Great Output news
•
opinions
•
products
•
Sponsored by Lexjet
inspiration
•
innovation
•
trends
INNOVATION IN FOCUS
Innovation In Focus CREATE YOUR OWN OPPORTUNITIES Create Your Own Opportunities USe yoUr printer to diverSiFy, diFFerentiAte, And innovAte In today’s economy, it’s no longer business as usual. Companies and consumers are critically re-examining every purchasing decision they make. This slowdown in sales is forcing all types of businesses to ask: “What do we do now?” The answer? Innovate. Think different. Instead of simply tweaking business models that met the needs of past generations of photo buyers, consider a more radical approach. Start being really creative not just in how you shoot and edit your images, but also in how you operate your business, educate your customers, and market new services. One way to stay afloat financially is to diversify— to offer a wider range of products and services than you might have originally envisioned. Some photographers equate diversification with branching out into other fields of photography, such as wedding, portraits, events, or fine art. The problem with this approach is that it overlooks that each of these photography markets is dramatically changing too. photo: Gary Kellner, dimpled rock LLC
When Gary Kellner shows his prints to golf-course owners, some of them also buy the rights to use the images in their marketing materials. (www.dimpledrock.com)
2
|
w ww.greatoutput.com
D I G I TA L A R T C R E AT I O N
The underlying reality is that up-and-coming generations of customers have different notions about what types of photography products and services they want to buy, and how much they are willing to pay. Easy access to high-powered cameras, editing software, desktop pigment-ink photo printers, and the Internet has changed everything. It’s time to adapt and innovate. At LexJet, we believe that wide-format photo printers and our wide selection of printing materials can help photography pros diversify their businesses in ways that new generations of clients will value. Some LexJet customers now offer high-quality printmaking services for other photographers or artists. Others are creating custom décor prints, signs, graphics, and wall murals for businesses and facilities in their area. Some entrepreneurial photographers aren’t waiting for assignments to come their way. Instead, they are using wide-format printers to create their own opportunities. For example, Gary Kellner, the creative director/photographer for Dimpled Rock, creates and sells wide-format landscape décor photographic prints to golf courses. Instead of trying to convince golf-course owners to hire him to shoot pictures to improve their marketing efforts, he takes the initiative to shoot beautiful images of the golf course himself. When he shows his work as gallery-style prints (on LexJet Sunset materials), many golf-course owners are so impressed that they also buy the rights to use Kellner’s images for their ads, website, and collateral materials. Then, when golf-club members see the prints hanging in the clubhouse, many order prints for their homes. You can read the full story about Gary Kellner and Dimpled Rock in Vol. 3, No. 6 of LexJet’s In Focus newsletter, which is available in the Newsletter Archives on LexJet’s website. In fact, every issue of In Focus includes case studies that show the many different ways LexJet customers are using their printers to develop new business for themselves. Our goal in publishing customer success stories isn’t to suggest that you copy their business models. Rather, we want to inspire you to be open to new op-
January/February 2009
J U LY 2 012
20