10 February 2006
Swains International offered all their independent photographic retailers a unique chance to boost Christmas trade in 2005, with their very own personalised gift guide. Five retailers, including Kodak Express, took up the opportunity and a massive 182,000 bespoke gift guides were produced and distributed across the UK including Scotland and the Shetland Isles.
Following the successful introduction of a bespoke catalogue in the Autumn of 2004, Swains decided to roll it out to more customers in 2005.
Retailers had the chance to personalise the 36-page guide with their name and address, change prices on products featured to match their in-store deals, and run their own choice of ads on the cover to boost festive promotions. The guide featured competitions and promotions to drive custom in-store, including the chance to win a Ferrari Vodafone mobile, and offering savings such as £50 off the HP Photosmart P335 and £100 off the HP 4222 portable studio, all helping retailers to measure customer response to the guides.
Park Cameras, Wilkinson Cameras, Bywaters, The Camera Centre and The Photo Factory who took part in the bespoke gift guide programme were so impressed with the marketing tool that they are all keen to take part again in 2006. Ken McKinnan, owner of Bywaters in Waltham Cross, ordered 20,000 guides and used them as an insert in local newspapers. Ken comments: "We had a fantastic direct response to the guides with a lot of new customers arriving at Bywaters visiting for the first time with the guides in hand. The bespoke gift guides have been the most effective marketing tool we have ever produced and we would certainly sign up again. We also received some great feedback. Customers thought they looked incredibly professional, while our local newspaper said they were one of the best quality insertions they had ever seen."
Park Cameras in Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath signed up to the bespoke guides in 2004, so in 2005 they decided to up the ante and produced 50,000 guides to distribute to the mid Sussex, Brighton and Hove areas. Roscoe Atkins of Park Cameras comments: "This year we decided to widen the distribution of our guides, inserting them into a local free paper, which proved really cost effective for us. Following the distribution of the guides, we saw a marked increase in our footfall and customer telephone calls. Customers gave great feedback, saying they were informative and clearly showed our competitive pricing compared to other retailers in the area. They also raised awareness of our full stock range; for example, we had a marked increase in telescope sales after distributing the guides. The guides were so successful we are thinking about producing another for summer to boost sales throughout the year."
Photo Factory in Scotland ordered 30,000 guides, inserting 10,000 into Which Digital Camera? and distributing the remaining 20,000 guides through the 20 stores across Scotland. Wilkinson Cameras ordered 30,000 guides from Swains to distribute in-store and with a local newspaper - a distribution method proving extremely popular with retailers involved in the scheme. Finally, every household on the Shetland Isles received a guide from The Camera Centre. Cecil Hughson of The Camera Centre ordered 12,000 guides, distributing 11,000 via Royal Mail to every household on the Shetlands, with another 1,000 available in store.
Danny Williams, marketing director at Swains comments: "The Autumn / Winter gift guides are a great way for independent photographic retailers to compete with the multiple retailers, who all produce heavyweight, high quality Christmas gift catalogues. At Swains, we give our retailers marketing support to help build brand awareness in their area, and take on some of the multiples to ensure they get as large a proportion of the Christmas market as possible. It is fantastic to hear that the guides were bringing new custom in store for the retailers, and that people were browsing through them in the comfort of their home to select Christmas gifts. In fact the program has been so successful talks have already started on ideas for the 2006 issue."
If you are interested in producing a bespoke gift guide please speak to your regional Swains sales manager or telephone Swains direct on LoCall 0845 4504242 or email sales@swains.co.uk.