What About Women?

There isn’t a lot of research data about the wireless digital picture frame market right now outside of the work being done by Parks Associates, but the data that is out there makes fairly clear: women are the key market for wireless frames right now.

Here’s what we know:

• Pandigital sold over 405,000 frames to women at Christmas 2006, making women 78% of their customers.
• Over 112,00 frames were sold in just the one week leading up to Mother’s Day, according to The NPD Group.

So, since women are the key market segment, how are wireless digital picture frame manufacturers going to pursue women?

Pandigital clearly has some of the right ideas: they’re selling their frames not only through the traditional consumer electronics channels, but also at places that women shop more often than men: Linens N Things, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and Macy’s, among others. I’d expect that other manufacturers will see Pandigital’s success with this strategy and duplicate it.

But there’s a lot more to marketing wireless digital frames to women than where the frames are sold.

One way in which manufacturers can appeal more to women is through the design of their marketing, packaging, and products. Much of what I’ve seen manufacturers doing in these areas is fairly standard consumer electronics fare: there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s not specifically targeting women either. That may need to change.

Frame design will especially be an issue with women, I think. If you’re a manufacturer who assumes that your initial market is the early-adopter technologist, who is usually male, the look of the frame is less important (sorry to say, but the hardcore geek isn’t well known for attention to style). But if women are your market the look of a frame matters more. I don’t know that we’ve seen this market recognition reflected in frame design yet, but I think we will.

The importance of women may also drive the kinds of content that becomes available for wireless picture frames. If you’re trying to get women to buy your frame, offering RSS feeds related to home improvement, style, celebrity news, Grey’s Anatomy, or whatever else your market research tells you women are interested in could drive sales.

Christmas 2007 is going to be an important event for the wireless frame market. Since women tend to drive most home goods purchases, I suspect that at least some of what determines success this Christmas will be who best caters to the female customer.

What About Obstacles to Adoption?

Looking at the wireless digital picture frame market in June, I wonder: Are we all waiting for the holidays?

Everyone expects Christmas this year to be a big event for wireless frames, but there haven’t been any major developments in the wireless digital frame market in the last few months. Sure, manufacturers have brought out new models and customer care initiatives have been undertaken, but these have been incremental improvements building on existing products, not the introduction of new, must-have items.

Frames are selling well – witness Pandigital’s Christmas sales last year and this year’s reported Mother’s Day sales – but their sales seem tied to holidays. The wireless digital picture frame isn’t a year-round item right now.

That’s reflective of general retail trends – some retail businesses do as much as 80% of their annual sales at the year-end holidays. And maybe it’s part of the development of a new market, too. But, if wireless digital picture frames are going to break out of their niche, they’ll need to sell more regularly throughout the year.

It’s clear that a lot of frame makers are gearing up already for the holiday season and that, after those sales, we’ll be looking at a very different frame landscape come January 2008.

But that’s 6 months away right now. So I’m thinking: What’s stopping people from buying a wireless digital frame right now?

I’d love to hear from you about what would get you to buy a wireless frame before the holidays. Not only would it be interesting to us at WirelessPictureFrame.com and our readers, but it will also influence what we write about and discuss with manufacturers.

We’ll post a follow-up with the results of the voting in a few weeks.