Thanks to The New York Times’ reporter, Sarah Lyall (@SarahLyall) for her front page profile on Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary. Those reported smart lessons make for a Harvard case study on how every industry must refocus how they operate and manage growth during challenging times.
[On a related note, Delta Air Lines profiled ScanMyPhotos.com in Delta Sky, its in-flight magazine, so there is a connection between us and the airlines. Nearly 15-million worldwide passengers will read their “Editors’ Pick profile].
Just like the airline business, the photo industry is ripe with failures too. Rather than fuel costs being the transcending inconvenience, for us it was technology, a devastated economy and the transition from film-to-digital that burdened our business model. However, it is possible – and we proved it – that any type of threatened industry can instantly reinvent itself; in our case this was a 19-year journey but the results are now transparent.
Mr. O’Leary’s message about Ryanair is a salutable model for every business. To reinvigorate and reengage customers, it requires a new approach. Pricing, technology and instant service is paramount and augments an uncompromising commitment to professional quality. Just as travelers want to safely arrive at their destination and not pay a premium price, ScanMyPhotos.com has equally pioneered a new way of thinking about pictures.
There are 3.5 trillion analog photos tucked away in shoe boxes. These fading memories must be shared, preserved and repurposed for today’s all-digital computer world. People do not want to invest the time to scan images themselves and they want it quickly and affordably, for literally pennies per scan.
For Mr. O’Leary, it went as far as charging for in-flight lavatory use. When asked what happens if “the plane were stricken by some nasty, effluent illness, like food poisoning? A snorting noise wafted over from the chair where Mr. O’Leary was sitting. “We don’t serve enough food for everybody to get food poisoning,” he said.”
At ScanMyPhotos.com, we recognized that millions of domestic and international picture-takers also want no-frills service, but, Ritz Carlton-like service. The KODAK slogan is “you press the button, we do the rest” and that too has been our principle motto. We provide the basics, plus a menu of hundreds of other ways to share and save photo memories. Once the images are digitized, we provide the magic that enables consumers to jettison how they historically thought about pictures; especially those memories from decades and generations of favored photographs.
There is a flourishing opportunity to recast how the photo imaging industry thinks about pictures. At the forefront is ScanMyPhotos.com, which is constantly using our entrepreneurial might to develop new ways to share and preserve those memories. For a menu of photo products, see
ScanMyPhotos.com
Like Ryanair, since 1990, our business has always had shock value, but in a remarkable way; orders are completed and returned faster than it takes to find your seat on an airplane. It is the magic behind what we do and how we dazzle our customers that has caused such raving reviews, from The New York Times Personal Tech columnist, David Pogue, to the scores of other news profiles. A key value proposition is also our free 24/7 live support help desk to instantly solve most photo imaging questions [give it a try].
The backstage secret: Always trust KODAK technology, it has been a boon to our business. We are even recognized by Web100 as the sixteenth best photography Web site. It is back to the future as tens of millions of analog photo snapshots are instantly being digitized to share and preserve generations of family memories.
There is an urgency to digitize photos, slides and negatives before it fades away. To help, we are the pioneers of super-fast and affordable scanning (pay $64 to scan up to 1,000 photographic pictures in minutes) by commercializing all types of KODAK technology.
Organizing and sharing photographs has never been simpler or more necessary as thousands of new iPhone, Internet and retail photo lab applications are driving demand to revisit pictures. Photo scanning is reinventing and growing the entire photo imaging category and we are honored to play a key role. Because of our international stature, the company regularly travels the world in our quest to educate and invent new growth opportunities. During the next few months, we will traveling to Italy, Greece, Egypt, Germany, New Zealand and Australia. The company has been a longtime and active member of the Photo Marketing Association for nearly twenty-years.
By solving the biggest problem in photography, bulk photo scanning is fast, effortless and affordable. Send your photos, or order online the prepaid, fill-the-box service that holds about 2,000 photos from ScanMyPhotos.com which includes same day service and completely free shipping for just $149.95 (buy two boxes and the third is free).
Scanning is also revitalizing the entire photo imaging category. Once pictures are digitized, consumers are ordering reprints, giant collage enlargements, custom photo greeting cards, photo albums and dozens of other products online at ScanMyPhotos.com and at its retail photo center, which exclusively promotes KODAK photo kiosks, printed on the new KODAK APEX eco-friendly dry lab system. There are also thousands of independent KODAK photo kiosks located throughout the country and abroad.
