Incredible as it seems to those of us required to work trade show floors for business, some real people actually pay to stroll through carpeted convention halls…for fun. Case in point: PhotoPlus Expo, an annual conference for photographers of all levels, held at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. 27,000 photo pros and enthusiasts flooded PPE this year, crowding the Apple, Sony, Canon, Epson, Nikon, Olympus, and Pentax booths (and browsing 300 others), taking careful notes at tech-tip seminars, and, of course, shooting everything that glistened. Though the attendees skew pro, and, thus, more likely to drop big bucks on equipment than the average digicam consumer, their interests and needs are often a predictor of the products and services imaging enthusiasts (especially the over 2 million Americans who now have their own D-SLR’s) will be asking for next. Here are 5 potentially-profitable trends spotted on the showfloor at the 2007 PPE:
1. They’re ready to buy alternative storage.
A majority of Americans have been shooting digital images for over four years now, and guess where all those shots are piling up? Right on the hard drive. 67% of digicam owners are still using their primary computer as a warehouse for images, according to Liz Cutting, Senior Imaging Analyst for the NPD group. But over the last year, the percentage of people investing in an external hard-drive to clear up the clutter went grew from 13 to 20%.
“Retailers are the ones who can drive the realization that digital images are not going to last forever on hard drives,” says Cutting. “I think people are ready to be smarter about storage, and to invest in other options.”
Options at PPE included a variety external drives, memory cards, CD’s, DVD’s, and flash-based devices, all accessory items with substantial profit margins.
2. Boring bags are history.
Camera bag companies have traditionally pushed functionality over fashion, but no longer. Photographers are asking for—and getting—a hip new generation of cushy-interiored cases that could easily double as messenger bags, man-purses, adventure-ready backpacks and designer handbags.
Jill Dorn, founder of jill-e, a brand new company that calls itself “the Coach of the industry,” says the growing numbers of female photo-pro’s are sick of black nylon and forest-green canvas. These days, she says, they’re looking for leather and suede.
“Professional shooters told us that their bags were sometimes a target at weddings,” says Dorn. “With camera bags that look more like purses, they are less likely to get ripped off.”
Dorn, who’s designed stylish cases from “wristlets” for pocket-sized cameras to suede rolling camera bags bit enough to protect 2 camera bodies, 2 flashes, 2 lenses and a laptop too, believes consumers are more willing than ever to pay more for this particular accessory.
3. Hot among creative-types: photo books and fancy papers.
It’s not just scrapbookers who will invest in high-margin consumables like ink, fine art paper, and a plethora of photo-book products/services. Wedding photogs, art students, teenagers, and young urban professionals are interested in elegant new ways to display their images. Gregory Schern, the director of digital imaging for Legion Paper, says prosumers especially are looking for products that will turn pix into works of art, whether it’s a framed print or a coffee table book.
“When people buy a camera, they don’t have to come back,” says Schern, “but papers, portfolios and books get customers back into the store. We’re seeing a rise in the demand for high-end printing, especially among people who’ve been using D-SLR’s for more than two or three years.”
4. “The camera has married the computer.” (Quote from Alan Gelman, a Bogen Imaging rep)
