Sep 9, 2004, 21:05
Ok, I went to the Kodak Focus Event last night held in Melbourne (they're running a them in every capital city in Australia), and it was quite good. Good turnout - I would estimate about 100 people, of photographers, lab owners, and people from the photographic industry. Overall, the main purpose I guess was to push Kodak professional products and tell you their marketing strategy, but it was a good experience to see what goes on in the "pro" world.
From the outset, they told us that Kodak were rebranding themselves as a "Digital" company - they would still continue to support film but they're aligning their business units and marketing strategy to selling digital, in terms of cameras and accessories, printers, paper and photographic material, and support services. It was interesting to note that since May 2003, they have been the leader in term of market share, with Digital.
There were five main presenters that night:
* The first was Simon Shih, their Asia Pacific marketing manager, who gave 10 tips for digital photographers, thinly disguised as "10 reasons why you should use Kodak PhotoDesk" (their desktop software). He had some good points, such as using RAW, adjusting colour balance and exposure compensation (shadow, midtone, highlights) etc.
* The 2nd was a manager of a camera repair shop, who told us alot about servicing and support for Kodak cameras. I thought his presentation was the best out of the lot - only because he had such a wealth of information, from memory cards and tips on handling them properly, to external / slave flashes and timing, to flash leads and funny stories about people getting electrocuted with them.
* Another presenter told us about Kodak's new range of dye sub printers - ranging from high volume / ultra high quality $35,000 a pop ones, to $1700 ones which were for medium volume high quality ones. One scenario he pointed out - wedding photographers could set up a machine on site, and have 8x10 prints to all guests by the end of the night, and also generate extra revenue from the guests that way.
* There was also a presenter from ProShots - who demonstrated their ordering software (where you can send prints directly to pro labs from your home computer), and also the online shop version where they set up a site for you where people can order prints off.
* Finally, they had a guy talk about kodak's new line of professional inkjet papers -- which looked really good.
They also had some DCS Pro SLRs on the table, dye sub printers, demo prints and other gear lying around which people could play with.
All in all, I had great fun - got my business out to a few people (including the marketing manager for Kodak) and also picked up a free showbag (camera case, cd wallet, promotional material etc.). A worthwhile event... can't wait till the next one.
From the outset, they told us that Kodak were rebranding themselves as a "Digital" company - they would still continue to support film but they're aligning their business units and marketing strategy to selling digital, in terms of cameras and accessories, printers, paper and photographic material, and support services. It was interesting to note that since May 2003, they have been the leader in term of market share, with Digital.
There were five main presenters that night:
* The first was Simon Shih, their Asia Pacific marketing manager, who gave 10 tips for digital photographers, thinly disguised as "10 reasons why you should use Kodak PhotoDesk" (their desktop software). He had some good points, such as using RAW, adjusting colour balance and exposure compensation (shadow, midtone, highlights) etc.
* The 2nd was a manager of a camera repair shop, who told us alot about servicing and support for Kodak cameras. I thought his presentation was the best out of the lot - only because he had such a wealth of information, from memory cards and tips on handling them properly, to external / slave flashes and timing, to flash leads and funny stories about people getting electrocuted with them.
* Another presenter told us about Kodak's new range of dye sub printers - ranging from high volume / ultra high quality $35,000 a pop ones, to $1700 ones which were for medium volume high quality ones. One scenario he pointed out - wedding photographers could set up a machine on site, and have 8x10 prints to all guests by the end of the night, and also generate extra revenue from the guests that way.
* There was also a presenter from ProShots - who demonstrated their ordering software (where you can send prints directly to pro labs from your home computer), and also the online shop version where they set up a site for you where people can order prints off.
* Finally, they had a guy talk about kodak's new line of professional inkjet papers -- which looked really good.
They also had some DCS Pro SLRs on the table, dye sub printers, demo prints and other gear lying around which people could play with.
All in all, I had great fun - got my business out to a few people (including the marketing manager for Kodak) and also picked up a free showbag (camera case, cd wallet, promotional material etc.). A worthwhile event... can't wait till the next one.
(10 would be 2 rows on onehalf ofthe room! hahaa)