The touching business of memories

Drug Store News, June 22, 1998

Memory books strike a chord with consumers.

Memory books-the newest twist on the photo album and scrapbook-are an emerging phenomenon. Starting at craft stores about two years ago, the products are now moving into the mass market. The concept is an outgrowth of many trends, from nesting and a huge new generation of kids, to the availability of new user-friendly ways to take and copy photographs.

The idea is to arrange photos of family or friends in creative ways using techniques such as colored papers and scissors to add decorative edges and paper crimpers for textured effects, as well as other tools, such as adhesives, labels and stencil kits. The most important elements are the photos. And they are photos that people want to last, so the memory materials they seek are acid free.

The most recent Photo Marketing Association consumer survey revealed that 85.2 percent of consumers keep their photos in albums. For retailers, the new breed of "memory book" photo albums will spur replacement of old albums and encourage the purchase of page refills with features especially for this emerging activity, as well as supplies like colored papers and other tools.

Eckerd is among the major chains testing memory book products. At discounter PriceLess in California, president George Jeffers told Drug Store News recently that he is selling quantities of photo albums, edger scissors, paper crimpers and paper punches.

Although the new memory book products from Pioneer Photo Albums have been on the market less than a year, president Shell Plutsky said retailers are selling six to seven refills per memory book. "That's just incredible because in the past you mainly sold one or two refills per product and it would take years to build to that level," he said. "Now it's happening overnight." Pioneer's products, such as Le Memo and Creative EZ Load Memory Book, are found in Say-on and other chains.

Photo album manufacturer Holson thinks mass market memory albums are the biggest trend in albums this year. "We're finding that people who invest in memory albums are the same people who like to bake bread or work in their gardens," said Holson's director of marketing, Jim Comber. The challenge, he noted, is to translate this into a manageable business for the mass market retailer, and one way is through female-friendly merchandising, since women buy more than 80 percent of all photo albums.

Among Holson's offerings is a kit with everything a consumer needs to customize her album, including a copy of Memory Makers magazine to provide suggestions. Another vendor in this category is Hallmark, which also offers kits of photo-safe products with themed albums, stickers, frames and shapes. Designs include vacation, school, baby, sports, wedding and seasons. Kits coming up from Hallmark will include how-to tips.

Photo-safe features

Compared with traditional scrapbooks, the difference is the use of plastic, not paper and acid-free or photo-safe materials. New books are not bound, but are open and removable so the user can slide paper inside the plastic page. "It also allows them to run pages through a copier or digital printer," noted Pioneer's Plutsky. Two of Pioneer's models are the MB 10 (12-by-12-inches) and MB 8-11 (8.5-by11 inches), which have post systems and take refills. There is also a home party system that sells its own brand of memory book supplies; Pioneer's refills also fit this system's memory books.

Kevin Thays, associate communications coordinator for Fiskars, noted that his company created its full line of memory book products based on its core product line: scissors, paper punchers and other cutting products. "We had those in place, then the [memory book] trend came along and it made perfect sense for us to go into it" by adding themed books, papers, sheet protectors, glue and stencils, he said. "it's been very well received across the board. The drug chains were the last group of retailers to bring it in. The trend is booming across the board for us, and it is our biggest product line in terms of growth."

Memory book consumers are doing three things, Thays explained. "They're digging up photos they've stored for years, they're finding creative new ways to put them on a page and they're taking new photos. I think that's where the biggest end of the trend is--the heirloom thing. When you look at photos in a regular scrapbook, they fade because the acid causes the photos to deteriorate." With memory books, consumers are creating something that will last a long time.

Manco, another supplier in the memory book segment, offers new correction and adhesive products like the Easy*Stick Rollers. This adhesive is acid-free and archival-safe for mounting photos, memory books and scrapbooks. There are two models: one dispenses adhesive for permanent bonding; the other dispenses a removable adhesive that can create a self-stick note out of any paper.

Manco's Brian Vulpitta noted, "On our packaging we're promoting safe, acid-free, archival in a big way." Vulpitta noted that at one time a word such as archival was considered a trade word. "But it has reached the consumer; they are aware of what that word means and are looking for those products."