articles/Paper/therealsocialmedia-page2
Published 01/08/2011
A catalogue of innovations
To help those both new to the profession, plus established names who are having to work harder to maintain their share of the market, Loxley Colour is spending time promoting new products to give them inspiration.
"There is still money out there that clients want to spend on family portraiture and weddings - the confidence is coming back, slowly but surely and our focus is to find ways of helping our clients regain their confidence in this unique industry. Times have changed and there are many things that can be done to drive everyone forward. As long as photographers remain focused on that and we keep our focus on bringing them new products and helping them to look after their business, we see a bright future." The great criticism of digital has been that it's stopped people printing photographs as much as they used to. For wedding and portrait photographers that's never decisively changed. "No it hasn't," agrees Chris. "We identified that we had to find a way to perpetuate printing in its various forms and that has been in the form of bespoke software, new imaging products and a very competitive and well established range of wedding and portrait albums - anything that will assist the photographer in up-selling.
We've always strived to enable our clients to reach new heights in their field. We operate an intensive R&D program and are always thinking what unique product or service comes next before the market stagnates.
In terms of where Loxley Colour's product ideas come from, Chris puts these down to traditional brainstorming sessions. "We'll think about using different materials for a certain product or adapting an idea that will benefit our clients. We get massive inspiration from what's out there in the market place. Even walking through a department store we'll find something that could inspire a new product or service for our industry. Everybody's has different ideas of what they want and it's our job to make it work for our client base."
Unsurprisingly, the Loxley Colour team find it impossible to switch off. Instead of planning three, four, five, six months ahead, they're looking to 2013/14 and continuing to talk to people about what's happening in the industry to keep their finger on the pulse.
In terms of Loxley's most popular product ranges, Chris is hard pushed to pinpoint one single thing. It is a creative mixture of innovation, embracing new technologies and real insight into this ever changing industry.
Bellissimo and Artemis albums are very well known now in the industry and account for a sizeable chunk of our business. Growing steadily with new paper, sizes and cover style options, including aluminium, boudoir and faux suede options we will continue inspiring our clients with many new ideas in the coming months.
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