The Instagram photo printer that sparked crowds of people queuing up, what exactly is it so popular about?
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Speaking of instagram, this photography app, everyone must be familiar with it. Especially after it was acquired by Facebook in April 2012, its popularity has increased even more. Not only does Instagram often appear in our field of vision, young friends like to use IG to refer to it. People tell stories or share their lives through casual photos. It can be said to be a popular thing among the youth generation.
You may have an Instagram account and have uploaded many wonderful photos, but have you ever thought about printing out memorable IG photos? If there was an IG version of Polaroid, would you want to try it?
“Photography Life Fotovita” from Spain has currently established nearly 20 branches across Taiwan, mainly located in department stores or bookstores where young people often hang out. It is common to see groups of young people waiting in line to print their favorite IG photos.
This Instagram photo printer was first introduced to Eslite Xinyi store in May 2016, and was later gradually extended to Eslite Dunnan, Songyan, Ximen, Wuchang and Banqiao stores to provide services. According to Eslite Bookstore statement, if calculated based on the single weekend when the Xinyi store was first opened, the printer started working every 2.6 minutes, which sounds very popular with the consumer public.
Since last year, when I passed by the Eslite Dunnan store several times, I could see this Instagram photo printer at the entrance on the first floor. But if I remember correctly, it seems business is not going as expected? Looking back, maybe it was because there was insufficient publicity at the time, the printing cost was not accepted by the market, or maybe people were not very good at using it? I noticed that although passers-by were looking around, I rarely saw anyone actually putting coins in to print photos.
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The turning moment when crowds of people emerge
But, something interesting happened! During my recent visits to the Eslite Dunnan store, I was surprised to find that the situation has changed. I wonder if it’s because summer vacation is here and students are coming out one after another? Or is it because the publicity technique worked and the whole popularity was opened up? I saw a long line of people starting to appear in front of the “Print Life Fotovita” machine, and they were all young faces.
Today I went to the Eslite Dunnan store again, and I happened to see the staff of “Fotovita” repairing the machine, and not surprisingly, there were a bunch of students queuing behind. Seeing everyone waiting patiently left a deep impression on me. On the one hand, I am not surprised that Instagram is so closely connected with young people’s lives, but I am also curious why it is not enough for people to browse photos on their smartphones or computers. Why do they have to print out the photos?
I casually asked a few young people waiting in line, and they all told me that they wanted to make good memories. Some people say they want to print out beautiful photos and stick them on their wallets, while others say they want to give them to lovers or besties as souvenirs.
In this era when people generally don’t develop photos, why are more and more people willing to spend money to print out photos taken with their mobile phones as souvenirs? This incident got me thinking, what did “Fotovita” do right in the process of introducing Taiwan for promotion and marketing?
Analysis of the marketing strategy of Yinxiang Life
After returning home from Eslite Bookstore, I started doing research on the Internet. After searching, I found that some media or bloggers had written about “Story” about “Fotovita Life Fotovita”. These reports will definitely help to increase publicity. But what else has “Print Life Fotovita” done? Is there anything else we don’t know?
You can get some clues by going to the fan page of “Fotovita”. It can be learned from the website that there are currently more than 5,000 likes. The popularity seems to be good, and the frequency of updates is not very high. However, I found that “Print Photo Life Fotovita” cooperates with many celebrities and stars, using the celebrity effect to boost fan economy.
For example, the recent [collaboration] with Malayan Tapir (http://vip.eslite.com/html/member_news/1706/0616edm6/0616edm6.html), coupled with the promotion of Eslite itself, creates a special eye-catching effect, and it feels like it has attracted quite a lot of attention. In addition, they are also actively forming alliances with festivals and events such as the Taipei Film Festival, and launching exclusive photo frames and other peripheral products. This is also a very smart approach that can increase centripetal force and added value.
Well, maybe next time I have the opportunity to visit Eslite Bookstore, I will pretend to be a young man and join the queue to put in coins and print some IG photos as a souvenir!
★ Photo Credit: Photographed by Vista Cheng
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