(coming soon)

November 3rd, 2005

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There is so much to learn.  Things change every single day.  Virtually nothing is constant.  We find ourselves dependent on software to be able to sell pictures, enhance pictures, order pictures, and keep our records.

It seems to me that many of us in the special events business spend a great deal of our time on software related issues. Since some of those issues are so complex, many have delegated what they used to do in their business (booking and shooting) to others with less experience.

As a result, we now have many people playing key roles in our businesses that don’t have a great deal of photographic skill or experience.  More importantly, we don’t have as many people directing photography in our businesses today that are passionate about photography, or more specifically, passionate about candid photography.

If the owner of the business becomes so engrossed with “more important things” than the photography, I can promise you that the results will suffer.

It seems like the photography gets taken for granted.  The business owners are often doing “more important things”.  Yet, in the end, our success – in the photography business – comes down to how well the people who photograph the various events perform.

If the photographers perform well – the event was a success.  If the photographer performs poorly – the event was a failure.  In reality, we make the assumption that the photography was “fine “and the event must prove itself to be worthwhile.  If the sales results aren’t good we just don’t shoot any more events like that.  "Damn that poor event."

A couple of weeks ago I went to the OU – Baylor football game.  I was walking to the stadium prior to the game with 5 friends.  We came upon a photographer (who I had never met or seen before) and I could see from the extreme yellow shirt that he must be one of CCP’s photographers stationed to take candids (i.e. tailgate pictures) as we approached the game.

He was standing about 10 feet back from the path, upon which thousands of people were walking, and made no attempt to photograph us. Since I actually wanted a picture with my friends, I asked him to take our picture.  He happily obliged as I could tell he did not want to be the one to make the first move.

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He took A single picture of us.  I mentioned that I would like another shot to be sure we all had our eyes open.  When he took that shot I noticed that his flash did not go off.  I pointed this out to him and he said it wasn’t necessary.  I insisted that he take another one with a flash. He took another one and still no flash.  I then offered my assistance and determined that the flash was not seated in the hot shoe.  With that problem “repaired” he took two more shots of us.
 
Happily, the flash went off and I was finally satisfied.  As we left we asked him if he had a card for us and he quickly gave us a card to find our pictures.  I do not know if he was going to tell us about that, or not, if we had not asked for one.  As we left I thought to myself that he had not done a good job at all.

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About 100 yards closer to the stadium was another CCP photographer. He was busily shooting a family as we approached.  We waited there for a moment as he was wrapping up and explaining the order procedures to his subjects, as he handed them cards with our web address. He then said he was ready to take our picture.  We suggested a different background with the stadium behind us and he obliged.  He took a couple of pictures of us and even took some “couple shots”.  He was very professional and friendly.  He gave us some cards to help us find our pictures, and we were on our way.

Last week I went to the CCP site and looked at the pictures from both photographers.  The first photographer took only 86 pictures (with about 8 being of us).  Most did not have a flash go off, so the shadows were quite bad. The ones we had taken with the flash “repaired” were much better.
The second photographer had taken 198 pictures and most all of them were good.

You cannot overcome poor performances by photographers with marketing and computers.

This morning I checked on the sales so far.  The first photographer had sales of only $163 from his 86 images.  The second photographer had sales of $464 from his 198 images.  The bottom line was that the second photographer – the “good one” had almost three times the sales as the “bad one”. 

So we had two photographers with the same equipment, the same attire, the same web cards, and what seemed to be the same number of prospective subjects, have a HUGE difference in results. That is the difference between success and failure.

If all 15 of the photographers that shot for CCP that day had performed like the first photographer, I am sure we would have declared the event to be “not worth shooting”.  Fortunately, we had a number of them do very well – some much better than the second photographer we encountered.

The point is that our results are determined first and foremost by how well the photographers perform their jobs.  You cannot overcome poor performances by photographers with marketing and computers.

If the owner of the business becomes so engrossed with “more important things” than the photography, I can promise you that the results will suffer.

We must all remember that we are in the photography business and our ultimate success or failure depends on us producing LOTS of good, salable images.

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Have You Registered Yet for the CCS Winter Seminar in Las Vegas?

The deadline date to book your hotel is less than a month away! You don't want to miss that great $109/night rate at the Hard Rock Hotel. 

Click here for the registration form (43KB) and more information.  The seminar agenda continues to improve due to great customer feedback!  Click here to view agenda (663KB).

New Product News

Sport Market
New Tap & Jazz Modifiers
A new Tap modifier and a new Jazz modifier are now available in the Sports market.  We had received customer feedback that our current Dance modifier (which showcases ballet, specifically) was not applicable for other types of dance.   We hope those of you photographing dance studios and competitions find these new products valuable.  You can order samples of these new modifiers (plus the new wrestling and boy scouts modifiers announced in the newsletter 2 weeks ago) from www.picmyphotos.com, password -  samplesamples.You can view the new Modifiers here.
 
New Memory Mate Sizes
Memory Mates are now available in a 10x13 size ($4.23) This addition was also due to a customer request.  With this addition, you can now get memory mates in 8x10, 10x13 and 10x14. .  You can order samples of this new memory mate size in the various sports sample events at www.picmyphotos.com, password -samplesamples.
 
School FunPaks
School FunPaks, previously only available in Timestone, are now also available in the Sports market.  There are 5 different FunPak designs: metallic, denim, brights, camouflage, and stars & stripes.  The lab cost is $1.85.  The packaging is the same as the standard QuicPics envelopes.  You can order samples of these FunPaks at www.picmyphotos.com, password -  samplesamples.You can view the FunPaks here.

QuicPics Market
Fifteen new holiday party pic styles are now available in the QuicPics Market of QP2 and QP+.  These styles allow you to customize your product by season or holiday.  Consider these for campus events, corporate parties, parades and holiday themed parties.  The new styles are New Years (2 versions), Winter, Valentines (2 versions), St. Patrick's, Birthday, July 4th (2 versions), Halloween, Autumn, and Christmas (3 versions) and are available in 4x6, 5x7, 8x10 and 10x14.  You can order samples of these on www.picmyphotos.com, password -  samplesamples. You can view the samples here.
 
Grad Market
In addition to the 2-Up 5x7 product now in the Grad market (see Brad’s article in this newsletter), several other new grad products are making their debut, just in time for December grad season.  These new products are currently in QP2 Grad and will be in the upcoming CORE release, scheduled for November 7th.
 
New Grad Sizes
The following sizes have been added to the Grad market: 10x18 ($6.23) and 10x24 ($3.83) – great for overviews – as well as, 11x14 ($4.84) and 16x20 ($13.00) – for that premium handshake or flag shot.  Please be aware that these new sizes will ship independently of the rest of the customer’s orders, as they are packaged in tubes.

New Grad “Slide-In” Plaques
If you are a Sports customer, than you are already familiar with this product.  The new Grad “Slide-In” plaque is the same 8x10 plaque known in Sports as the Player Plaque.  The lab price is the same for this product in the Grad market as it is in Sports ($8.95).  The grad plaque will ship with the rest of the grad print order – a big benefit to your customers!
In terms of design, the grad version offers 2-3 lines of customizable text and you have the option of either using a “generic” grad crest or importing your school crest from your title.  The wood grain background on the print matches the wood and the gold “etched” border and beveled photo border create depth to the print. You can view the samples here.
 
For purposes of setting your retail price, please consider the packaging cost of $1.57 (bag, cardboard, box, bubble wrap, tape and labor).  Shipping costs will vary depending on the delivery address, but below are ranges based on the 3 available shipping options:
 
USPS – Priority Mail - $3.95 to $5.75
DHL Express - $10.00
DHL Ground - $4.87 to $6.20

New Grad Borders
The solid and fade borders, previously only in the Quicpics market, will also be in the Grad market early next week (5x7, 8x10 and 10x14).  These options give you the ability to coordinate your product to school colors, if you wish, creating a more customized look.  Also new is the grad collage border.  This border incorporates many of the “collegiate” design elements (tassel, cap & gown, etc) of the grad collage product into a border.  The grad collage border comes in red, green, sepia, blue and black/white.
 
Samples of all new grad products above can be ordered from www.picmyphotos.com, password samplesamples.

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Create an Online House Billing System Using Gift Certificates

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2 UP 5x7s Available in QP2 Grad
by Brad Hurley

The 2up 5x7 is now available in QP2 Grad, and will be available in CORE Grad by November 7th.  Be sure to take advantage of the cost savings associated with this product when offering lamination.
 
Did you know by combining two single 5x7s into one 8x10 unit of 2-5x7s you could save money? The print price is the same but the price for lamination is different. Why? Each print must be fed through the laminator separately and then all sides must be trimmed of lamination. So, two single 5x7s would have 8 sides trimmed vs. only 4 sides on a unit of 2-5x7s. Therefore, the price of 2 single 5x7s is more than 1 unit of 2-5x7s.
 
For example:

2 Single 5x7s	1 - 8x10 Unit of 2-5x7s
5x7 print = $1.13 x 2 = $2.26	2-5x7 unit = $2.26
5x7 lamination = $ .32 x 2 = $ .64	8x10 lamination = $ .43
6x8.5 envelope = $ .065	9x11.5 envelope = $ .085
Total = $2.965	Total = $2.775

   
    A difference of $ .19!

If the two 5x7s are in a package that includes an 8x10, or an order that also contains an 8x10, the savings would be $ .21 since the order would be placed in a 9x11.5 envelope anyway. If you have packages containing multiple 5x7s you could save the following:

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Package of 4 - 5x7s = $ .38 or $ .40 (if order also contains an 8x10)
Package of 6 - 5x7s = $ .57 or $ .59 (if order also contains an 8x10)
Package of 8 - 5x7s = $ .76 or $ .78 (if order also contains an 8x10)
 
If you have packages that contain and odd number of 5x7s you can still save. For example you could set up a package with five 5x7s by creating the package with
2 units of 2-5x7s and 1 single 5x7. Therefore, you would save $ .38!

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Talking A Walk On the Spec Side!
by Brian Speers

Recently, CCS customers Mark and Maggie Smith of Empire Photos in Madison, WI

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had a serendipitous marketing adventure photographing a youth soccer league that he had shot previously in 2004.  As one of CCS’s largest sports customers, Mark has carved out his niche in America’s Dairyland by mostly concentrating on the secondary school sports market; photographing high school and middle school teams throughout Wisconsin.
 
In nearly all of his team and individual events Mark uses a speculative marketing system; photographing all members of each team and then emailing and snailmailing proofs to the home so that they can order online, by phone or fax, or by mailing in their orders, much like a graduation.
 
Like most CCS customers—when photographing youth leagues—Mark offers a pre-pay method of payment.  However, for this particular league Mark had forgotten to order the pre-pay envelopes from the printer (whoops!) and was forced to employ his speculative marketing program. 
 
To assist with order cards at the event, the soccer association gave Mark an Excel file with the names and addresses sorted by team.  His office staff then made labels for ID cards which got handed to the coaches to distribute to each player.  The card has two locations for email addresses (remember, there are divorced parents) and the cards are collected by the photographer at the time each player is photographed.
 
For years CCS has advocated the pre-pay system for all youth sports teams for several reasons.  It’s simple, virtually risk-free, money is collected up front, and this method generally yields higher sales than speculation.  Speculative shooting, in contrast, also has its advantages like shooting more poses of each athlete, everyone gets to be photographed, and coaches don’t have to distribute order envelopes prior to the shoot.  The other big advantage for parents is that they get to see the photograph before they place their order, and get to choose from a variety of poses.
 
Though we are not advocating that all pre-pay scenarios immediately switch to speculation, there is reason to believe that, perhaps, in the right league and in the right community it could—could—be beneficial to experiment.
 

Now this is where it gets interesting!  Since Mark had shot this league last year he had accurate statistics to put side by side and, well, what a difference a year makes!  As of today, here are the comparisons:
 

2004	2005
703 orders	471 orders out of 738 photographed
$13,000 in sales	$13,662 in sales
$18.49 average order	$29.00 average order

                                                        
Statistically speaking, there are some conspicuous revelations.  Namely, the number of orders is down 33%; but the average order was up $10.51, or 57%; with an overall increase in sales of 5%!
 
Of the orders received, 28% were placed online and 72% came through their office for order entry.
According to Mark, this shoot was so recent that the second (and subsequent) emails reminding people to order haven’t even been sent out yet.  He truly expects to do an additional $2,500 to $3,000 in total sales.
 
So how can all of this information benefit you?  Here are a few ideas:
 
Competitive Situation
If you are bidding on an account and you already know that your competitor markets his products and services using a pre-pay system, you could offer a speculative method as an alternate way of accomplishing the same goal. 
The selling points:
• Everyone gets to see their proofs before they buy.
• Everyone gets photographed; no one is left out.
• Multiple poses of each child; more poses from which to choose.
• Hassle free - No passing out of order envelopes.
• Convenient - All orders are mailed directly to the customer.
 
Backroom Labor
If you are already using a pre-pay method you know that it can be very time-consuming and labor intensive, especially returning from a shoot and doing order entry.  Unfortunately, that is an essential part of the pre-pay system and one of the fundamentals of this virtually risk-free marketing method.  Using speculation, which has a shadow of risk by its very name, you can eliminate a large part of your order entry process—and labor—by allowing your customers to place their own orders online saving you time and money.
 
Though each marketing method has its advantages and disadvantages you have to decide for yourself when to employ either one.  What works in one league may not work for another; what works for one age group may not be sensible for another.  Knowledge of your customer base is your best indicator of which way will be most successful for your business.

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Congratulations to CCS customer, Tom Davis. 
Tom recently completed the 7 mile Falmouth Road Race, which benefited the
RHCI Rehab Hospital. 

This great image of Tom was captured by another CCS customer, Marathon Foto!

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The New CORE Proms Module Offers Time Savings For You And Batching Benefits for Your Schools! by Denise Mangiante


New CORE Proms Module! 
We have put a lot of work into the new CORE Proms module, and it paid off!  This order entry system allows you to key your orders at lightning speed. This module will be available the week of November 7th. 

Here is how it works:
 
1 Set up your offers in CORE.
2 Set up your event in CORE.
3 Choose your shipping and tax rates.
4 Set your titles and crests.
5 Download your images (from CORE Thumbs or from Candid).
6 Key your orders.
 
Features in Prom Order Entry

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• View packages underneath thumbnail along with total number of orders.
• Spot image while you key the order! 
• Short cut keys to specific fields (i.e. alt+E to get to email, alt+N for new order). 
• Collect and batch by homeroom. 
• Auto-complete name and homeroom feature. 
• Collect cashier sales if you are paying on commission. 

Why is CORE Proms better than keying orders in QP2? 
1.  Batching the prints by homeroom can be a huge selling point to potential schools.  A lot of schools are receiving their prints in no specific order and the school is left to sort through the stack of prints.  This may be your open door into the big event.
2.  If you are keying orders into CORE, you are not relying on your internet connection.  You are relying on only the speed of your machine.
3.  The order entry system is much more simple than qp2, this makes it faster!

If you would like to use this new module, please contact customer support.

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New Sample Event Password
by Blake Whitney

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CCS Service Times for the Week of October 23 - 29
by Bo Lewis