 20,000 attendees and over 200 sessions and educational programs. This largest photo imaging trade show in the world draws the image capture professionals (commercial photographers), wholesale and retail photo services firms and a growing contingent of the printing industry that specialize in this web savvy, digital graphics mainstream niche.
In addition to the collaborative opportunities that the printing industry has to work with virtually each membership segment of PMAI, the dynamics impacting photo imaging parallel that of the printing industry, such as: (1) supplier consolidation, (2) rapid technology advances and (3) emerging new buyer behavior models. Printers serving this image capture market must be sensitive to these dynamics or suffer the consequences.
Supplier Consolidations
The photo developing mini-labs and multi-site photo retailers invest the same psychological equity into long-term supplier relationships, as do many printers. When these fold, it's not as easy as walking across the street or comparing website prices in reestablishing another viable partner.
Six weeks ago Konica Minolta announced their departure from both the consumer camera and image printing business. Their lens mount and other single lense reflex (SLR) camera technologies will be taken over by SONY, who in turn will use Konica Minolta as a production source for its SONY-branded DSLRs. AGFA was the second big name no show at the trade show.
X-rite and their recently announced acquisition of GretagMacbeth should be well received in both image capture and image print markets as their color management innovations, such as their Eye-One Display 2 and Huey, will be fully compatible in making color stabile and repeatable. These two firms have some of the dominant products and technologies that make multi-process, color management a reality.
The scrapbooking niche has matured quickly with more than 1,400 suppliers, according to Jeanne Wines-Reed, one of the founders of the Professional Scrapbook Retailers Organization. While many specialty elements continue to be available, such as background papers, stickers, labels, diecut buttons and themed embellishments, to be physically placed on a page, digital printers or mini-labs with digital presses are now offering software libraries of digital click art to be integrated into their furnished page layout systems. This software can be downloaded by either the professional photographer or retail photoshop to be used by the retailer's client on an in-store, furnished PC.
This fully integrated software, some proprietary and much off the shelf, either has a multitude of templates to pour text, click art or digital photos into or more sophisticated custom layout features. When complete, the pages are sent to the printer's FTP site to be printed digitally on up to 12" by 12" pages. Wedding albums or full vacation books, for example, are then attractively bound and drop-shipped to the client in only a couple of days.
