Sibling entrepreneurs unveil photo book concept in Cebu

To keep up with the rapid technology evolution that has greatly affected the photo printing business, sibling entrepreneurs James and Michelle Go pioneer the westernized photo book concept as a new way of keeping memories in pictures.

James and Michelle, whose family owns the Columbia Photo Supply Inc, a chain of photo-imaging centers in Cebu, developed the “Banana Book” brand, a modernized photo-album concept that comes in a magazine-type form.

“With the entry of the digital imaging age, people are not printing their pictures anymore. We are going to start the trend of photo-book concept in the Philippines, which is now the popular trend in first world countries like the United States,” said Michelle Go in an interview with The Freeman.

Although some people are keeping their pictures in soft copies, like in CDs, and store it in PCs, Go said the traditional way of keeping hard copy files of pictures is a timeless need. This time however, photo-books are replacing the old way of storing pictures in the photo album.

 In the United States, she said the photo-book business is a multi-million-dollar industry. In the Philippines however, this trend has yet to take off, and Go said the “Banana Book” brand is going to start the trend, not only in the Philippines, but Asia-wide.

“Part of our grand plan is to put up several Banana Book stores in other parts of the country, as well as in Asia. We have to capitalize this new way of printing and keeping photos,” she said.

Michelle said she and James conceptualized the business idea, after they attended the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) international convention in Las Vegas last year. Immediately, they opened the first Banana Book outlet at the Banilad Town Center (BTC) in September 2007. Now, Banana Book is also serving a growing number of clientele at its second outlet located in SM City Cebu.

Eventually, she said after this new concept can successfully take off in Cebu, the company is going to expand its offering and become a one-stop-shop for photo gifts and novelty services.

This means that Banana Book will also offer not just only a photo-book product, but also other photo novelty items such as photo tumbler, pillows, blanket, bags and photo-jewelries, among others.

She said the company is constantly updating its services and quality of printing through its active Research and Development (R&D) headed by his brother James.

“We have to be at par with the international standard of photo gifts and photo-book making industry in the world. We invested so much in sourcing out quality paper materials, and printing machines to provide top quality products,” she said.

In fact, she said Banana Book is now using top quality archive-paper from Europe.

While, this concept is still new to the Philippine market Go said Banana Book is initially attracting the “gene-first” moms, who are the collectors and keepers of photo memories, especially travel or vacation photos, special occasions, among others.

Largely, this business is targeting the entire women market, although some men are also into memory-keeping hobby.

Since its opening in September last year, Banana Book has printed over a thousand photo-books.