Online Digital Photographic Processing

Cambridge. 23 July 2009. - When the start of a new school year approaches, the school bag needs filling. The online photo printer FotoInsight from Cambridge offers a new service to individualise such items. The idea is to personally engage the youngsters with their school supplies, to ensure that they will look after them. In addition, own pictures of a pet, a group of friends or from the holidays keep positive memories alive. An aluminium water flask with a personal photograph is less likely to be kicked in-lieu of a football. The school bag will be treated with due care if the the own image has been printed onto it. FotoInsight now prints digital photographs onto practical items like spiral note pads, money boxes or fluffy key rings.

In time for the new school year FotoInsight introduces a new line of photo products today. Examples of products onto which the online photo service applies customer photographs through the free ordering software FotoInsight Designer include:

- Spiral bound notepad (A4, £6.99/€8.99) - introductory 3 for 2 offer *
- Spiral bound notepad (A5, £5.99/€6.99) - introductory 3 for 2 offer *
- Animal key chain (£5.99/€7.99)
- Money box (£9.99/€13.99)
- Messenger Bags (£19.99/€29.99)
- Aluminium sports bottle with photo (£12.99/€14.99)

Product Personalisation through Mass Customisation

The expression Mass Customisation is oxymoron, joining the opposites "Mass Production" and "Customisation", which has lately become fashionable. Mass customisation aims at producing goods and services to individual customer specifications with efficiencies and costs similar to mass production. Some firms in the growing photo gifts market, for example FotoInsight Ltd, apply this strategy, using new technologies and innovative structures to submit mass produced items like key rings and water bottles to an individualisation process, applying user photographs. To achieve costs and delivery times similar to those of mass produced standard items, the production architecture has to be structured in a way that the individualisation takes place at the rear end of the production chain. These firms acquire mass produced components produced benefiting from large economies of scale. As the individualisation can only be applied after an order has been placed, the process is called an "X-to-order" production. The gift items market with its strong seasonal fluctuations towards Christmas and Mother's day requires a particularly flexible production.

Realising own ideas

"Services that want to survive the fast changing photo printing market have to produce goods in a way that each customer will find exactly what he or she wants", states FotoInsight's Managing Director Klaas Brumann. A growing number of items ranging from the useful to the decorative undergo customisation by application of customer photographs. Users can turn own ideas into realities, which often have an artistic theme or are aesthetic, funny or personal. Consumers' growing design orientation becomes useful on school supplies. Everyday items like notepads, which are often no longer valued by many pupils, receive a new personal value when they are individual.

* Notepads' introductory offer: 3 for 2

FotoInsight is introducing spiral bound notepads (pages with grid lines) with fully editable photo cover with a three for the price of two promotion. The voucher code: " BACK2SCHOOL " is valid until 30 September 2009. Only one voucher or promotion per order.

Contact

FotoInsight Ltd.

Catalina Martinez, Head of International Communication
Cambridge, CB4 1ZP, UK
Skype fotoinside
Tel. +44 (0)8700 114911
Fax +44 (0)8715 601675
Email: pr (at) fotoinsight.co.uk

Labels: aluminium sports bottle, customization, money box, photo gifts, photo note pad, printing, school bag, school bags