Creative Leisure News

Technology issues that affect your business

Digital Scrapbooking: Will It Help or Hurt?

Will it inspire more photography or hurt product sales?

by CLN Readers (April 18, 2005)

In the last issue of CLN, we raised the issue of digital scrapbooking's effect on the industry. On one hand, if it makes photography and arranging photos easier and more fun, it should help. On the other hand, digital scrapbooking allows consumers to create memory "books" and post them on the Internet for the world to see � all without spending a dime on supplies.

So we asked readers to join in the discussion. Here are two responses:

1. "I say 'no' to online scrapbooking hurting the industry. Women need to use their hands and that is why scrapbooking is so popular. Typing on the computer is not nearly so satisfying as touching, tearing, gluing, folding, and looking at pretty papers.

"Online is a great way to share creations that were made by hand. We need to physically manipulate paper to actually get the calming sensation we craft for." � Lyallyn Temple, Hot Off The Press

2. "There is a certain consumer that will do digital scrapbooking. There is a place for digital scrapbooking in the scrapbooking community. There are some customers who will never give up the feel of the embellishments in their hands or the ability to create something from scratch using actual products.

"However, there are certain occasions when digital scrapbooks can be a benefit. For example, maybe an anniversary party would like to have mini scrapbook albums on the table for guests to browse during dinner. You don�t want to make 15 � 20 books, so you create them digitally. Another example is for the year-end gift for the teacher. A scrapbook would certainly be an extravagant gift; yet a digital scrapbook of the children and their activities during the year would certainly be more in line.

"There is a place for digital scrapbooking in our hands-on scrapbooking community. It just has a certain customer." � Sue Lech, Thanks for the Memories, Lake Zurich, IL

Advances in the digital memory front.

The scrapbooking trend is part of a much larger movement where people are trying to capture the details of their lives, leave a legacy, tell a story, make sense of the past and present, etc. Thought I'd pass on a few interesting things I picked out from a marketing newsletter I receive; these all pertain in some way to the memory market with a digital twist.

1. www.biowriters.net. Answer a detailed questionnaire, upload your photos, video, and audio, and you can have your biography written.

2. www.storycenter.org. Scrapbooking is one form of storytelling. This non-profit organization helps businesses and communities tell their story through digital means. The company also offers workshops to organizations and individuals.

3. www.apple.com/ipodphoto. Carry up to 25,000 photos with you on your iPod photo.

4. Camera phones are getting to be very high resolution. I read that Samsung just announced a 7megapixel camera phone; I didn't find a press release on their site and found that the cameras there were only about 1 megapixel, but the newsletter I read stated this and also said that another electronics company is working on a 6 megapixel version.

5. www.sixapart.com/typepad/features. One of several examples of sites that enable you to update your weblog (online journal/photo album) from anywhere with your mobile camera phone. � Michelle Neuhauser, Product Manager, Krylon Products Group

NY Times cites retail kiosks.

The 3/20 edition of the New York Times included an article on the increase in the use of photo kiosks for digital cameras. Some highlights:

1. The article cited a Costco in the Bronx that charged 19 cents for an unedited 4"x6" print.

2. Concord Camera in Concord, NH has five kiosks, each on a caf�-style table so customers can sip coffee while customizing their images; the store provides coloring books for their kids. The 2,600 sq.-ft. independent charges 39 to 49 cents for a standard-size print; business is so strong that the owner, Michael St. Germain, plans to add more kiosks after producing 200,000 prints last year. "Digital printing is a high-margin product," St. Germain told the Times.

3. Kodak research indicated that one-third of the 1.9 billion digital images printed in 2004 were done in retail stores.

Note: To read more about retailers having kiosks in their stores, click on Business Wise in the left-hand column, then on "Why A Kiosk Makes Sense for You" in the right-hand column.

Have any thoughts on the subject of digital photography and its effect on our industry? When the younger generation, which has grown up with computers, starts families and feels a need to collect/preserve memories, will they buy scrapbook supplies? Or is the need for touching, hands-on creating universal? Send your comments to mike@clnonline.com. To read previous columns, click on the titles in the right-hand column.

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