Fuji helps America take FinePix

Drug Store News, June 25, 2001 by Jennifer Kulpa

ELMSFORD, N.Y. -- With road trip season in full swing, Fujifilm has started the engine on a summer trek of its own. The company's FinePix Picture of America Tour, which took to the highway in early May, travels not with the goal of seeing America, but of helping America see that digital photography is nothing to fear.

It's a mobile marketing initiative in the form of a high-tech, souped-up truck the size of a studio apartment, with a 1000-square-foot interior ready to welcome and convert digital-phobics along a 40-city tour. At each stop, curious consumers can hop aboard, tinker with digital cameras, try out the various features, ask questions and--the company hopes--leave feeling more comfortable with the concept and equipment than they were previously.

"We want to educate consumers about digital photography," said spokeswoman Lori Robinson. "Some people are reluctant to buy a digital camera, so we're doing this to dispel the myths and show them how easy it is to [use]." With a tagline of "Shoot, Store, Print, Share," the tour hopes to accomplish that goal by not only boiling down the information to simple, easy-to-understand steps, but by giving each visitor the opportunity to go through the process firsthand. Visitors will have their photos taken, stored, printed and saved online for sharing via email.

Along with educating consumers on the ease with which digital photographs can be taken, the truck contains a "living wall" of constantly-changing high-tech flat video and plasma screens showing off the range of digital possibilities.

One thing customers will not find on the truck, however, are products to buy. "There are no sales from the truck, so it's a purely educational tool, and folks can feel comfortable coming in, playing with the cameras and asking questions," Robinson noted. The company is banking on the hope that consumers who ask to purchase a camera--and during an unpublicized test stop in Boston there were 40 of them in 12 hours--will still want to do so by the time they get to a store.

Other cities on the 30,535-mile tour include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Baltimore and other markets with heavy foot traffic. The truck will visit fairs, events and the parking lots of retail partners Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target and Circuit City. This year, Robinson noted, no drug stores are participating, "but it is a goal for the future of this ongoing program."

Digital camera sales are expected to grow at a rate of 55 percent over last year, according to the Photo Marketing Association International and Infotrends, reaching unit sales of 9.4 million and achieving a house hold penetration rate of 18 percent in North American this year.