I met quite a number of interesting people during the recent Startup Accelerator Lite event in Penang organized my MDeC. There were literally many great ideas and startup founders cramped in one small room. So, you can imagine the energy in the room was simply out of this world :-). One of the startups that caught my attention was PrintIt.my by Jason Gan.
The promise of PrintIt.my is simple. They let you print out photos stored on your phone. You take so many photos on your phone but what do you then do with it? With the PrintIt app, you can easily select photos from your phone, choose your preferred photo size, easily pay via your mobile phone and the photos will be delivered to your home within a few days.
Sounds great right?
So, what does it have to do with the title of this blog post? Well, the simple strategy in this case is to reframe your business if you’re currently caught in a niche where there is a well established price point for your product or service.
What do I mean by this?
Let’s get back to the PrintIt.my service. At the base of it, they offer photo printing services. They may have a mobile app to make it simple to “send” the photos to them for printing but at the crux of it, they’re still just a photo printing service? Is that bad? Not necessarily… but it means they’re caught in a niche where there is almost no room to increase their prices.
How much does it cost to print a 4R photo?
Depending on where you get it from, it costs anywhere from 40-80 sen per photo. That’s pretty much the accepted price point for plain photos. The worst thing? It really doesn’t matter whether I get my photos printed through you or somebody else, chances are they’ll look pretty much the same. There’s literally not much room to differentiate yourself if you’re just printing plain photos.
Now, contrast that to a bridal photo session. Those of you who are married (especially in Asia) would know what I’m talking about. You pay a bridal studio anywhere from RM3000-40,000 for a full-day photo taking session and they produce a pretty personalised album for you.
See how there is such a HUGE pricing window for bridal photo sessions compared to printing plain photos?
Now, what about a personalised mug with your photo on it? Or a teddy bear with your child’s photo on it? Or what about a personalised school bag? How much do you think those should cost?
Most likely, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with an exact amount for those products because there isn’t already an accepted price point for those products. That is where you can price your products a little higher and people will still happily pay you because there’s no solid price reference.
So, my advice for PrintIt?
Rather than just offering plain photos, start by offering personalised photo books. Come up with different layouts, themes, templates and let your users easily create their photo book on their mobile phone. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Let them choose a theme, add photos, preview and “send to print”. The best thing? The last time I checked, photo books cost anywhere from RM100-300 for a 20 page book. That’s literally RM5-15 per photo. That means a MUCH higher profit margin for you.
The next step, think about all the places where you’d like to place your photo. Things like school bags, mugs, T-shirts, the sky’s the limit. Even if you’re not able to supply these yourself for a start, partner with someone who can. Then once the volume justifies it, you’ll be able to either negotiate a better price or get it done yourself.
Once again, the key lesson here is to “Reframe Your Business” into a niche where there isn’t a clear cut price point for your product or service.
Writing this blog post gives me a great idea on how to “reframe” InstanteStore to increase our profit margin. I hope it gives you some great ideas on how to reframe yours as well.
I’d love to hear your ideas on how to reframe your business. Please post it in the comments below.
Until next time, remember…
“There is a breakthrough waiting to happen in your business. It’s just up to you to find it and make it happen!”
Charles Tang
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