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A Plea to Manufacturers from Digital Divas: Don�t Forget about Us!

There's money to be made by adapting your products and services to digital scrapbookers.

by PC Smart (March 21, 2005)

Like a giant shadow looming in the corner, Digital Scrapbooking is creeping into the industry, pulling in devotees as it gains in popularity. Simple Scrapbooks recently came out with Digital Scrapbooking 3, filled with examples, tips, techniques, and loads of product reviews. Most scrapbook magazines have at least one column dedicated to digital scrapping, and the tech companies are just leaping over the fence to court this vast market. Adobe introduced Photoshop Elements 3.0 as a follow up to the wildly successful 2.0 software. There are many websites where users can learn all about digital scrapping, download background papers and embellishments, or chat with other digital divas. Even Two Peas in a Bucket has thrown their hat in the ring with a line of digital downloads.

Now, before you traditional manufacturers start crying foul, take a step back and hear me out. This is not the death bell tolling for paper scrapping. There will always be people who prefer to cut and paste by hand instead of by mouse. We like to use the terms Paste Eaters and CG�ers (computer generated) when discussing these two groups. Many scrappers tend to fall into both categories at once. They dabble at CG while staying firmly glued to their paper, or they are digital divas who feel the need to get their hands into a paper stash now and then.

How does the traditional manufacturer cope with this new market? Everywhere you go on the net, there is someone offering downloads of digital background papers or embellishments. Some are totally created pixel by pixel and others are scanned objects that have been enhanced digitally. There are a few sites where these downloads are free, but many are charging up to $15 for a set of papers and embellishments. That is $15 profit with no overhead except for bandwidth on the site. There are designer fees and digitizing costs, but they are minimal compared with what it costs a traditional manufacturer to print and ship products. Plus, instant satisfaction for the consumer tends to be a very attractive incentive for downloading new elements/papers.

For those digital scrappers who still crave the new lines from traditional companies, there is always the scanner. (I can hear the collective "gasp" from the legal eagles). Yes, some consumers are scanning papers and embellishments and using them in their digital layouts. Their belief is that if they purchase the paper, scan it, destroy the original piece they bought and only use the file once � it is perfectly legal.

(Don�t send me any hate mail; this is not something I am endorsing but rather a practice I have witnessed time and again on Internet galleries and message boards.) Are you getting a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach yet?

Good news! Things are not all that bleak for you paper companies. You have the ability to capitalize on the designs you already have in your inventory and turn a profit in the digital arena. By digitizing your papers and embellishments, you can offer them on your website as downloads for the CG scrappers. If you don�t have the ability to do downloads on your site, there are many hosting sites that would help to "distribute" your designs. Many of these sites have digital design teams that will promote the products by giving tutorials and step-by-step instructions. If you want to keep things on the physical level, offer the designs on a clip art CD and distribute it through your regular store channels. Many digital scrappers shop at local stores and more would venture into the paste eaters paradise more often if there were products for them waiting on the shelves.

When the subject of digitizing designs came up at a recent conference, there was one manufacturer who said, "What is to stop someone from taking the design and printing their own papers instead of buying them?" Have you priced inkjet ink recently? It is not cost effective and would just not be practical. Yes, people can share the files. But when you are charging $20 for a CD or $15 for a download, the profit margin can take a bit of battering and still hold up.

There are so many advantages to digitizing your designs. Aside from the obvious one of making them available to the digital scrappers, have you thought about the cross-over promotion? Many paper scrappers are inspired by digital layouts but find they cannot reproduce the designs because the files are not available in paper form. Now when a digital layout is done featuring your line, it is credited and traditional scrappers are shown a whole new way to use those same designs in paper. Or other CG scrappers will be enticed to purchase the kit to recreate the look without having to manipulate their own layers and pixels. There becomes a form of standardization between the two types of scrapping.

Another plea from the digital people, this one for the cardstock companies: Please create digital files of your colors! When a layout is done digitally, if you are lucky there is an RGB number/pantone number to refer to the colors used. This is not printed in the magazines and leaves many people frustrated. If layouts were done with step-by-step instructions to use XYZ company Lime Green with XYZ company Lemon Yellow, it would simplify the process. These files can be offered as downloads or on CD also.

The last plea is for Clip Art. The scrapbooking world needs more clip art! Not just for the digital scrappers, but for everyone who uses a printer for their scrapping and crafting. We need photo clip art, licensed clip art, sports clip art, and more. Not cutesy little bunnies but realistic images that are recognizable and fit with today�s scrap style. Companies like Hemera Technologies and Broderbund sell clip art packages with thousands of images, but very few of those images are useful to scrappers. Look in your inventory; you probably have awesome images that would be perfect as scrap clip art.

I hope that our pleas are not falling on deaf ears. This is an opportunity to take advantage of a burgeoning market that is starved for new and quality products. If you are interested in pursuing the digital scrapper, but don�t know where to start, contact me. I will put you in touch with graphic artists and software designers who can help you create and market your digital line.

(Note: PC Smart writes for art/craft industry consumer and trade publications in addition to being a marketing consultant and designer. Contact her at pcsmart@bellsouth.net. In her previous, non-creative life, she was a database systems designer for a pharmaceutical company. Her main goal in writing about technology has been the marriage of computers and traditional art/crafts. Specializing in consumer level designs, Pamela focuses on the use of graphics software, scanners, and printers to help the average crafter use their computer for more than an expensive email machine. She believes that technology should be used as a tool in creativity and not necessarily the final output. To read previous columns, click on the titles in the right-hand column.)

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