Retailers share tips for Photo Classes at DIMA 2010

Offering camera and photography classes is a great way for retailers to stand out from the competition, increase sales and cement their reputations as imaging experts. At a DIMA 2010 session last week in Anaheim, Calif., three industry leaders — Jirair Christianian of Mike’s Cameras, Boulder, Colo., Kevin Harayda of Dan’s Camera City, Allentown, Pa., and Glynn Lavender of Creative Photo Workshops, Melbourne, Australia — shared their advice for making the most of this opportunity.

Customers have a clear need for help when it comes to figuring out their cameras, and offering classes to provide that aid is both a differentiator and an added value for Mike’s Camera, Christianian said. The classes make customers happier with their purchases, and bring them back to the store to buy more. “Customers who know how to use their cameras will need and buy accessories,” Christianian says. The classes also help build the community of photographers in the Boulder area, who provide the store with word-of-mouth advertising, generating further sales.

Mike’s Camera offers three types of classes, targeting different audiences, including a 30-minute personal consultation, which comes free with every camera purchase; a group class with up to 20 participants, offered several times per month at each store location; and in-depth workshops with up to 40 participants, offered both onsite and offsite.

Christianian says great salespeople make the best instructors, and all Mike’s Camera instructors are Certified Photographic Consultants.

Dan’s Camera City offers more than 40 different classes and sold nearly 3,000 tickets for courses in 2009. In this session, Harayda focused only one type, the store’s “Tips & Gear” seminar, a free one-hour, informational class that addresses only one specific topic at a time – such as flashes, tripods, or filters. These seminars skim the surface of the subject; students who want to delve deeper are encouraged to take a fee-based course.

“We present products during the seminar that help people improve their photography. People who buy one of those products on the day of seminar get a discount,” Harayda said.

Harayda explained it’s important to have before-and-after pictures on hand, showing the effects of the gear being presented.

Glynn Lavender’s company, Creative Photo Workshops, runs photography workshops on behalf of retailers. They offer half-day, full-day and two-day seminars. “This is a great opportunity to sell experiences.  People are happy to pay a lot of money to be educated, if the experience is good,” he said. Workshops are available on many topics, such as using an SLR, natural light portrait photography, posing and composing, landscapes and sunsets, wireless flash photography, and how to shoot weddings. The company also offers photo shoots.

“Educated customers buy significantly more equipment,” Lavender said. “We show them why more expensive equipment is better by putting it in their hands and showing them how to use it.”

He shared the story of an attendee who owned a $200 compact camera. After attending a seminar, she purchased a $2,000 SLR. She booked a second workshop and brought a friend, who then purchased equipment herself. Over a 12-week period, the two friends spent $9,000.

This is not an unusual pattern; Lavender said his workshops generated $250,000 in retail sales in the past 12 months – almost all of it spent in specialty stores.

“Customers generate demand for the workshops,” he said. “People love it so much, they want to do it again and again. If the experience is good, they will clamor for more.”

Creative Photo Workshops markets solely on Facebook. Although the company began offering workshops only in Australia, demand generated through Facebook has brought the workshops to 12 American states, so far.

“Your customers want to learn,” Lavender said. “They just don’t know where to find those opportunities.”