The following testimonial is based on the first generation photo scanning system from Kodak. The KODAK Picture Saver Scanning System is the second generation and affords these benefits as well as an expanded portfolio that includes the PS410 (direct replacement for the s1220) as well as the enhanced productivity afforded by the PS810.
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Heritage Makers’ consultants help customers better utilize prints with KODAK s1220 Photo Scanning System
When your business focuses on transforming pictures and memories into photo keepsakes, it makes sense that an efficient way to convert large volumes of hard-copy prints into digital images would be an important part of your process. Heritage Makers is a Provo, Utah-based provider of online software that allows customers to personalize a variety of photo-centric products. The company’s independent “personal publishing consultants” also host home workshops, explaining how Heritage Makers’ products can help individuals tell the stories of their lives through fun, meaningful products featuring their own photos.
At home parties, consultants talk about the s1220 Photo Scanning System and will often invite attendees to bring a few prints along to demonstrate the scanner’s capabilities. The consultant then shows how easily digital images of the prints can be saved to DVD, portable USB drive, or CD. Attendees often make appointments with the consultant to bring larger quantities of prints in for scanning, and to learn how to upload digital files to the Heritage Makers’ Web site and create a variety of photo-centric projects and products.
However, when Heritage Makers began in 2005, scanning was accomplished by consultants who owned traditional flatbed scanners. When more than one or two pictures needed to be scanned, it quickly became an arduous, time-consuming task. In 2006, one of Heritage Makers’ independent representatives—also known as personal publishing consultants—brought the Kodak s1220 Photo Scanning System to the company’s attention. Soon Heritage Makers knew they’d found an ideal solution for scanning large volumes of photo prints.
“We started a pilot program in 2008, enabling our consultants to purchase these scanners from one of Kodak’s Authorized Resellers, and we now have more than 400 representatives who’ve bought one,” says Heritage Makers’ CEO Christopher Lee. “We estimate about 500 representatives are using an s1220 Photo Scanning System today.”
SITUATION
Heritage Makers realized there were millions of stored hard-copy photos waiting to be digitized and repurposed into a variety of photo-centric products, such as storybooks, calendars, greeting cards and other photo gifts. | OBJECTIVE
Help customers better utilize photo prints. Generate additional income for Heritage Makers’ consultants. Leverage photo scanning services as an incentive to spark sales of photo-related items. | SOLUTION
Make KODAK s1220 Photo Scanning Systems available to Heritage Makers’ personal publishing consultants, allowing them to show customers how easily photos can be digitized and then used in a variety of photo-related offerings. | COMMENTS
“Anyone who has ever scanned more than a couple photos with a flatbed scanner quickly realizes how remarkably fast, easy and productive the KODAK s1220 Photo Scanning System is.”
~ Don Lehnhof, Director of Marketing, Heritage Makers |
A perfect picture for home gatherings
Much like a Tupperware “party,” a Heritage Makers’ consultant arranges with individuals to host home workshop “parties.” The hosts (who receive rewards for their efforts) invite friends, family, neighbors and coworkers to the gathering, and the consultant provides an overview of the company’s photo memory offerings at the gatherings. “One of the approaches we’ve successfully used is to have the hosts tell those who will be attending to bring some photos along,” notes Lee. “After a scanning demonstration at the home workshop, our consultant sets up times to meet those who are interested in having larger volumes of prints scanned.” “People are very impressed by the speed of scanning and how their pictures can become digital images so quickly and easily,” says Heritage Makers’ Director of Marketing Don Lehnhof.
“We’ve found that consumers are far more comfortable with this process than other options for scanning significant quantities of photos,” observes Lee. “Shipping off a box of treasured photos via mail or flatbed scanning have inherent risks or are extremely time consuming. With Heritage Makers, they know the person doing the scanning, and the prints don’t even have to leave the owner’s sight!”
Meeting objectives, planning expansion
Heritage Makers’ consultants have discovered that people love to scan a larger volume of prints in order to create more extensive storybooks. Some produce histories of a family or business, accounts of family vacations and reunions, books on their parents, or other topics.
When Heritage Makers embarked on their program with the s1220 Photo Scanning System, they had three goals in mind: help individuals better utilize their photo prints, generate incremental income for consultants, and use the scanner as a value-added incentive to encourage purchase of products requiring an array of images. “It’s been successful on each level,” Lee says. “More people are showing up bringing their pictures, and we have case studies showing that our reps can make $50 to $100 per hour with the scanner. You can scan 1,000 photos in a couple hours, and at 20¢ per picture … you can do the math and see what I mean.”
Lee estimates that Heritage Makers has just scratched the surface of the potential of the s1220 Photo Scanning System, believing it could be “up to 100 times larger than it currently is.” The company is now adding additional marketing support for consultants and is exploring leasing options to make the scanner available via monthly payments.
“Both our customers and consultants are impressed with the speed and quality of the s1220 Photo Scanning System,” says Lee. “The image quality is excellent; and the way the system can take a disorganized stack of photos, letters, postcards and personal documents of varying sizes and orientations and zip through them to produce wonderful images is extremely impressive.” Lehnhof adds, “Anyone who sees it in operation quickly realizes how fast, easy and productive the Kodak s1220 Photo Scanning System truly is.”
Heritage Makers: celebrating life’s stories
Founded in 2005 in Provo, Utah, Heritage Makers now boasts over 5,000 independent sales representatives who host home workshops to showcase and sell the company’s products, which are focused around photo memory storybook packages and other products utilizing personal pictures. These reps, called personal publishing consultants, help people preserve their own heritage through storybooking—the process of combining pictures with personalized story text into hardbound storybooks and related projects. Heritage Makers offers a unique income-building opportunity for its independent consultant sales force.
Heritage Makers’ publishing platform is easy-to-use and simple enough to help anyone—families, photographers, creative professionals, artists, writers, or anyone else with a story to tell.
The company’s Web site is www.heritagemakers.com.
 | KODAK Picture Saver Scanner System
(Current model, replacing the previous
KODAK s1220 Photo Scanning System) |