Adorama's business model is as much about educating the vast array of New York City photographers as it is about selling them the latest gear. Like any good educator, Adorama continually expands its curriculum—and product lines—while focusing on a core subject, which happens to be anything related to digital imaging.
“We focus on what differentiates us from the competition,” said Brian Green, Adorama's vice president of marketing. “We have PCs, TVs and a full line of electronics, but what differentiates us is that we do it tied to imaging. During the past year, we've been focused on truly educating our customers on the cutting edge of imaging.”
To achieve its mission of being the go-to digital imaging supplier in a city that boasts extremely strong competitors—such as J&R and B&H, not to mention hundreds of other photo/CE retailers on just about every block—Adorama has had a busy year, one that has set it apart from many retailers in the imaging/CE space.
Out of its six-story, 25,000-square-foot headquarters at 42 West 18th St. in Manhattan, the company brought on PCs, notebooks and netbooks from such manufacturers as Dell, Sony, Asus, HP and Toshiba; increased its line of Apple products and related add-ons; added a full line of flat-panel TVs from the likes of LG, Samsung, Coby, Toshiba, Sony and Vizio; and bolstered its digital storage offerings, MP3 –players, mobile phones and wireless connectivity gear.
“Our point of entry is imaging, but you can mix and match any of [our] products with our core competency,” said Ahron Schachter, the company's director of strategic planning. “It's all focused on making bundles and packages.”
Adorama's latest efforts have led to new customers and sales, with the PC and notebook categories representing about 7 percent in sales and flat-panel TVs representing about 15 percent. Adorama's sales increased about 16 percent in 2009 to $157 million from $135 million in 2008, according to Dealerscope's annual Top 101 CE Retailer list. Adorama's online sales now represent about 70 percent of business, while its corporate and government sales account for about 20 percent, Schachter said.
“We've been building a loyal customer base for 30 years,” he said. “We believe we bring something to the table that the others don't. That has led to incremental sales, because we own that customer and we're able lead them to new –technologies.”
As part of Adorama's new education initiative, the company developed AdoramaTV under its Adorama Learning Center umbrella. The shows, which typically last about five minutes, feature regularly posted episodes for series such as “Digital Photography 1 on 1,” “Product Reviews,” “How They Do That,” “App Reviews” and others. “We want people to understand the full potential of digital photography,” Green said.
The company earlier last year also began a series of promotional campaigns designed to build community, attract new users and lead traditional customers to the latest technologies. The first of those campaigns—the APPOS, designed to showcase what customers can do with photo editing apps, and the iPhone Photography Contest—attracted about 2,000 entries, Schachter said.
“We don't look at Apple as having sold 1.4 million phones,” he said. “We look at them as selling 1.4 million cameras.”
Adorama also hosts about 200 seminars a year for amateur to professional photographers on traditional and digital imaging techniques and products.
To improve the in-store shopping experience, Adorama has added kiosks that display information when customers choose a particular product. To drive more traffic to the store and website, Adorama has worked to increase its presence on foursquare, a social networking platform; Yelp; BizRate; and others.
“It's about giving the customer what they need and when they want it,” Green said. “We want people in the community to know that we're not just here as a retailer, but as an educator.”
If it's true that education can unlock the future, then Adorama might be holding the right key.
“Will an educated consumer buy today? Maybe not,” Schachter said. “But they will remember the company that took the time to teach them and to plant the seed.”
