Photo specialty survival with Brenda DiVincenzo of IPI Member Network

Gary Pageau interviews Brenda DiVincenzo, vice president of member success, at the IPI Member Network. Brenda shares with us the latest news from IPI, plus shares tips and tactics photo specialty firms are using to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Transcript

Gary Pageau (00:10):

Hello again and welcome to the dead pixels society podcast. Today we're joined by Brenda [inaudible] from the IPI member network. Brenda has been with the organization for a long time and will be sharing with us some of the IPI programming, some of the updates on their annual meeting and what retailers can be doing now to cope with today's trying times. Hello Brenda.

Brenda DiVincenzo (00:35):

Hi Gary. How are you?

Gary Pageau (00:37):

Good, good. So tell us a little bit about yourself and how when you joined IPI and what you do there.

Brenda DiVincenzo (00:44):

Sure. I've been with IPI since 2007 and I am our vice president of member success, uh, which means pretty much anything having to do with member benefits, planning, our annual conference and anything education-wise would fall under my umbrella. Um, but we are a very small team at IPI, so lots of things overlap, but we all get our hands in a variety of, of areas. So, um, but the annual conference, definitely one of my big project areas as well as anything education-wise.

Gary Pageau (01:19):

Sure. So can you tell us a little bit for those who may not be familiar with IPI, what IPI stands for, who are the members and kind of where the members are located?

Brenda DiVincenzo (01:31):

Sure. Uh, we got our start back in 1982, um, as a networking and buying cooperative. So we are still a networking group, still a member association buying cooperative today. Uh, we also have added lots of features such as education, including our annual conference, but we educate our members on a regular basis as well as marketing on behalf of our members. Our members are independent business owners all over the world. Um, including Australia, Canada, mostly in the U S but we have some members in Mexico, in the UK as well. One in a Ruba that I'd really like to go visit just for fun. Exactly, exactly. They're, they're all in the photo printing industry. So printing is really what ties them all together, but their businesses can be very diverse. They could also be a camera store, a portrait studio, a sports event photographer. But they all do their own printing is what really pulls them together. Many of them have a retail store, but not everyone.

Gary Pageau (02:34):

Okay. So you talked a little bit about, uh, the annual meeting. So let's touch on that. Um, uh, when is it, uh, where is it and, uh, what kind of that program is it is expected there.

Brenda DiVincenzo (02:48):

Right now we are scheduled for July 12th through the 16th at red rock resort in Las Vegas. Um, obviously with the current situation, we're still weighing out that's going to affect everyone and what we'll need to do there. But we're still scheduled for July at this point. Um, what we do is we come together for three full days of educational program programming. So we'll have, and we'll sessions of things that relate to all of our business owners. And then we have breakout sessions that are very specific to different kinds of, um, things that they need to participate in, whether that's marketing their business or actual production type items. We have a trade show, it's two half days within there. So there's a nice break. You can go from a general session to a breakout to the trade show. You're not, um, you kind of, your brain kind of gets a little break and an experience on the, on the journey.

Brenda DiVincenzo (03:42):

And we have about 50 or so vendors that come together that are very targeted and specific to our member needs, but usually offer incredible discounts and savings and specials. And then pretty much, I think everyone's favorite part of the event is all the networking, just being trapped in one place together and being able to enjoy meals together and really have that comradery. Our members are unique in that they love to share with each other. There's really not that sense of competition among them. So they want to share, they're open and they want to kind of show what they're doing. But learn from other people. They love new people. New members are always very, very popular at our conferences. So you have moved the venue in the past, it's been at PM resort, correct? Correct. One of the nicest pools probably in the Las Vegas area.

Brenda DiVincenzo (04:38):

So tell us a little bit about red rock. Red rock is a beautiful, beautiful before resort. Kind of nestled in. If you know anything about the Las Vegas area, we have red rock, um, the national park there, which is a beautiful Canyon, where there people go hiking. I think it's a huge rock climbing, um, high point for people, uh, but it's kind of nestled in that area in Summerlin. So off the strip, so you get more of a resort, relaxed feel. Um, what's a little bit different from red rock man? The M is red rock has tons of restaurants both on property and uh, adjacent to the property. They also have the golden Knights have their practice field right there. There's also, um, a baseball field right there where the, um, one of the teams plays. So there's all kinds of really fun stuff to do within walking distance right in that immediate area.

Brenda DiVincenzo (05:30):

Um, so as a, uh, local to Henderson, uh, the past 12 years I lived in Henderson and I and wood frequent red rock quite often. Um, and we've had our conference before that, their sister property, green Valley. So we're familiar with the company, we've worked with them before, but this will be a really great thing. There's bowling, there's a movie theater, there's even childcare. We have a lot of members that have young families that can now come and both attend because there is a kid's quest on property where they can leave their kids for a few hours to do something way more fun than coming to our sessions. And the parents can then go learn

Gary Pageau (06:07):

or if the members start acting a bit childish, they have somewhere to be sent to. Absolutely. So let's talk a little bit, if we can a little bit about, uh, IPI member services. Um, cause obviously, you know, the annual meeting is important. Uh, hopefully most of the members can attend. Uh, cause it is, I think between the, uh, famous forum on the IPI website, the annual meeting is probably one of the best, uh, interactions between the trade that's out there. Um, but you also, like I said, do a lot with marketing support and really enhance a member's capability in that area. Can you talk a little bit about the MSP program a little bit?

Brenda DiVincenzo (06:53):

Sure. So that's probably the biggest thing that we've done over the past 10 years to drive member businesses forward. Um, we have our vice president of marketing, Aaron Von Holtz manages creating all this great marketing for members year round. Um, it could be marketing existing services that they're already doing on a regular basis and just coming up with new fresh ways on a regular basis to get that in front of people. But it's also creating new products, creating systems for them. Uh, the past year we added a team training element. So we've been developing all kinds of education for member teams, so teams in the store, um, and different ways that they can increase sales and learn how to do different things within the store. So that's kind of under that, that marketing piece. We're also really seeing members have great success marketing their print services to other businesses misses.

Brenda DiVincenzo (07:46):

And so providing a lot of education on how to go about doing that. How you sell to a business is very different to how you would sell to a retail customer. Um, so going through that sales process with them and then providing them all the tools, brochures, different kinds of pieces that they would use to, to do that. So it's um, we provide them product templates. I think historically in the industry we did that for members for a long time, like new holiday cards and things like that that were very template based. And we still do that because people still need fresh content to sell to their customers. But that's kind of the smallest piece of what it's become. It's really much more about social media content and email content. And we have a digital signage program so that there's constant digital signs in the store. So you're going to have to have a cluttered store with every single last thing you do. You can educate your customers through a scrolling video. So we've really kind of transformed all of that into more of the how to market to your customers with the product still being there, but not the focus anymore.

Gary Pageau (08:50):

And you've kind of parted with some of your vendor partners to deliver that content, like to kiosks and things like that, correct.

Brenda DiVincenzo (08:58):

Absolutely. It's very easy for members no matter who their provider is. Um, I would say a majority of our members deal with either DECA Spoto finale or both. And so it's, it's where they flip a switch. From what I understand in the store, they just kind of turn on those downloads. They're there, they're in their kiosks so that they can easily sell them to their customers. And then now all of our online providers also have fulfillment partners. So if a member doesn't do something in house, they don't have to shy away from it or wait for somebody to come in and ask about it. They can have that available on their online ordering system or on their kiosk. Somebody can order that and then it's automatically fulfilled by another partner. The customer never knows that it wasn't done mayor from the, the, the member store, but they're able to provide a lot of things that sometimes if you're only going to do a few of something or you're just getting into something until it's popular, you don't want to buy that equipment. So it allows them to, to have a partner that's able to fulfill some of those things.

Gary Pageau (10:00):

Right? Yeah, it makes sense for low volume or high Collie complex things like photo books or something like that. So in other words, a product I think would be fun to discuss a little bit would be the digitization products that are kind of taken over, um, the services side of the business. There's been a lot of interest in that the last couple of years. Um, there's, you know, obviously in disagreements and other people who have of approach that market segment, but IPI has come up actually with a marketing program for this. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Brenda DiVincenzo (10:35):

Sure. So I'm scanning, transferring any kind of archiving is very, very lucrative for members right now. They're seeing huge increases. It does, I think as VHS tapes and other mediums are physically deteriorating right now holding their, their properties, I think people, and, and as things happen that are a little scarier in the world, I think people start to realize the value of those things. I'm getting them in a format that they can share them. Um, so that's become very, very popular. So we created something along with just marketing that process in general. We came up with a concept called the gatherer box and it's, it's the, the shoe box scanning concept, which I'm sure most of your listeners are familiar with, but we put a brand behind it. Um, and just recently we created different versions of the gatherer box. So there's one for prints, there's one for slides, there's one for negatives, there's one for VHS tapes.

Brenda DiVincenzo (11:34):

That way people, if they want to price the box differently, they have the option to have different boxes for different items. And the concept is of a person buys, buys the box, it's a full price for it, for what you would charge to scan all those items in the box. They take it home, they fill the box up, they bring it back to the store, the store keeps everything there for the most part, local. So that's one of the great selling points is that you don't have to ship your stuff off to some, um, some company where you, you're worried about the shipping aspect of it. It stays right there at your local store and they digitize all of it and return it back to you either on a, a disk or USB drive, whatever the, the most, um, best method for that, for that size medium.

Brenda DiVincenzo (12:20):

Um, and then you can, they can add on different additional services to that. So if they want everything, a certain orientation or in a certain order or, um, edited together or put to music, there's all kinds of different things depending on what you're doing, you can, um, kind of upsell all of those services. Um, and then we encourage people to get copies for all other family members. So now you're adding profit without really adding extra work and overhead and production costs. Um, and then we encourage people, create photo books, create wall art, create gifts for the family, do other things with them instead of just keeping them some digital.

Gary Pageau (13:01):

So why did IPI choose to brand something like that? You know, that product category as opposed to, you know, like Prince or something else. Was there something that needed to be communicated to the consumer differently than a traditional photo product?

Brenda DiVincenzo (13:23):

Absolutely. I think that it's important. I mean, just from a, a global humanity aspect to save all of those things to pass on your memories that generationally it's very different. Now a lot of kids see pictures of themselves on devices and not physical items, but yet their grandparents or great grandparents, they're going to see a physical well items. So I'm kind of bringing all that together and hitting home with that I think is important. Um, but our members, we're also starting to see such great success again based on just timing wise with things deteriorating and people realizing, you know, um, we also have a large generation that's starting to downsize and move and they're coming up with all these boxes and boxes of things in their basement or their attic. And so we just saw a real need for that and to be able to create a system that's easy for people to understand, um, and kind of all pull pool, our marketing against it I think is really, really, uh, the best way for us to be able to do that.

Gary Pageau (14:28):

So one of the things that is always impressive about, um, IPI and its membership is the inner interaction and the exchange that happens. Um, with the current Covin 19 crisis, uh, you've been having a series of webinars for your members that have been very educational, can kind of share, uh, kind of the top, uh, input you're getting, anything that you can share about what retailers can be doing right now to advance their business and, you know, stay afloat hopefully during this time.

Brenda DiVincenzo (15:00):

Sure. Um, probably the, the best thing about our membership, like I mentioned earlier, is their, their willingness to share. So, um, our forum has never been more active. People have been asking questions and sharing their experiences. So from that we pulled together as much information as we could and we, you know, keep an eye on what everybody's doing in social media, email and then what other companies are doing too, right? Because we're consumers, we see all of that. And so we, we've just tried to go out there and find all the best possible things that we think people can be doing. Um, I think it's really, really important for transparent communication with your customers right now. I'd say that's probably number one. People need to know that you're still there, you're in business but, but they want to know that you're being safe. So I think it's okay to be creative with how you're following the rules. But people want to know as a consumer that you are taking their safety into consideration, taking your employee's safety into consideration that you're following all the guidelines. And so to communicate that personally and actually put your face behind it. So we all know video is the top thing that attracts people's attention and, and views on social media. So putting out a personal video with your face on it and explaining to people what the status is of your business is really, really simple.

Gary Pageau (16:23):

So that's one of the things I think that's been kind of confusing for a lot of people is, you know, what is an essential business and what isn't. Right? And that can vary by state, by state, by locality. And uh, you know, some people have heard that, you know, any kind of printing business is a, isn't a central business. Other people say, well, I'm a retail business so I'm not essential. I don't know. So obviously we want people to, you know, follow the guidelines that make sense. And I think what you just suggested was also, uh, some great suggestions on how to stay, keep that personal touch with your customers.

Brenda DiVincenzo (17:00):

Yeah. And I think too, I mean, you can always be open online, right? That's a 24, seven business. So being able to promote what you are available to do and keeping that very fresh and up to date. So we're here online if you are in an area that allows you to still do curbside, but that's available and it's safe that you're taking every precaution, that your employees are safely practicing social distancing while they're at work, if they're still working. Um, but if you're at home kind of letting people in to see your personal space a little bit, it's kind of a great thing right now. Right? We're all enjoying, um, getting on these zoom calls with everybody and seeing what people's houses look like, you know, share a little bit of your, your personal experience with this. That's always a great way to relate to your customers and it will make them want to support or a local business. Cause I'm sure Amazon isn't getting on social media to talk to them personally with some experience from their local area. And so being able to really, really relate to your customers like that I think is important.

Gary Pageau (18:01):

Okay. So, yeah, the, some of the materials that you've made available you've actually had in your webinars, um, actual like almost like marketing kits available from, can you talk a little bit about some of that messaging? Cause I think it's been pretty impressive.

Brenda DiVincenzo (18:16):

Sure. Well thank you. Um, again, kind of collecting things that members are doing. And then Erin, our marketing director has been putting a lot of stuff together for us. Um, printing online, telling people to kind of take all the stuff that's on your phone right now. This is a great time to go ahead and print it. Um, this is a time where you're stuck in your house and you probably realize where you need new wall decor. Right? Um, you know, it's a great time to make a photo book with a child or to make guests. Um, this week we'll be releasing mother's and father's day kind of making at home kits for members to use. So this is a great time. Mothers and fathers are probably doing more mothering and fathering than they've ever had to do before. And so being able to do a project that's fun with the whole family and then getting a printed item at the end of that will be fun.

Brenda DiVincenzo (19:05):

Archive. And we talked about a lot that this is a great time to work on an archiving project because it's when people clean out their garages and their basements and their addicts. So, um, and another thing, we've been really talking with them numbers about two of his businesses are going to, just like our member businesses, their local businesses, at some point, business spans will be lifted and everybody's going to need to market to their customers and they're going to need printed materials, whether it's signage, brochures, menus, whatever those things are to let people know that they're open and what their new situation is. And so letting people know in your local area that you're available to help them market themselves when they're open really kind of makes sense. You important to your community, respected in your community, you'll be able to get some business out of it, but you'll also be helping your local economy while you're doing that.

Gary Pageau (19:56):

Yeah, that seems to be a big, uh, overall trend is nationwide, sort of the people buying gift cards to local businesses that may, they may not even be able to redeem for weeks just to get some cash flow into a business. And so it seems like that's sort of shop local rallying cry is going to be beneficial, beneficial to, uh, IPI type members.

Brenda DiVincenzo (20:16):

Definitely. Definitely.

Gary Pageau (20:21):

And, and there's also, unfortunately, with the school being shut down, uh, in some, in some cases, I'm sure graduation's being canceled, things like that. I know there's a lot of IPI members who are in the portrait business who are, you know, feeling that impact.

Brenda DiVincenzo (20:38):

It's, it's hard, um, because a, they're social distancing so they can't get out and do those things. The events aren't taking place. We don't know when they're to be received scheduled or what that's going to look like. And it's, I feel very bad for seniors in high school right now. Um, one thing that's, I don't know if you've seen the movement online, but a lot of people are doing these porch portraits, um, where you don't ever have to get close to a person and you can, um, I've seen some of them doing them to kind of kick start their business, but obviously our members are our established photographers. So, um, my recommendation to members was to sell that as a package. So maybe you're not, um, having them pay if for the shoot itself, but you're including a couple of printed products that you'll ship to them after the fact that are a away for you to generate some income because let's face it, we're all at home right now. We don't have a lot to do. So getting all dressed up and our families all together in one place, it's kind of a great time for us to do that family portrait that we never have time to do when there are other events going on.

Gary Pageau (21:41):

Yeah, they're there. That is true. Yep. Have I missed any major points that you think I should cover?

Brenda DiVincenzo (21:49):

Um, I don't think so. I think what we've been telling our members, and I think any person that's in business or business owner that's listening to this take advantage of this downtime and it sounds like such a silly thing. Um, but go over your operations, look through all the things that you can do to save money, to streamline things. What's really needed. Do you have your products priced properly? Are you, are you charging for the value that it actually costs to perform those duties or to to print that item? Um, you know, go through your website, go through all your social media channels, do all that stuff that you wish you always had time exactly decline. If you have a physical location, declutter, clean it. Everybody's gonna want clean stores when they come back from this, regardless of anything else, people are going to want to walk into clean environments. So all of that stuff that you put off remerchandising printing, new samples, redoing any of your marketing materials, now's the time to do that so that when you are past any kind of band that you have or shut down, you can just focus on your customers and producing what they need at that point in time.

Gary Pageau (22:57):

Well, great. Well thanks Brenda for your time and uh, look. Hopefully we'll see you at red rock in, in the summer.

Brenda DiVincenzo (23:04):

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. This was fun.

Gary Pageau (23:09):

Okay, thank you.