Service or Sickness?

At a Loss

Just when you think you’ve seen all the internet has to offer, there’s IsThisYourLuggage.com.

Once airlines exhaust all means of reconnecting luggage with its rightful owner, unclaimed bags are sold at auction. IsThisYourLuggage.com purchases bags, then lays out and photographs the contents and posts it online in hopes that the owner will see and recognize their belongings.

Less Than Likely

With the content of only 5 suitcases currently posted, it may be a new venture or merely regional. Context for where the luggage was found or purchased might help the site’s credibility. But then, credibility may not be the end-goal since the site’s owner calls it “a little odd, but not as odd as stamp collecting” and invites visitors to email and chat about the project.

IsThisYourLuggage.com is in turns ingenious, creepy and fun.

via: Paul Ocepek
image: Jordan

“Freedom of the press is guaranteed
only to those who own one.”

—A.J. Liebling (MagCloud)

A Press for Democracy

So you want to be a print publisher. Luckily, you’re living at the right time in history. Freedom of expression has never been more celebrated and available. From personal broadcasts of text, voice and video messages to social networks, blogs, micro-blogs and podcasts, media options and outlets abound.

A Democratic Appeal

Although digital media is easily distributed, it’s imprisoned by electronic devices and an endless sea of competition for readership. And, often it’s merely scanned, not truly read.

By contrast, published works derive value from their singular appeals: a tactile form, a willing and welcomed commitment of one’s time, a personal gift.

Until now, print-publishing was expensive, with customized items made affordable only via mass production and distribution methods.

Democratic Demand

Traditional publishing and digital print technologies have now merged, offering a vast array of online, on-demand, turnkey publishing and distribution platforms like these, ready to meet your needs:

Lightning Source
Lightning Source, a sister company to U.S. book wholesaler Ingram Book Group, is an online print-on-demand (POD) service provider to publishers. They offer online publishing, production and distribution solutions that can reduce on-hand inventories and warehousing costs by satisfying niche book demands and calls for backlist and out-of-print books.

CreateSpace and BookSurge
Amazon’s answer to on-demand publishing brings their third party connections and distribution acumen to help you develop and distribute manuscripts and other types of media.

Blurb
Affiliated with Flickr’s popular photography management and sharing site, Blurb offers prepackaged, user-friendly templates for a more consumer-oriented solution to book publishing.

Shutterfly
Shutterfly enters the on-demand book and publishing market from its core focus, online photo sharing and management. The seamless port of existing albums into books, calendars and other product templates positions Shutterfly as a solid consumer choice.

BookPrep
HP brings its leadership in on-demand printing to BookPrep. BookPrep allows you to digitize any existing book into a virtual asset that can be ported via the web and printed on-demand as-is, or customized by the consumer.

MagCloud
For those wanting to produce the next New Yorker, Fast Company or Sports Illustrated, MagCloud offers an affordable solution for would-be magazine publishers. MagCloud not only handles printing, but mailing and subscription management as well.

Lulu.com
Lulu provides a matrix of vertically and horizontally marketed offerings, from consumer-oriented photo calendars to hardbound business books and digital media. In an obvious response to Amazon, it also offers the means to buy and sell works.

A Freeing Democracy

Whether you want to target a single customer with an extended one-to one message or hope to take your ideas to market in multiples, on-demand printing solutions offer both prototype and production solutions in a single model.

From individuals to tier one corporations, online on-demand publishing provides another instrument to add to your integrated brand marketing mix, and a chance at real freedom of the press.

[image: tonystl]

Stream of Unconsciousness

We interface with many talented photographers on an ongoing basis. In fact, so many that an individual photographer’s body of work can become lost in a sea of similarity.

Immersed in Differentiation

Enter Ric Frazier. Underwater imagery, it’s what he does. It’s all he does. Now that’s a refreshing brand stance. For more on Ric Frazier’s steadfast commitment to specialization, and a look at his award-winning wares, point your browser here.

Caroline at Window No. 1
Snedens Landing, New York

The often whimsical images of Rodney Smith’s Surreal collection, from the John Cleary Gallery, offer ethereal René Magritte-like insights—natural emanating light, impeccably framed and eerily imbued. Always worth a revisit—enjoy.

After booking a studio appointment at Celebrity Kids for our first family portrait, I received a follow-up phone call confirming the date and time and asking what type of photos we would be taking so they could let the photographer know (dressy, casual, etc.).

Service with a Smile

Upon arrival, we were greeted quickly and waited just a few minutes before our photographer came out and introduced himself. He showed us around the studio and asked a few questions about our style and what types of photography we liked — candid, posed, propped, or themed. He discussed the process—we would do the whole family first, then the kids, then review the images on screen in studio and make our selections. We had 90 minutes and the photos would be ready later the same week.

The photographer was personable and good with the kids, patient and full of ideas. He took photos when we weren’t ready–photos of us looking at each other and not just at the camera. They were perfect. I spent twice what I had planned and left feeling sick about the money I had spent.

A Value Proposition

In an effort to save money on my next set of pictures, I made an appointment at a different studio.

This time we were casually greeted and left to wait as staff members chatted in the back of the store. Eventually, the same person who greeted us and one of the people to whom she had been speaking told us they were ready and took us into a curtained room. No one ever spoke directly to me; the two staff members spoke more to each other than anyone else. When I mentioned wanting to change my daughter’s outfit, as their website had recommended, I was told “If there’s time and another appointment is not waiting.”

It was clear there was a system to which I wasn’t privy. One took photos as the other strategically posed my daughter, who not only looked uncomfortable but out of character.

An Image Problem

The photos I selected were printed out and handed to me in a messy pile. “Do these look okay to you?” I was asked. The photos were gray, muted, flat. Surprised at the low quality, I expressed my concerns. They did some retouching and reprinted slightly better images, but still not great.

I spent a fourth of what I spent at the first studio, but didn’t like the results. The process wasn’t personal — I felt like a name on a list and job that was to be started and finished in the allotted time frame.

Image Really Is Everything

In recent articles about branding we’ve touched on all that a brand is and how it is communicated to its audience through the logo, colors, messaging, imagery, website, staff and service.

A branding agency can do a lot for its clients, but it can’t hire the right people for your line of service. Remember, your people are your brand and even if you do everything else right, it only takes one bad experience to ruin your whole brand for that customer.

Image source: Prettywar-stl