Photo Books : Never Too Late for Profits
Getting the photo book bandwagon rolling wasn’t difficult, but the online storefront aspect provided its share of headaches. Its first entry point solution worked fine, but proved to be too limited in the long run, so the firm turned to a developer. CCM wanted to differentiate itself and have a greater variety of templates available. In the end, the company partnered with a photo book software developer that had the ability to embed and activate the unique templates that CCM and its affiliates require.
There were no real obstacles for CCM to overcome from a production standpoint. The company already had Xerox iGen3 and iGen4 digital color presses in place, and turned to Powis Parker to acquire the necessary bindery gear. “Other than the software, there’s really nothing needed to move into the space,” Cayo observes.
In taking on the business-to-consumer (B2C) segment, CCM found itself in foreign territory, according to Cayo. “It’s a whole different marketplace that requires a different approach,” he notes. “It requires large investments in marketing through the Internet, pushing up through Google. It’s a whole different ball game that we’re still not totally comfortable with yet.”
Cayo & Co. have been more in their element marketing B2B on a regional basis, building relationships with organizations such as the universities of Tennessee, South Florida and Central Florida. By white labeling affinity groups and developing custom sports templates for the universities, CCM can sidestep the crowded national market.
“We don’t believe we can compete effectively with the five or six (national) organizations out there; they’re buying up market share,” Cayo adds. “Shutterfly spends between $8 and $10 a user to get them signed up. It’s very expensive to go out and try to buy that business, so our approach is more toward developing vertical markets and targeting those marketplaces. That’s why we’re required to use different templates, to find an inexpensive way to build a landing page for the affinity group.”
