Photo Direct has ‘gone back to the drawing board’ to re-launch its ezShare Wi-Fi cards with new livery, new pricing and a new marketing communications strategy.
According to Steuart Meers at Photo Direct, millions of digital camera owners are becoming aware of built-in Wi-Fi with so many new camera releases now featuring Wi-Fi capabilities.
He said that a significant number of these camera owners, otherwise happy with their current compact cameras, would be inclined to purchase a Wi-Fi card rather than a new camera.
An ezShare device, ‘in the shape of an SD card’, allows camera owners to instantly share their images without needing the internet. The device delivers a bundle of inbuilt benefits as well as generous storage.
Mr Meers concedes that the initial launch didn’t delivered the level of sales anticipated, especially after ezShare cards won a ‘Hot Picks’ award on launch at The Digital Show in May.
‘It’s probably because we marketed the product as an SD card rather than a Wi-Fi device. Consumer perceptions were therefore confused, and they couldn’t see the true value being offered,’ he said.
Photo Direct will now place more emphasis on the ezShare cards being ‘wireless devices’ with storage capacity – rather than SD cards with Wi-Fi.
‘We quickly realised we needed to make changes, so the team along with [manufacturer] LZeal in China have put in a great deal of effort over the last few months. We believe we now have the right offering for retailers and camera owners.
‘The option of buying an ezShare Wi-Fi device compared to purchasing a new Wi-Fi camera is very attractive, according to our market feedback.’
Mr Meers said that the ezShare range of Wi-Fi devices provides the perfect solution for digital camera enthusiasts, bloggers, pro photographers and journalists seeking a super-fast, multi-user, image sharing device with generous capacity. The new marketing message is ‘all about sharing images anywhere, anytime’.
Up to three users can simultaneously connect to the WiFi network created by ezShare for simultaneous sharing and downloading of images. The ‘shoot to share capability’ makes posting of photos to Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites fast and simple. He added that Gen Y is a major target demographic for ezShare.
More distinctive new packaging has been developed for the range with a fresh palette of colours and the tagline, ‘Wireless Your Camera’.
The range has been extended and now comprises 8GB class 6, 16GB class 10 and 32GB Class 10. The new additions (16GB and 32GB) provide high end users extra speed while also delivering fast WiFi transfer speeds (up to of 1.5MB/second), with excellent security and encrypted passwords.
As part of the relaunch, ezShare apps are being progressively released for iPad, iPod, iTouch, and iPhone (available now), Android and Windows phones (16GB and 32 GB). The apps provide the following benefits:
– Wireless browsing and/or downloading of camera images;
– Supports batch downloading, selective downloading and RAW format downloading;
– Automatically pushes original images to iPhone/iTouch devices;
– Uploading of images to favourite SNS site(s) by Wi-Fi hotspot, or EDGE/3G/LTE;
– Multiple image enhancement/manipulation tools include rotating, cropping, collaging and filtering.
The ‘re-engineered’ ezShare range and offering is due to be released shortly so retailers can capitalise on the Christmas season.
Pricing has also been adjusted, with the 8GB card at $69 (down from $99), the 16GB card at $99 and the 32GB card at $149.
Photo Direct said there is a special consignment stock deal for approved retailers and interested stores should talk to their Photo Direct rep for further details.
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