What About Style?
The current crop of wireless digital picture frames are not stylish enough. While their screens are fine, the cases are too drab, too plastic, too much like technology products and not enough like lifestyle products.
Traditional picture frames, the items digital frames are competing to replace, make your home or office look better, more comfy, more lived in. They do this not only through the pictures they display, but also by matching the décor of the room and the taste of the owner. These frames come in many colors, in many styles and materials, all with an eye towards style.
But this eye for style is blind when it comes to digital frames. They’re usually black, and sometimes brown, and sport molded plastic around their screens. There’s really not anything in the way of options or customization to make the frame better suit the look of the room it’s going into. And there needs to be.
Though some consumers likely won’t care too much about styling - they’ll be more attracted to the cool factor of the technology - others may be put off from buying digital frames until they’re able to get the same kind of customized experience that they get now at frame stores.
There are a number of ways that manufacturers could solve this issue. They could offer to customize frames on their websites, allowing customers to buy just the frame they want. PhotoVu already offers a service like this, offering both stock framing options and full custom jobs. Offering online tools to test various frame styles and colors, the way cars manufacturers let you “build” your own dream vehicle, would be a good addition for these kinds of retailers.
Another way to handle this would be to embrace the secondary market - picture frame stores. If digital frames take over, these stores will be left with a lot of style expertise, but drastically smaller markets. Why not work with these experts to find ways to sell barebones frames to customers (using these stores as retail outlets would expand reach beyond just electronics stores) and then let frame stores add the final touches to them? Authorized reseller programs could be created, company-branded framing materials offered, and more. This kind of arrangement could drive business in both directions
Whatever form it takes, manufacturers need to remember that form is sometimes just as important as function.
