For a homeowner, one camera will replace 3 or 4 standard cameras, wired window screens, door switches and motion detection. So, saving money to start with. If you happen to want to see who’s driving your cars, visiting your kids or using your pool while you’re away, you can check on your cell or iPad.
$1800 MSRP for digital, $1200 for Analog. Less if they like you. Runs on Windows/Explorer with 1 wire on that laptop you don’t use any more. Analytics are $150-$xxx.
Reaching consumers is expensive and tricky. I’d look for licensing partners who are already successful in the consumer end. Take this technology to the Go Pro Hero sports cam people. They already produce a groundbreaking camera with excellent quality at a very low price. Mount these as a 360 helmet cam. Record your sports activity in super high resolution, and use that extra resolution to extract a stabilized 1080P segment from it.
Another thing is in the automotive area. Regular back-up cams suck. They are usually low res, and have such distorted fish-eye lenses that they are difficult to use safely. Sell to auto makers, or aftermarket for truckers.
As mentioned above, you need to put that info on the website.
I don’t know how that pricing compares to standard security cameras, so maybe talk up how it can replace X number of standard cameras or something as a sales point.
As it stands now, even if I came across the website and thought “ooh, cool”, I’d assume that the price was out of my range. That’s been my experience with sites that refuse to give pricing or require me to “contact our sales staff”.
I don’t want to deal with some huckster trying to give me the hard sell, I just want to buy a damn camera.
Until you get basic stuff like that worked out, no Cat Video is going to do you any good.
And gaffa has a good idea.
Look at some of the mountain biking videos. If your camera can be made portable enough to take on a bike ride, MTBers would go for it. Probably motocross, too.
And if you can get some top riders to film some awesome rides for you, those make great video.
Why not do a Cat Video?
I’m serious. Partner with a pet shelter, or with someone who fosters kittens. Live-streaming kittens in 200 degrees, including when the lights are turned off at night. The secret lives of kittens, finally you can find out what they do AFTER you turn out the lights. You want something that will go viral, so that an incredibly wide population looks at it and goes “wow.”
Sports videos might be another possibility.
One thing we’re missing here is some kind of budget. You mention he’s not buying a Superbowl ad (and rightfully so), but what kind of promotional budget is he working with? Does he want something on the cheap, or is he willing to invest in this product? $10k, $50k, $100k?
Driving demand through end users for this type of product can be very tricky. Many tend to take the recommendation of the security professional since he “knows what he’s doing.”
It might be better to better detail the advantages of this camera to security professionals using the aforementioned trade publications/websites. Why should they be recommending this camera to their customers? Maybe that’s because they can do setup faster and they can do more jobs in a day, or corner a market by being one of the few installers that works with this technology, higher markup for higher ticket items, and so on.
Also, consider the market. I don’t know that many people are going to want to spend $5k plus for a home video surveillance system. (cost of camera, plus DVR, plus wiring, plus installation) I think this product is best marketed towards businesses with a need. Consider a case study or feature article in trade magazines/websites that target jewelry stores, banks, casinos and other high end retailers.
For example, if that money counting video was shot in a casino, get them to participate in a story about how the system benefited them and place it in Casino Chronicle.
I would definitely try to find target/niche markets first. Those will be the buyers with the shortest lead times for purchase. A jewelry store owner who sees the advantages to the system is going to be a much more motivated buyer than Joe Doctor who wants to make sure his neighbors dog stays out of his yard.
I gotta ask: Why aren’t there any low-light stills or videos?
It’s not a big secret. All questions are answered - with demos - on the web site. If you click through to your local distributor, the prices are right there. Regional distributors are not big fans of direct sales. On eBay too.
Low-light zoomable stills and video on site; www.scallopimaging.com
You’re looking for the M6 and “Imaging.”
Also, consider the market. I don’t know that many people are going to want to spend $5k plus for a home video surveillance system. (cost of camera, plus DVR, plus wiring, plus installation) I think this product is best marketed towards businesses with a need. Consider a case study or feature article in trade magazines/websites that target jewelry stores, banks, casinos and other high end retailers.
Agreed. He did that first. All referenced on site.
For example, if that money counting video was shot in a casino, get them to participate in a story about how the system benefited them and place it in Casino Chronicle.
Casinos are the hardest sell. They won’t even tell you what they have now or who’s running it. They also want 35fps to catch sharps. Cash handling:yes. Card handling: no.
I would definitely try to find target/niche markets first. Those will be the buyers with the shortest lead times for purchase. A jewelry store owner who sees the advantages to the system is going to be a much more motivated buyer than Joe Doctor who wants to make sure his neighbors dog stays out of his yard.
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Oddly, Joe Doctor - once he has personally seen the results of the Scallop camera - will call his installer and buy stuff WAY faster than a jewelry store owner, who clearly has no use for another set of cameras because the ones he has are fine…even if they’re analog and 10 years old. Trust me on this one.
Do doctors watch cat videos?
I have an apartment in Kansas City. As soon as Google Fiber hooks up my apartment and several of my clients, they will have the bandwidth to support one of these cameras as a next-generation webcam. Put a couple of these aimed at the stage at a music venue like Knuckleheads Saloon that has music nearly every night of the week. Couple that with a viewer that would allow the viewer to zoom in on whatever portion of the stage they desire, with a transparent Scallop Imagine logo in the corner.
As you said, the security market thinks things are fine the way they are. You have to solve more difficult problems.
[quote=“Stormcrow, post:26, topic:610405”]
Why not do a Cat Video?
I’m serious. Partner with a pet shelter, or with someone who fosters kittens. Live-streaming kittens in 200 degrees, including when the lights are turned off at night. The secret lives of kittens, finally you can find out what they do AFTER you turn out the lights. You want something that will go viral, so that an incredibly wide population looks at it and goes “wow.”
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
I’ll have the lads get something. Where do we put it up? Does it have to have photoshopped orcas eating the kittens…or just kittens?
Good brain. We’re working on this exactly. Go look at Bob Weir’s TRI studio site.
We use it on SWAT robots too, before the guys go into a building.
Yup,yup,yup. A little heavy still, we’re working on chip recording and small batteries, but the zoomable windows change everything. I use a Scallop D180 in my racecar. You get hands and faces of driver (and passenger), instruments, closeups of both side mirrors and a 100* window out the windshield, PLUS the whole 180* stream and the ability to zoom and pan when you get home. Thing is, most people have peripheral awareness out to about 165-170* but they aren’t really SEEING anything other than movement. And humans aren’t really seeing in sharp focus except directly in front of them. Brain’s 'shopping in the rest. 180* full depth of field is sort of like sitting in the front row at IMAX…needs some getting used to.
Ah, I see. I couldn’t find them in the imagery section.
These are AWESOME.
shrug Hey, you’re the one looking for advice.
So your theory on selling things is to make the customer really, really have to work for it? That’s an interesting notion.
Like multiple clicks to wander through to a regional distributor that doesn’t exist in my area? To find a website that may or may not give me the info that I need (can’t know till I spend the time and effort to go find it and then try to find your product on their site)?
You’ve lost my business already. Personal and professional; I frequently am called on to find and recommend stuff for work - and your site wouldn’t be one I’d bother with for that, either, unless someone else insisted.
I see sites like yours every day - I’m not interested in jumping through your hoops, certainly not gonna do it before I even know if you’re in my price range. I don’t want to watch a bunch of videos, I want to find some basic information in a relatively easy and efficient manner.
I think you have a seriously, seriously mistaken notion of how effective your “cat video” is going to be. Yeah, get something cool on YouTube and everyone will watch.
Then because you ignore all of the actual details of how to market and sell online, that will be the end of it.
You’ll have a cool video - and still no sales.
Have fun with that.
Or stop trying to market directly to the public and quit trying to market online, both of which you evidently don’t know how to do at all, and find other markets and methods.
I’d also look at “reality tv”. Right now, there are always camera crews, so the available pool of participants is limited to attention whores. A number of these cameras in well-selected positions could conceivably allow eliminating all camera crews from the environment, and getting more interesting programming. I’d have someone in Hollywood trying to catch the attention of noted technophiles like Jim Cameron. One mention of the product’s name on national TV is worth far more than the cost of the equipment.
Thanks for the comments. Sorry to lose your business. Good luck.
A couple of reality line producers have tried the camera for exactly this. Problem - at the moment - is frame rate and the astonishing reluctance of backwards-baseball cap-wearing-children to use anything that’s non-Mac compatible.
Another $1M for R&D for new sensors and we’re there.