Retailers use family portraits as a customer acquisition tool

Custom portraits, especially when they include physical copies, are becoming an increasingly popular marketing tool amid the resurgence of 1990s and 21st century trends. Consumers who grew up taking family or glamor shots at the mall are now expanding their families, and brands are tapping into their sense of nostalgia by offering photography services. What’s more, brands are under pressure to get creative with their dollars, and custom portraits are one way to attract customers to brick-and-mortar stores. There, people can interact with the goods they see and ultimately make additional purchases.

Filson, an outdoor brand, had about 1,000 people stop by on June 16 for Father’s Day photos in Seattle and New York, according to Neil Morgan, vice president of brand retail. Father’s Day is typically “two to three times busier than normal on a Saturday or Sunday,” he said. During the holidays, when Santa Claus visits the city, the traffic is even greater – about 1,500 people.

Morgan said many of the people who come for photos are from multiple generations. “I will see a person who looks like a grandfather or a father and a son or daughter,” he said. “I took (a photo) with my dad last Father’s Day… and now he has it framed on his desk.” Filson creates the backdrop for his photo days. Sometimes, sheet metal photos printed on metal are offered to give them a more Western feel, Morgan said.

Morgan explained that increasing sales is not the primary goal of Filson’s photography services. Still, the brand sees revenue increase as more people visit the site. According to Per Glossy, Filson has seen 40% growth in annual revenue over the past five years.

“We’re seeing an increase in sales probably twice what we normally see on the same days over the summer,” Morgan said of Father’s Day sales. “But we also get the loyalty aspect from it… People can come and only have 40 minutes… But we often hear them come back later and say, ‘My father’s birthday is in August, and I’m back.’ to get something for him.

Meanwhile, JCPenney offers portraits in 350 JCPenney stores, the company told Modern Retail. Like Filson, he has seen an overall increase in sales thanks to his portraits. (These JCPenney products are not free.) According to a JCPenney spokesperson, many JCPenney Portrait customers cross-shop at other JCPenney branches. JCPenney Portrait customers “shop more frequently and spend more annually than the average customer,” a spokesman said via email.

JCPenney Portraits has been around for 30 years, but is now popular with a younger audience. Her Instagram account has almost 30,000 followers, and JCPenney Portraits has its own hashtag on TikTok. Some TikTok videos follow the “awkward family photo” theme. In December, one user posted on TikTok with the caption: “POV: You and your siblings doing a JCPenney photo shoot.” The video has garnered almost 650,000 likes. Another user posted a video of her Christmas photo shoot with her dog, which garnered 440,000 likes.

“We’ve had a lot of buzz on social media for our portrait studio,” Michelle Wlazlo, JCPenney’s vice president and chief merchandising officer, told Modern Retail in March. “On Saturdays and Sundays, when you walk into our store, you’ll see an array of amazing families, friends and others taking their portraits.”

JCPenney’s photography business is one way the company strives to remain popular among multiple generations. Like other department stores, sales are declining at JCPenney as customers withdraw from discretionary spending. JCPenney’s fourth-quarter net sales fell 5.9% year-over-year to $2.3 billion, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In September 2023, JCPenney announced a turnaround plan that will put $1 billion back into the business by fiscal year 2025.

Kimberley Ring Allen, founder of Ring Communications and assistant professor of marketing at the University of Suffolk, told Modern Retail that shoppers need something unique and exciting to draw them into stores. “Consumers are simply too distracted to shop online,” she said. “So everything has to be more of an experience. We have to have fun. We need to feel like, “You’re not just taking my money.” You provide me with something other than just a product.’”

Photo booths are a good example of how “nostalgia marketing is huge right now,” said Allen, who grew up going to Sears to take family Christmas photos. JCPenney’s Wlazlo called JCPenney Portraits “a throwback to those cute photos compared to anything you’d find on an iPhone or Android device.” Filson’s Morgan said he thinks “there’s something about analog now – people like to take something that’s physical and actually frame it or hang it on the wall.”

“It makes sense to bring it back,” Allen said of brands offering photography services. “Part of our consumer behavior is to wear these things. We carry them from our families. We move them from our social networks. We return to our mind. (Custom Portraits) really rings a bell in our brains.

Some brands and retailers even take portraits of customers’ four-legged friends. Boris and Horton, a dog-friendly cafe and shop in New York City, hosted a dog portrait event in early June. Jewelry brand Kendra Scott once offered free animal portraits at ZilkerBark to anyone who made a $75 purchase. In March 2023, Outdoor Voices hosted a pet portrait pop-up in Washington, D.C. in partnership with Bright Eyes Photos.