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PRESS RELEASE from Fujifilm UK - Photofinishing Division
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Release Date: 10 August 2009

Image Downloads: www.newsfeeduk.com/fujifilm

Hallmark Photography chooses to go with FDIS

The Fujifilm Digital Imaging Service (FDIS) marketing support program is proving powerfully attractive to new members, as illustrated by latest sign-up, Hallmark Photography.

After more than twenty years trading, Kevin and Jane Hall, of Hallmark Photography in Calne, Wiltshire, have now joined the FDIS group, the marketing support program for high street photo centres.

Hallmark Photography is a wedding and portrait photography business and retail photo lab. It does its own professional printing, some trade work for other professionals, and wholesale D&P for another outlet, as well as running a retail photo service at the shop counter. Jane Hall handles the business marketing, and she explained her reasons for joining FDIS: “We realised that by ourselves we were a small fish in a big pond. We had always used Fujifilm products in our professional work, so it seemed the natural brand for us to partner with. It’s so well known world wide, it was the obvious choice.”

For retail printing the Halls had formerly used another brand of materials. But that manufacturer had become defunct, and residual supplies of their stock were drying up. Kevin and Jane decided to use Fujifilm Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper for all their lab prints.

Jane said: “It gives us security. It’s been around for a long time, and we know it’s going to be around for the foreseeable future. With some other brands, you can’t be confident of that. They don’t show the same long term commitment to the industry.”

Hallmark Photography has always used Fujifilm solutions for its large format printing. The photo centre runs a 44 inch Fujifilm Epson 9600 inkjet printer with a Fujifilm Image Hunter RIP, printing on Fujifilm professional inkjet media. Kevin Hall says: “When we have a long run of large format work, the Image Hunter system is indispensable.”

Marketing support

The Halls extended their use of Fujifilm minilab paper to their retail printing around the same time they joined FDIS. They then used the group’s marketing support to tell the public about the change. Jane explains: “The member's area of the FDIS website has got lots of useful downloadable material that you can customise for your own promotions. Really, a lot of the leg work is done for you. In a small business you haven’t always got time to formulate posters. Although we’re very good at that, it’s nice to be able to just pull out a ready-made one. Then you don’t have to spend a day working out what you’re going to put on it. It’s like having a library of promotions that you can draw from.”

All the FDIS promotional materials and business stationery can be customised and personalised. They are designed in consistent FDIS styles, incorporating Fujifilm trademarks. Jane continues: “It’s nice to know that everything you’re sending out to the public has that Fujifilm logo on it. That’s very important. It’s well known and easily recognised.”

Member led

The FDIS group is guided by a steering committee drawn from the general membership. Active participation is encouraged. Hallmark had no sooner joined FDIS than Kevin Hall found himself invited onto the committee. He tells us: “I’ve actually gone on to the steering group quite quickly. I think I’ll be a permanent member. We have strong input into the promotional work that the group does. I’ve heard some very interesting ideas, and I have some of my own to put forward.”

Branded signage

One of the most visible effects of Hallmark Photography’s joining FDIS is the new signage the group installed. Kevin and Jane tell us it was an important part of their decision to choose FDIS. Jane says: “The signage was important to us. Over the years we’ve always made changes, and we’ve kept the public aware of that with changing signage. Because we haven’t got a shop window, we rely on our signage more than anything. To have the FDIS branding on that was important to us, because it is nationally recognised. We have a very nice smart new look now, and it has made a big difference, people notice it.”

Kevin and Jane say that, despite this, the new look hasn’t diluted the original identity of their business at all. Jane tells us: “We haven’t actually had anybody come in and say ‘Are you the same people?’ We actively told people in advance the look of the shop was going to change and the FDIS branding was going to happen. We sent out mail shots and we inserted leaflets into the customers’ job wallets, telling them the rebranding was coming. But we said we’d still be the same people. So nobody has come in saying ‘Oh, you’ve been taken over’ or anything like that.”

Member discounts

Membership also qualifies the Halls for discounts on Fujifilm consumable purchases, ordered through the FDIS preferred distribution partner, Swains International plc. Swains are pledged to high availability of Fujifilm supplies for FDIS members, and have a sales team trained in Fujifilm product knowledge. The distributor also plays a growing role in the marketing for the FDIS group.

Welcome aboard!

FDIS sprang a surprise welcome on the Halls when Peter Wigington, Fujifilm’s business manager for the Fujifilm Digital Imaging Service, and Peter Oates, campaigns manager for FDIS, arrived to an appointment bearing an unexpected celebratory bottle of FDIS bubbly. Peter Wigington made a fun presentation of the champagne to the couple on their shop door step.

Peter Wigington said: “Kevin & Jane embrace everything that Fujifilm value in a FDIS member retailer. They run a successful business because they are always looking for profitable ways to expand the range of products and services they can offer their customers. They appreciate the value of a strong brand to help them market their services. And they are more than happy to share their knowledge and experience with other like-minded FDIS members, and will make the most of the opportunity this brings to generate even more ideas. Only recently Kevin emailed me an excellent digital print promotional advert he'd seen while on holiday in Italy which he felt could be tailored to the FDIS group. Now that's dedication!”

Hallmark Photography exemplifies the importance owners of high street photo centres give to marketing, and to finding stable partners. The Halls chose FDIS as their partner for the future, specifically for the group’s marketing support, including the well known signage that shows they belong. They’re one of the growing numbers of photo retailers driving FDIS expansion, and the group welcomes them aboard.

If you're not already a FDIS member, you need to call Peter Wigington at Fujifilm today on 01234 572 138 or talk to your Swains Regional Sales Manager.

ENDS.

* Note: this news release is issued electronically and will not be duplicated with a posted copy

About Fujifilm
Fujifilm is a global leader in imaging technology, products and services including digital cameras, photofinishing, digital storage and recording media, consumer and professional film, motion picture film, professional video, printing systems, medical imaging, office technology, flat panel displays and graphic arts. The company employs more than 73,000 people worldwide, with 178 subsidiaries stretching across four continents.

Uniquely placed to be a market leader in digital imaging, Fujifilm develops and manufactures its own sensors, lenses and processing technology. In addition to its production plants and R&D operations in Japan, the company has key manufacturing facilities in Europe and the USA for core products such as colour film, colour paper, single use cameras and CTP printing plates, and has further factories in Brazil and China. It has a global turnover in excess of £13 billion.

In the UK, Fujifilm has been supplying the imaging, printing and graphics industries, as well as consumers, professional and enthusiast photographers, with high quality, innovative products and services for over 25 years. Fujifilm UK currently employs more than 450 people and has become one of the country's most popular photographic and imaging brands.

© 2008, Fujifilm UK Ltd. Specifications are subject to change.

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Fujifilm (UK) Ltd
Unit 10A
St Martins Business Centre
St Martins Way
Bedfordshire MK42 0LF
Tel: 01234 572144
E-mail: minilabs@fuji.co.uk
Web: www.fujifilm.co.uk/minilabs
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Written and distributed by WPS Media
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Contact: Peter Brandon
Email: peter@wpsmedia.co.uk