Candid
Color Systems • 1300 Metropolitan Ave. OKC, OK 73108
• 1-800-336-4550
This
is a printable version.
November
17th,
2006 More Refinements to the Hot Markets Program by Kyp
Hardaway
All of us at Candid Color Systems would like to see a resurgence
of the Greek Party Picture and High School Party Picture markets,
since these markets put us all in business. In our continuing
efforts to make these markets more attractive and more profitable
for you, we launched the Hot Market program.
The intent of this program was to provide you with a 4x6,
5x7 and 8x10 Party Pic that would be priced at a certain percentage
of your retail sales price, rather than a fixed price. We
had hoped that this would allow you to set low prices in competitive
situations, to help you, and us, earn new business.
Over the past few years, we have continued to refine the program
and lower the percentage that we charged. With the latest
changes, we were charging 25% of your retail sales price for
the prints and web hosting, and 3% for payment processing.
Most customers liked the lower price, but wanted to sell other
products to their customers, besides the standard 4x6, 5x7
and 8x10. We have some customers who like the low charges
for one of the three prints, but charge more for the 8x10,
and would like some flexibility there. Many customers wanted
to set up packages that included several of the Hot Market
and standard Quicpic market products. This has created a programming
nightmare for our QP programmers, trying to determine when
to charge 25%, when to charge standard prices, when to charge
hosting fees, etc.
After considering all of this, we stepped back from the whole
thing to get a broader perspective, and decided that what
we really are trying to do is give you a way to have an attractive
price for your 4x6, which is by far the highest volume Party
Picture, and then allow you to sell other prints and products
at a fair price to make money in this market. We also want
you to be able to make money on the shipping and handling
charges, as always.
So, effective November 22, 2006, we are going to terminate
the Hot Market program. We are lowering the price of a 4x6
Party Picture to $0.49. This will make it easier for you to
set up your Party Pics® events,
and it will also make it easier for you to determine and evaluate
your margins. You will also be able to change the price of
a product during the time an event is online, and not be charged
a percentage of the increased price. You will also be able
to set up packages that include any of the Quicpic market
products you want to include. Additionally, with this new,
lower price on the 4x6, your sales of 4x6 prints will be more
profitable at ALL retail price points, not just when your
retail price is set very low. Any event that you have set
up prior to 11/22/2006, as a Hot Market event, will continue
as a Hot Market event until that event expires.
We think that our current Party Pics® offering
is already the best overall deal out there, and this lower
price on the 4x6 will make it even better. Low print prices,
combined with low online hosting charges as low as 5%, great
image quality, a broad range of products, very fast delivery
directly to your customers, and you profit from the print
sales AND you profit from the shipping and handling charges.
How could it get any better?
This is how: coming soon will be the ability to sell high
resolution and low resolution images online. Are your customers
carrying iPods and camera phones with images on them? Then
they’ll be wanting your digital images, and you’ll
be able to provide them. We are currently in beta with this,
and will be rolling it out in the Party Pics®
market soon.
My name is Jessica Braun and I work in Customer Development
as a Greek Specialist. I recently graduated from the University
of Oklahoma (OU) in May of 2006 with degrees in International
Business and Marketing and a minor in Spanish.
I spent most of my summer in a small town outside of Madrid,
Spain before starting at Candid in mid-July. The month of
October I helped to manage the Party Pics®
store that serves the campus of OU in Norman, OK. The majority
of the time I spent there was working with the fraternities
and sororities of OU, Tulsa, Oklahoma City University, the
University of Central Oklahoma and East Central University
in Ada. I learned how to shoot pictures, both Party Pics®
and group pictures, as well as practice my management and
sales skills.
My time in Norman was essential in learning the software programs
that are used by Candid and our customers such as CORE, QEMS,
and QP2. After 2 months in customer service and one in Norman,
I am looking forward to finally working in the sales department
and getting to travel around the United States supporting
CCS customers and helping them to grow their business.
My name is Evie Sibert and I’ve been with Candid Color
Systems for six months, and have recently moved to the Customer
Development Department after an extensive training program
in customer service and software applications. In August and
September I had the opportunity to assist at several bid days
at various campuses around the country.
Prior to working for CCS, I was employed in Dallas TX, where
I worked for 4 years as a marketing representative for a property
management company. In that position I specialized in advertising
and website design.
In the Customer Development Department I will be assisting
customers with marketing, sales, and support. My special area
of concentration is in the PPS market, working with LabPrints
and Maestro.
In the future I look forward to working with you. Feel free
to call me at: 800-336-4550 ext. 377, or email
me.
In an effort to further expand our product offering in the
Grad Market, several new
Click
products will be active in CORE and QP+ Grad on November 20th.
Some of these products, like mounting and canvassing, provide
a way to offer a more premium product to your grad customers
thus increasing the average purchase. Many of you have experienced
the success of offering Pearlized Paper and Retouching on
your graduation events in recent seasons in this same way.
Some of the other new products being added, like mousepads,
magnets, calendars and “Just Graduated” greeting
cards are perfect reasons for follow up emails to your grads
promoting “new products now available” thus generating
reorder revenue. With December grads approaching, you may
choose to add some of these products to your current mix and
email campaigns.
Click
The lab pricing for these new products is as follows : Mounting Only
(Single Weight Mat Board for up to 11x14, Foam Board for 16x20)
8x10- $2.50, 10x13 - $3.20, 10x14 - $3.30, 11x14 - $3.60, 16x20
-$14.27 Canvas + Mounting
8x10 - $24.25, 10x13 - $29.76, 10x14 - $30.37, 11x14 - $30.62,
16x20- $42.54 Magnets - (non-bordered, 2.6”x3.6”)
- $1.25 Mousepads - $9.27
Calendars (8x10) - $2.52 “Just Graduated” Greeting Cards
- $5.52 (12), $9.20 (20)
NEW QP2 Groups
Market Available
The QP2 Groups Market will be activated Monday, November 20th
and will operate independently of CORE Groups. This market
can be used for manual order entry ONLY for basic group products
ranging from 5x7’s up to 20x24’s with lamination
options. There is no retail online ordering component for
this market; it is strictly meant as a simple manual order
entry method for groups. An updated price list had been posted
to Candidnet/training/QP2 with this QP2 Groups pricing. If
you need to order group products with designer borders or
other product enhancements, please contact Support for information
on CORE Groups.
February 26 and 27: Have You Marked Your Calendar Yet?
by Brian Speers
We’re just a little more than three months removed from
the beginning of the Candid Color Systems
Winter Seminar. The 2007 version of this annual event will
take place on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in tropical,
yet cosmopolitan, Miami Beach. The dates
for this year’s excursion are Monday and Tuesday,
February 26-27 with optional training sessions scheduled
for Sunday, February 25.
The setting for this extravaganza of information, technology,
winter warmth, and entertaining evenings is the Eden
Roc Hotel in Miami Beach. Perfectly
situated on the sugary, white sand beaches of the Sunshine
State, the Eden Roc offers all the amenities you would expect
from a first-rate beachfront hotel including an oceanfront
spa, two oceanfront pools (an oxymoron, perhaps?), and oversized
guest rooms and suites with ocean views.
Room rates for this Floridian adventure are $169 per night;
a reasonable rate considering we’ll be in Miami Beach
at the height of the winter season. The deadline
to reserve a room at the Eden Roc is January 25th.
Candid Color Systems customers and associates will gather
to hear the latest sales and marketing success stories; discover
what CCS has rising on the horizon relating to technology
and equipment; and absorb the culture that is exclusively
Miami Beach. The agenda for the meetings will appear in the
next newsletter. There is still time to make you request for
topics and break-out sessions. Please send those comments
to Brian Speers or
Dana Hill. We look forward
to a great turnout and a lot of FUN!
Party Pics® declining sales:
Fact or Fiction? by Darwin
Drake
The fact is people still love their Party Pics®.
The myth is that it's as easy as it used to be.
With people at events using their own digital cameras, printing
more pictures on their computers and at Wal-Mart, you, as
a professional photographer must produce and deliver a better
product. You have to shoot many more pictures than them and
you have to shoot a wide variety of pictures.
Are you able to produce a better photo than the other people
at the event? Take a look at your equipment. Can your camera
produce a better photograph than your customer's camera? Will
it be sharper and well-lit,and does it look professional?
If not, you may have a problem and you should fix it.
Are you uploading your event images immediately after the
event? The same day or evening? You could lose creditability
and probably some sales if they are not up by 8:00 am like
you told the event organizers.
See if you are meeting your predetermined shooting goals by
tracking each of your photographer's productivity. At a predetermined
time does your photographer know that he or she is on target
or under goal? You need to keep track if you are not sure
because the time to find out that they are not meeting goals
is not during or after the event. Set the goals for your photographers
and monitor and follow up to see if they have been met.
As you know, in the past we had to knock on doors to book
the event, drop off contact proofs after the event and return
later to pick up orders. Now, with the internet we have a
much simpler and less time-consuming alternative: we can e-mail
our clients as soon as the images are posted on-line and we
can use custom banners on top of the web pages to communicate
even-specific messages to them.
Even with the ease internet you still have to work to generate
sales.
You have to have collect authentic email addresses, post the
images directly after the event and make sure you only post
good, professional looking images and notify people the images
are available on-line. Take the time to inform your customers
about your on-line guidelines Greek markets are available
at your lowest price for for 14 days after the event. The
incentive is to get them to buy today and increase the purchase
price by $.50 after the deadline. After 2 weeks expire the
event until a reorder week at the end of the semester, (of
course a higher price).
High School students don't have the opportunity as often as
Greeks to buy pictures so don't expire those events as fast.
Go to the schools andhang posters in the halls advertising
that proofs are here and display proofs to generate some excitement.
Be clear about telling them how and where to order pictures.
Use a tier pricing approach by date, prices go up after 14
days but publish the pricing so everyone understands that
if they buy today it will save them money. You can also market
coupons to student groups. Example: the Pep Club buys 100
coupons from you at $2.00 each and they can sell them to students
for $2.50 each. Now THEY can profit!
Take these steps to on-line sales success:
• Meet your basic photography goals: shoot fast and
shoot good.
• Upload only quality images and upload them quickly.
• Send e-mails that proofs are active and when the deadline
for ordering is.
• Send another e-mail later telling them that they cay
save money by ordering before the deadline, and show your
tier pricing.
• E-mail them a third time stating the the event deadline
is days away and offer additional options such as holiday
specials, cards, larger prints etc.
Sure, you do less legwork nowadays because of the internet
and digital photography and email. But you still need to deliver
a good proof and quality photograph. Follow through with your
customers and offer them incentives to purchase now.
The fact is, people still love Party Pics®.
The myth is that it's as easy as it used to be. Attention: CCS Customers using your own website to
link to QP2 events.
by Demetri
Barges
If you are currently linking to QP2 events using one of
the three links below you need to change your link. The
reason for the change is the old link is currently running
an old and outdated application that is no longer supported.
If you have any questions please contact customer support.
Updated CCS Contact Numbers
Customer Support - 800-750-0494 (In
the phone menu)
• Option 1- Customer Service Reps For all questions concerning order status, reorders,
ordering supplies
Hours of Operation
• Monday – Saturday 8:00 am – 8:00 pm CST
• Sunday 8:00 am – 6:00 pm CST
After hours paging service is available for software emergencies.
If you reach our after hours support voice mail, leave a message
with your name, account name, account number, telephone number
and the nature of the emergency. A representative will be
paged (24-hour service) and they will return your call within
30 minutes. If you have not received a call back in 30 minutes,
please call 405-819-7604.
Marketing Material Orders - 800-336-4550 ext. 270
Hours of Operation
* Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm CST
Orders must be received by 3:00pm CST to ship the same day
(depending on availability).
Accounting - 800-336-4550 ext. 248
Hours of Operation
• Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm CST
For questions concerning your account balances, weekly bank
drafts and quicpics Reconciliation reports.
Customer Development – 800-336-4550
Hours of Operation
• Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm CST
For questions on booking events, marketing strategies &
other sales related questions.
