TakeAway: For years Kodak’s photo kiosks received little traffic as people decided that they’d rather print at home or keep their photos in digital form.
Now Kodak has caught on that consumers are interesting in specialty printing, such as collages, so the company is updating its kiosks for this functionality.
It’s an insight that the company hopes will change its stodgy brand association into something more cutting edge. But there’s a catch. You have to buy a mat or a frame.
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Excerpted from Brandchannel, “Kodak Touts Innovations at Photokina,” by Barry Silverstein, September 21, 2010
Kodak, a brand name that may find it a major challenge to shake its association with conventional photography, is doing everything it can to become a hip, socially aware digital photography provider. …
Kodak’s latest entry into the “cool, hot and worthy” category was unveiled this week … The company’s new retailer photo kiosk “automatically enlarges, shrinks, crops, aligns and arranges as many as 13 images on one print.”
… The new “collage option” software will be introduced in December at some 5,000 CVS stores in the US.
There is one catch … The consumer is required to purchase a mat, or a frame with a mat, along with the collage. …
“Most creative collage systems in the market don’t really take the presentation into account — you create the collage but then you have to mount or frame it. Kodak is taking it all the way to the wall,” …
While traditional photo prints have dropped in popularity because of digital photography, specialty printing is now booming for that very same reason.
Specialty sales of such items as posters, postcards and t-shirts made from digital images have increased from $738 million in 2006 to $1.3 billion last year.
Clearly, Kodak is looking to create its own “Kodak moment” and ride the wave with specialty photography products of its own.
Edit by DMG
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Full Article
http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2010/09/21/Kodak-Photokina-Collage.aspx
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