3. What is Photo Sharing
Historic Overview:
Photo sharing is when a user shares his/her photos with others by publishing or
transferring digital photos online. Based on the development of internet and digital devices, the
process of photo sharing has been moving forward ever since it became a phenomenon. Photo
sharing started in the 1980s, at that time people stored their photos on CDs and sent them to
others through e-mail (Kissmetrics, 2011). When the 1990s came along, blogs and camera
phones started to become popular. People could take photos by using their phones and store
them in the memory cards or DVDs and then put the photos on their blog. From 2005, the social
network and 3G high speed wireless network came to stage. People were now able to use the
smart phones to take and post their photos on their social networks at any time. After that, Photo
sharing gradually separated from the social network and developed special websites for people to
post their photos and share them to others.
Overall, Photo sharing is not only the sharing of the photos but also the sharing of life,
and people have started showing their life preferences online. For the service industry, those
preferences are important to us. So more and more hospitality companies are going to use photo
sharing websites like Pinterest to do their research and marketing
Reach and Scope
Photo sharing has been embraced by the Hospitality industry because of its ability to
portray the desired business without using words and focusing on visual images. Many
businesses within the hospitality industry have taken a liking to popular photo sharing sites such
as Pinterest and Instagram. With Pinterest, the user can view photos of whatever topic they
desire and they can create “boards” based on what interests they have. When a consumer clicks
on a photo it takes them to an article or a website where that picture came from. For example: if
you click a picture of a sandy beach on Pinterest you may be taken to a tropical traveling
website. Instagram allows its consumers to take photographs and edit them to however they
want. After the photographs are edited users can post them to their accounts on Instagramand
even post them on Pinterest. It is very affective for these two popular photo-sharing sites to be
connected because it leads to easier access for the consumers and easy for businesses to post
information. By using Photo Sharing as a marketing technique, businesses are able to show their
customers available destinations without having to actually describe the destination. Businesses
are also able to keep track of what photographs consumers are viewing certain and what type of
“boards” they are making. By observing what types of photos a customer is clicking on
businesses can see what that particular customer is looking for. By knowing what customers
want, businesses can supply those wants.
Current Operating Impacts
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4. Businesses have begun to use Pinterest especially by creating boards that show off their
company. Norwegian cruise line was the first cruise industry leader to start using Pinterest.
Annemarie Matthews (Miller, 2012) stated “We liked Pinterest because cruising is so visual and
photo-driven that we thought it would be a good way to showcase our ships and Freestyle
Cruising”. Norwegian also has the option where if a Pinterest consumer clicks on one of their
images, it takes the consumer to the Norwegian website. Pinterest has not become popular just in
hospitality but also in the magazine business. Magazines like, Better Homes and Gardens, and
Real Simple use Pinterest for its visually appealing way of capturing customers. They also create
boards that relate to topic in their magazines, users are able to view 77 different boards that
Better Homes and Gardens have created (Vega, 2012).
Examples of Photo Sharing
Case study #1
The W Hotel chain is a luxury brand that takes pride in keeping an “Independent feel”
while still maintaning the reliability of a chain. W Hotels are located in major cities all around
the world and every location adopts the style of its surrounding area. Their particular location in
Times Square (which has a very modern, swanky, artistic feel) was one of the first hotels to
embrace Photo Sharing website Instagram, as a form of interactive advertisement(Chan, 2012).
The W Times Square created a Photo Sharing contest, urging Instagram users to take photos and
submit them via hash-tag #WDESIGN. The photographs were then used in one of the first
Instagram exhibits ever. When the exhibit opened the W Times Square had a launch party that
was open to the public so anyone could view the photographs for free. The exhibit was open to
the public for an entire week after the launch party. The W Times Square also worked very
closely with “Instagram NYC”, a photography community based in New York. A Few famous
Instagram photographers from “Instagram NYC” were featured in the exhibit as well(Bridif,
2012). The W Times Square chose a winner at the end of the contest and awarded the recipient
with a two night stay at the hotel. Currently the #WDESIGN hash-tag can still be viewed online
I think that the W Times Square hotel really did an excellent job embracing this trend so
that consumers would actually use it and become excited about it. The W Times Square was able
to get consumers at their hotel for an event, and they were able to give to their community by
providing a place for photographers to showcase their work. This event opened the door to let
amateur artists express themselves for free and provided them with an accomplishment they may
have not gotten elsewhere. By creating this exhibit the W Times Square had provided a charity
that came to no cost to the hotel. The W Times Square also made a connection to the artistic
community by providing this exhibit. By creating this connection there are many more
opportunities for both the artistic community and the hotel to look forward to. The W Times
Square hotel now has a permanent connection to Instagram and many of its users. If I were to do
anything differently about this event, I would make sure that the exhibit became a permanent
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5. fixture in the hotel. I would make sure that some of the photographs were permanently a part of
the hotel so customers could stay excited about it for a long time afterwards.
Unrelated business example #1
Burberry is an iconic fashion brand that has been around for almost 154 years and still is
financially successful today. Although Burberry is financially successful the company had
recently been impacted by the economic downturns in the United States of America. Burberry
went from having a profit margin of 15 per cent to 9.8 per cent in the year 2009(Grieve, 2013).
Burberry found that social media was their savior and a necessity for continuing in their success.
They first started their journey on the social media train by joining Facebook but Chief Creative
Officer Christopher Bailey insisted that there was more that needed to be done to effectively use
the social media available. It was then that Burberry decided to partner with Scott Schuman, who
is known as the Sartorialist. Working with Scott Schuman, Burberry created “The Art of
Trench”. The Art of Trench is a blog that customers can upload photos of themselves wearing
the famous Burberry Trench coat. Photos posted on the blog are able to be shared on Facebook
and Twitter along with other social media sites.
I believe that Burberry mad a wise decision when choosing to create The Art of Trench.
It was a way to launch photo sharing while still keeping a strong company image. Burberry was
able to use photo sharing successfully without using a website that was specifically meant for
photo sharing, which is difficult to do. The Art of Trench is still a very popular blog and has
proved it’s success with numbers. Burberry had successfully raised it’s profit up 50 per cent the
year after The Art of Trench was released. Clearly The Art of Trench was a success for Burberry.
Case Study #2
The Neemrana Hotels is an Indian organization which restores ruins and turns them into
heritage hotels which are called non-hotels. Neemrana Hotels started the modifications by adding
the basic amenities such as plumbing and air-conditioning hidden from view(Arindam , 2012).
After that, they designed the rooms in a more traditional colonial style. The company created a
Pinterest page with 19 Boards that reflect the different historical ruins near the
hotel(Rajagopalan, 2012). The company allows the customers to Pin their travel photos on these
boards, they also use these boards to let customers post comments of their stay.
From their Pinterest page, customers can learn about “non-hotels” (considering they are
not a popular form of accommodation). They can learn what a “non-hotel” looks like through
photo-sharing and also read short paragraphs on the history of how the Neemrana hotels came to
be. What is great about using the Neemrana Hotels Pinterest page is, not only do customers get a
photographic introduction to what these hotels are, but they get an extensive customer review at
the same time.
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6. There are still problems for Neemrana Hotels using Pinterest. They currently have only
54 followers, 154 Pins and 98 likes which indicates that even though they are successful in
business, they have been unable to attract a lot of Pinterest users to their page. We can see from
the NeemranaPinterest page that 3 boards are very popular compared to the other sixteen boards.
The 3 most popular Neemrana boards have an abundance of pictures, many views from their
Pinterest followers and extensive comments from their followers. For the other sixteen unpopular
boards there are minimal photographs (only 1 or 2 per board) as well as little user comment and
interaction. Although the Pinterest is a good stage for the company to show itself, there is a
lacking of organized management of the page. If Neemrana Hotels can manage all of their boards
as successfully as their most popular 3 boards, they could use Pinterest as a more organized and
presentable form of advertisement gaining a better marketing result.
Unrelated business example #2
Drake University uses Pinterest as a way to show their items/activities to students who
may be interested in them (Sorenson, 2012). On Pinterest, Drake University has boards that are
classified as: School events (Celebrate Drake, bulldogs without borders), Campus culture
(Ultimate fan, Wear Blue), Campus geographic information (campus beauty, Photo of the day),
etc. They also post study information on their Pinterest boards and other exciting things for
students, like the boards study inspiration.
By using Pinterest, Drake University can give more information to potential students who
are going to apply for the University as well as students already attending the University. By
using Pinterest this information is presented in a more attractive way, along with reaching
students through social media. Compared with traditional advertising methods, Pinterest can
dive future students into the campus culture and life. With just one glance, you can learn
information that you may have wanted to know you need to know about school. And it can really
touch what students want. For the enrolled students, Pinterest is more like a news board to them;
they can know what happens in school and the things that really attached to their campus life.
Photo Sharing Analysis
Professional Insight:
Practical use of a marketing strategy is necessary in order to confirm whether or not it is
successful. We talked to the manager of the Log Jam (a local Menomonie bar and restaurant)
Kristin Schenckto see if this trend was actually being put to use or not. Kristin is from the small
town of Pardeeville Wisconsin and this is her first management position. Kristin graduated from
the University of Wisconsin Stout. She has been managing Log Jam for about 3 years now.
Kristin does all of Log Jam’s marketing and deals with the customer service aspect of the
business.
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7. Kristin had crinkled her face in confusion when we had asked her whether or not Photo
sharing was an important part of Log Jam’s marketing. She didn’t really have any idea what
Photo sharing actually was. Once we explained to her that Photo sharing entailed using social
media sites to display photographs of the business and other things that would advertise to
customers, she understood. She claimed “Our employees take pictures of food or drink specials
that they have made and post them to Instagram sometimes.” She also went on to talk about how
the Log Jam relied heavily on “word of mouth” marketing and the only other things that they did
were coupon advertising. “A lot of local restaurants blow up social media sites and it almost is
too much.” She also claimed “We like to provide good service and know that our customers will
come back because of that”. After being asked if she saw the Log Jam using Photo sharing in the
future, she showed great interest and said “It is something I would definitely consider just don’t
know if I have the time for right now.”
Business Landscape
Currently the most popular way to share photos is by posting the photos on social media
sites like Facebook and Twitter (although these websites are not used specifically for businesses
to share photos). After that, specific websites like Pinterest and Instagram can be segmented
from those social networks. Almost every business can be found on Facebook or Twitter because
it has become a necessity for businesses to have. Unfortunately businesses are still figuring out a
way to successfully advertise on Facebook and Twitter therefore Photo sharing sites have been
put on the back burner. As stated previously in the interview, businesses sometimes just don’t
have the time to deal with social media sites, not to mention some businesses are beginning to
think they have too much Social Media going on already. If businesses can find a way to
successfully manage their Photo sharing social media sites, they could reach potential target
markets that would not have been reached before. It will also provide current consumers with a
new way to view the business and what it offers.
Photo sharing provides the consumers with a new way to make decisions. In the past, the
marketer would use the illusion of their words to persuade consumers. Now there is the option of
a visual image to aid marketers, and it all can be accessed easily online. There is also the option
for consumers to not be required to read about their desired destination, but simply view it.
Photo Sharing is an extremely useful tool and with photo sharing becoming popular, consumers
will now have more of a demand to see visual images of destinations before making their
decision.
Successful communication with consumers is what creates successful businesses. Photo
sharing is considered a type of social networking site (which is how the world communicates)
but it has a different way of communicating than traditional social network sites. In the past, lots
of businesses used their Facebook or Twitter pages as a way of speaking about their business.
However, Photo sharing can interact with customers without actually having to type/speak a
complete thought. By simply putting an image on a Photo Sharing site, a business can show
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8. consumers what they want them to see. Not only can Photo Sharing communicate with
consumers through visual images, but their consumers can communicate back with visual images
as well. Companies cannot post every interesting and attractive photo by themselves so having
their consumer’s post Photos as well is a great form of interaction and also a great form of
consumer feedback.
5 points related to the book:
Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is extremely important to any business. Without it a business would
not thrive. Creating outstanding customer satisfaction depends on a product’s perceived
performance and delivering value relative to a buyer’s expectations. The customer’s expectations
are based on past experiences, the opinions of friends, and market information. Marketers must
be careful to set the right level of expectations. Photo sharing is a good way to provide the
customers with the right expectations. With shared photos, customers can have a direct view of
what they are potentially going to experience. Compared to the traditional way of giving the
preview for the customers, photo sharing can provide a better and more realistic expectation for
customers. Therefore, we can gain successful customer satisfaction.
Marketing research
Managers cannot always wait for information to arrive on how well their business is doing.
They need specific research to uncover useful information. Photo sharing is providing a new tool
for marketers to do their marketing research. Marketing research is a process that identifies and
defines marketing opportunities and problems, monitors and evaluates marketing actions and
performance, and communicates the findings and implications to management. Websites like
Pinterest and Instagram are outstanding information provider for the marketers.
Consumer buying behavior
Consumer purchases are strongly influenced by cultural, social, personal, and psychological
characteristics. By being able to observe what sort of photos customers are viewing, marketers
can track their behaviors. Marketers can use the information they find from Photo sharing
websites and analyze what photographs match customer behaviors. By doing the analysis,
marketers can advertise effectively to customers who display the same behaviors.
Marketing segmentation
When creating successful marketing the seller needs to identify market segments, select
one or more, and develops products and services tailored to each selected segment. There are
many traditional ways to segment, for example: segmenting markets by using age,
geographical location or zip code. Those segmentations are based basic information and
don’t really describe how a person is. However, with Photo sharing websites, we can know
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9. more about consumers’ behavior so that we can use a new and pertinence way to do our
segmentation which can work better than the traditional natural segmentation.
Internal Marketing
Often, the most effective way of communicating with customers is through a businesses’
employees. An employee can effectively tell a customer what the business offers and answer any
questions right away. Photo sharing provides an effective way for employees to get involved in
the marketing aspect. Log Jam restaurant, as an example, uses photos that their staff uploads to
Instagram and Facebook as a form of marketing. By adding employee Photo sharing to already
existing marketing techniques, businesses can create an effective way to market to their
customers.
Maintaining a competitive advantage
Photo sharing is indispensable in the future business. With the development of the new
social networks, new demands of consumers are brought out. The demand is having a visual
experience before makinga decision. As future business owners and Professionals of
Hospitality, we cannot ignore this demand. If a company lacks this kind of service, it will bring
consumers the feeling of discomfort or dissatisfactionwhen they are considering whether to
purchase with that company or not. Of course, a company doesn’t have to provide this kind of
service, but if by choosing not to partake in the Photo Sharing trend they will lose their
competitive edge. So to successfully achieve and keep up with the demand of the consumers
companies must use some form of Photo Sharing.
Overall, Photo Sharing websites bring us a new target market. The users ofInstagram
grew from 1 million in 2010 to over 30 million users in 2012; over 150 million photos have been
uploaded with Instagram. Pinterest can also provide us with the huge amount of consumers. If
a company chooses not to partake in using websites like these, they can lose a huge amount of
their target market.
Although Photo sharing is necessary in the future, the knowledge of how to manage it is
still lacking in the business world. Lots of businesses have no clear idea about how to manage
their web page successfully, how to gain followers, and how to become famous through those
websites. Once a company can successfully use this tool for marketing, it will become a great
success to the business world.
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10. References
Arindam , C. (2012, Sept. 18). Non-hotels [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from
http://www.linkedin.com/company/neemrana-hotels/non-hotels-739683/product
Chan, A. (2012, May 1). Instagram spotlight: First ever instagram exhibition at the w times
square hotel. Huffington Post. Retrieved from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/instagram-spotlight_n_1464457.html
Grieve, J. (2013, February 3). How burberrycapitalised social media. Business Today. Retrieved
from http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/burberry-social-media-initiative/1/191422.htm
KISSmetrics.(2011) (Chart).“The History of Photo Sharing” blog.kissmetrics.com Retrieved
from http://blog.kissmetrics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/photo-sharing.pdf
Miller, T. (2012, Aug 15). Norwegian cruise line launches cruise giveaway contest on
pinterest. Breaking Travel News. Retrieved from
http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/news/article/norwegian-cruise-line-launches-cruise-
giveaway-contest-on-pinterest/
Rajagopalan. (2012, April 27). [Web log message]. Retrieved from
http://inboundmantra.com/five-pinterest-india-examples-of-social-media-for-hotels/
Sorenson, L. (2012, February 2nd) (n.d.).“Hubspot.com” Retrieved from
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31199/7-Examples-of-Brands-That-Pop-on-
Pinterest.aspx
Vega, T. (2012, April 17). Marketers find a friend in pinterest. The New York Times. Retrieved
from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/business/media/marketers-find-a-friend-in-
pinterest.html?_r=0
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