AJLA Posted June 17, 2009 Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 Curious to see if there are many FIS members using this forum. What are the advantages or disadvantages in your opinions? Would be great to hear your opinions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philspectrum Posted June 17, 2009 Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 Hi, I have used Fuji to help me market my business for over 20 years, and intend to continue. It is fair to say that Fuji are not alone in facing challenging economic times, - and they are not as free with their support as they used to, - but I believe it is still worthwhile. First up - The Green signage brings in tourists and visiters to the area, - Fuji being well reconginsed for quality worldwide, secondly, - they give me a consistant image throughout with packaging, work envelopes, carrier bags and whatnot. third, - their products are (IMHO) the best, - price is competitive, and supply generally continuous (certainly over past few years) Four - there is an occasional market support program, - fliers, leaflets, posters and artwork and stuff. Five - we meet up a couple of times a year to learn, drink beer, and swap successes, failures, and comedy moments. Dissadvantage - you have to pay for it, - but much cheaper than Kodak Express, - and national reps say Fuji provide A LOT more support..... Maybe if you are in a tiny market town were everyone is married to their cousins you can get away with being independant, but if you are in a city, or get visitors, students, tourists etc then it is worth it for the Fuji signage alone. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLA Posted June 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 Thanks for your reply Phil, unfortunately we are in a tiny town were everyone is married to their cousins etc and have very few visitors, students. We have just received delivery of a dry lab (not from Fuji but from another source) and whilst planning a revamp of our current shop we thought we would look into FIS ... one because of the attractive signage to tie in with the whole new look and two it would appear that with this lab + kiosks we may be locked into using Fuji remote service? We were informed that promotions were every 6 months and if you think that not be the case please let me have your first hand experience on the subject. We have been trading for 18 years both as Kodak and Fuji in the past but as independent for most of this period. Would you mind if I send you a pm Phil as I have a few questions that I think might be more appropriate to ask in person? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photographis Posted June 17, 2009 Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 Being an indy in a very small market town (and it's true about the cousins!!), I would say it would be well worth while being part of F.I.S., and have every intention of joining when my business is strong enough. Having observed from afar I would confirm all that Phil has said, adding only that even with the level of support offered, you will still remain independant, the only requirements would seem to be buying Fuji chemicals and paper. As we do this allready (because we wholeheartedly agree with Phil that for quality, Fuji cannot be beaten), for us it is a 'no Brainer'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujilab Posted June 17, 2009 Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 I agree that the Fuji brand is strong but don't think that with todays digital consumer that is as bigger factor as it was. Lets face it, names like Panasonic, Casio, Sony and HP were never related to traditional photograpgy. Take a look at the majority of cameras in peoples hands now and those brands we all know from the industry are few and far between. We were in the same position as Ajla about a year ago and investigated Express and Fuji but after talking with shop owners we found the promotions all ended up either giving paper away (strange that ) or infrequent. After all, we have competitors in our town who have new offers every month minimum. In the end we went for an independent programme we were referred to by a lab we met up with at the PMA meeting in Droitwich. It has been very successful for us and I know it is used by a lot of others too. Feel free to PM me if you want the details. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted June 18, 2009 Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 Main disadvantage is the £500.00 flat fee. Advantages are: Professional signage & light boxes for the shop. Branded packaging, bags etc Branded range of films, memory cards, inkjet paper, batteries etc. I know when we started as an independent and stocked batteries that were bought on price, this meant mixed brands. When we switched to one brand, consistent packaging etc even though the prices were more we sold more as it all looked more professional. Being part of FDIS lets us present a more professional image. Range of offers to run if we wish. Latest model is that the artwork is done for us (they have an agency that designs the posters and then customises a set for each store with our own prices and descriptions). This allows us to make sure we don't give away any paper unless we want to. This year we had posters for Mother Day, Easter & Fathers Day to date. Also they have a loyalty card, again each store sets its own terms. And 2000 full colour mailers delivered by the post office. Now I know I could do all this myself, but it is a lot quicker to reply to an email with the offer text and just print the finished poster a week or so later. Again as we were using Fuji paper and chemistry by choice it was a natural progression for us. It is always easier to sell what you believe in, when we stocked Kodak film, we sold it if it was requested but if our opinion was asked we would always favour the Fuji as we were the ones printing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLA Posted June 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 Thank you for your comments folks. I did reply to these yesterday, a very lengthy post which I then deleted. So I’ll attempt it again in brief. for many years I have thought that being an independent minilab was the only way to go, giving me the freedom to sell whatever products I like etc I understand that if I were to be a FDIS member I still can do this as it's not quite as strict as it used to be having to sell a large percentage of Fuji/Kodak branded items. The signage, point of sale etc appeals to me as I would like to achieve that professional look. But do you pay through the nose for these items? We are still awaiting a pricing structure that FDIS members are only privy too and I am interested in seeing what costs are applied not only to the paper, chemistry and inks (for DL400) but also to the work envelopes, print wallets, carrier bags, etc. Are the promotions tailored to meet your requirements? How often are the flyers issued and how are they delivered, what expenses are incurred? It may seem that I am somewhat on the negative side here, perhaps it’s our past experience of the "umbrella" syndrome, but with paper, chemistry, etc., prices soaring we all remember a 6x4 being 40p+ and now we are as low as 10p, then surely we should carefully and constantly keep check on our ever diminishing margins. As matter of interest, we use Fuji Papers and our preferred choice of products we recommend are Fuji! We have aquired a DL400 dry lab along with 3 kiosk terminals and our understanding is that we have to be locked into a Fuji software support contract otherwise we are knackered! Is there anyone out there with a drylab from Fuji? Phew, not as much as yesyerday - becomming very frustrated cos this is 3rd attempt and I'm going to post it before it crashes - bye! P.S. Look forward to any comments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snpysnps Posted June 19, 2009 Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 We used to be part of a franchise. It suits some people but it didn't suit us. Fujilab is right about name recognition not being as important any longer. In smaller places no one cares much about brand anyway. We bought an off the shelf marketing kit which we use to create posters and email marketing. It also has lots of other promotional stuff which I personally think looks much better than the suppliers programmes. The drylab from Fuji is just a Noritsu isn't it? Probably different software, but the inks are from Epson and you can get the paper from a number of sources. A Noristu engineer told us the only thing that could really go wrong is the print head and that would be just a swap and alignment. Others will know more about this but there would not be too many people signing up to contracts these days. Many of us will remember getting caught with these in years gone by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 "The signage, point of sale etc appeals to me as I would like to achieve that professional look. But do you pay through the nose for these items?" Signage is free in the sense you are paying an annual fee, I think you will need to check what the cost would be if you bail out after 1 or 2 years. POS is a fair price, I am sure you can get cheaper. But again it ties in well will all the signage etc "Are the promotions tailored to meet your requirements?" This year like I said each offer is tailored to your lab, you set the price, and write the description. The artwork is then done and you print the posters etc. How often are the flyers issued and how are they delivered, what expenses are incurred? There is not a set schedule. Last year we had 2000 leaflets to deliver our selves. This year they went out with the Post Office. "It may seem that I am somewhat on the negative side here, perhaps it’s our past experience of the "umbrella" syndrome, but with paper, chemistry, etc., prices soaring we all remember a 6x4 being 40p+ and now we are as low as 10p, then surely we should carefully and constantly keep check on our ever diminishing margins." Your margins are your own business, if you want to go down to 10p then that is up to you. There is nothing to stop you doing your own offers, you don't have to run the Fuji promos, it is your business. As mentioned by Fujilab there are other ways to buy in promotion, looking at £1500 a year from Australia. While this is more money they are offering monthly and seasonal promotions so you get a lot more, but it is a larger outlay?? nothing stopping you doing both?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kioskguy Posted June 23, 2009 Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 Nick is right. Shop around and see what everyone has to offer. In my experience Kodak and Fuji promotions come from advertising wizzs who have never seen a photo lab before. They look pretty but do they work :-/? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted June 23, 2009 Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 "In my experience Kodak and Fuji promotions come from advertising wizzs who have never seen a photo lab before. They look pretty but do they work ?" One advantage with FDIS is you can suggest offers you want to run. I know if we waited for the perfect offer, perfect POS etc we would never get around to running any promotions. They only run for 2 to 6 weeks most of them, sometimes you just have to try them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noritsuvet Posted June 23, 2009 Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 IMHO you have to have a marketing plan to survive these days. I am sure that if we hadn't done this we would be in a much different situation than we are now. As my accountant says, failing to plan is planning to fail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopper Posted June 24, 2009 Report Share Posted June 24, 2009 It seems to me that you all like the your own brands, i happen to like the Kodak image, which works well for my business and my advice would be if you dont know ask the companys concerned and investigate what you can get and the benifets of each brand partner! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujilab Posted July 3, 2009 Report Share Posted July 3, 2009 So AJLA, did you decide on what to do in the end? Did you go with Fuji DIS or stay as an 'indy'??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mooneyman Posted July 3, 2009 Report Share Posted July 3, 2009 Never forget that branding is primarily for the benefit of the branding company. You PAY for the "support" and your customers' awareness soon switches from Blogg's Cameras (est 1926) who they used to know and love, to KEX or FDIS etc after a few months with the new signage on your shop front. And for photo finishers, what do the branders bring to the party? Neither Kodak nor Fuji are in control of their own manufacturing anymore. Kodak's build is contracted out - and the Apex is just another damned dye-sub in fancy clothes; who in their right mind buys a dye-sub?? - and Fuji just take Noritsu on an OEM deal. Kodak even sub out the running of KEX to Tetenal. It seems only a short time back that they were crowing about Konica being the best Snappy Snaps are a buying club since there is no "manufacturer" branding involved but my comment about your customer's awareness still stands. I'd rather sell up to Tesco and convert to a Tesco Express than sell my soul to KEX or Fuji Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noritsuvet Posted July 3, 2009 Report Share Posted July 3, 2009 Couldn't have put it better Mooneyman. It's always the manufacturers brand you end up paying to support - why would you shell out do that? Look where it got those Rover dealers As for Apex, don't get me started. Reminds me of the early Kis days. A big box with very little inside. JMHO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLA Posted July 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2009 No decision as yet fujilab... crazy season has finally hit us and we're hectic, unfortunately all other things including installation of our new lab have been put on the backburner for the moment. Need to do some serious thinking about it , I have dates throughout the year with my plans for promos etc along with a head full of ideas... actually getting round to doing them is another matter and i'm well aware that this is my huge downfall. It seems to have been like this for me since cutting back on staff, I don't seem to have the time to do much at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujilab Posted July 10, 2009 Report Share Posted July 10, 2009 We were in the same position as you AJLA - running around chasing our tails. Once we started a programme it mapped our year out so were ahead of the market, always having our promotions ready when they needed to be. My suggestion - don't procrastinate - decide which you want to run with and just do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kioskguy Posted July 10, 2009 Report Share Posted July 10, 2009 It is crazy busy at the moment but we'll be missing this in six months time so lets make the most of it while it lasts All I can say is that I wish we had started marketing properly much earlier. Now we are much better organised and the business has benefited. Fujilab is right. Work out which programme will work for you then start soon. When winter hits you will be glad you did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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