Phoebe's Photo Studio
Opportunity
Problem & Solution
Problem Worth Solving
Families need photographs to capture the special moments of their lives. Families of professionals are busy, and if too much time goes by between photos, these moments are lost forever. Babies, especially, grow fast and parents need photos of them several times a year.
While nearly everyone has a camera for snapshots, people need professional quality photos when they will be shown to an important audience, and when people want to be seen in the best light. The Internet has expanded the use of photos, making it possible for anyone to send them or to publish them for wide viewing.
Professionals often have business needs for high-quality photos, and through this familiarity, they acquire a taste for them. When these professionals need photos to preserve memories, or to display family photos when they entertain at home, they have the budget and the desire for similarly high-quality photos. Just as they appoint their homes with fine furniture and decorations, the photos on their walls need to exhibit their standards of quality.
Most people use professional photo studios only on rare occasions, such as weddings, yearbook pictures, or baby portraits. Because the client has to initiate the call, many special moments are lost and the studio loses potential business. Photo studios generally charge a large fee for CDs of their clients’ digital images. For these reasons, most photo studios are rarely used by families as a whole.
Our Solution
Phoebe’s Photo Studio helps clients preserve memories and portray themselves in the best light. We thrive on repeat business by developing relationships with our clients and calling them with timely reminders for new photos. We make professional quality photographs easily available in a digital format. We do this by using a pricing structure that makes our digital photographs a household staple and by making it fun for them to come here or to have us in their homes.
Target Market
Market Size & Segments
Families with children are the biggest market for portraits. For the purpose of this analysis, these families are divided into three socio-economic categories:
- College graduates
- High school graduates
- Non-graduates
Families of college graduates are most likely to be professionals and to have the means and the taste for professional portraits. There are nearly 20,000 such families in the metropolitan area.
We will target female professionals and wives of professionals, because women make the majority of purchasing decisions in these families.
The competitive environment is divided between luxury magazine-quality photographers, moderate professional photographers who mostly pose their subjects, and same-day photo studios.
The trend among our targeted consumers is toward more digital photography and more sending of digital images on the Internet. As the world becomes more technical, people need more personal support.
Phoebe’s Photo Studio will use a "high-tech, high-touch" approach to reach and retain clients for their ongoing photo needs. We will make it affordable and easy for them to disseminate their photos electronically.
People who who pay for professional photo portraits are generally status-conscious professionals who have children, and so we’ve segmented the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area according to the social status of families. We’ve used education as a measure of social status.
Families of College Graduates
Professionals are, almost by definition, college graduates. They are the ones most likely to have a need for professional photo portraits for career purposes. They are also most likely to have the means and taste to want professional photos for their families, as well.
Families of High School Graduates
People who have not completed college are assumed to be more likely to be employees or be in a trade. While many of them may have the means for professional photos, relatively few will use them. They are more likely to use home-made photographs, except for rare occasions, such as a high school photo or wedding.
Families of Non-High-School Graduates
These are families who are generally without the means to hire professional photographers on a regular basis.
Demographics
The Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area has a total population of 330,527. There are 74,836 families.
Some 25.5 percent of the adult population in the metropolitan area is composed of college graduates, which we will here define as professionals. Some 62 percent of the population is made up of high-school graduates.
The Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area closely conforms to the boundaries of Lane County, Oregon. The office will be located in Eugene, but clients are accessible throughout Lane County through physicians’ offices. Most Lane County residents are accustomed to doing occasional business in Eugene.
Competition
Current Alternatives
Competitor X is an award-winning, highly creative photographer with a style that one would expect to find in a national magazine. His prices are the highest in the area, up to $15,000 for a wedding album. His strategy appears to be to capture the high-end market, where a magazine look is a luxury that people can afford.
Competitor Y is a more typical photographer with more staged photographs and wedding packages running up to $5,000. His strategy appears to be to occupy the middle-ground of quality and price where most of the market is likely to be.
Competitor Z offers same-day photos. This is easier to accomplish with digital processing for a studio organized around speed, but quality is necessarily sacrificed. The market for same-day photos doesn’t necessarily demand quality. Prices are average. The strategy of this studio appears to be to appeal to convenience and speed.
Our Advantages
Our competitive edge is that we provide not only a photograph, but a program of ongoing portraits to capture the special moments in a family’s life. We then make the digital images of their photos easily and affordably available for distributing on the Internet.
Keys to Success
Keys to Success
Our keys for success are:
- Target marketing for the gateway products of baby pictures, high school photos and wedding albums.
- Developing relationships with our clients through personal customer service, to turn one-time customers into lifetime clients.
- Our system of tracking clients’ ongoing needs for photos and taking the initiative to call them for appointments
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