Flash Favorites : Norman’s Popular Photo Light Gear Faces a Glimmer of Competition

Chances are few amateur photographers have ever heard of Bill Norman. But in his field, Norman is as respected as Soichiro Honda, Bill Marriott or Liz Claiborne are in theirs. It was 27 years ago in his parents’ garage that Norman built his first electronic photographic flash unit, and his skills as a tinkerer of lighting gear have made his fortune.

Today he’s president of Norman Enterprises, a Burbank company that is the nation’s largest supplier of lighting and flash equipment for professional photographers. The companies in the professional flash equipment field aren’t household names, unlike camera makers such as Nikon or Canon, and the market is a tiny one, with roughly $40 million a year in sales out of the $4-billion professional photographic market.

But Norman Enterprises, which sells everything from high-intensity strobes, umbrellas and light stands to power supplies that can cost $2,000 or more, leads the field with about $7 million a year in sales. Norman sold the company in 1973 to Photo Control, a Minneapolis concern, and stayed on to help run it. At the time, the business was doing about $600,000 a year in sales, and it has grown steadily under his guidance.

In that time, Norman has built a following with lighting gear that is innovative and durable. He developed an electronic switch that prevents damage to cameras from repeated flashing; he’s added features such as alarms that sound when lights fail, and his power supplies, which include five-pound batteries that photographers wear on their belts for outdoor work, have long been regarded as among the best available.

David Brooks, a Seattle photographer, says he still owns one of Norman’s earliest flash systems. “The electronic wiring inside is a piece of art,” he said.

But in any field, the biggest company has to worry about challenges from smaller competitors, and that’s one of Bill Norman’s concerns these days. Some photographers warn that Norman hasn’t been aggressive enough in making technological improvements in recent years and that his products are being eclipsed by sophisticated lighting equipment from France, Sweden and Switzerland.

Indeed, growth in Norman’s sales, which continued at a rapid pace until about three or four years ago, has slowed recently, admitted Leslie Willig, Photo Control’s chairman.

“There has been an increase over the last five years of foreign-made products coming into the U. S.,” said Douglas I. Sheer, co-director of Sheer & Chaskelson Research, which compiles data on the photographic industry. “These companies have been nibbling away at the share of domestically manufactured products.”

So far, Sheer said, Norman has stood up relatively well. “Norman . . . has been very successful in selling equipment and withstanding the erosion,” Sheer said. And many photographers still swear by Norman’s products.

“You’re talking to a happy customer,” said Jay Silverman, a Hollywood commercial photographer who estimates that he has spent up to $40,000 on Norman equipment.

But even old Norman customers, including Brooks, say foreign rivals such as Swiss-made Brons and French-made Balcars offer photographers extra gimmicks such as more controls for changing lighting characteristics, flashes that fire multiple bursts of light for one shot, sophisticated cooling systems and state-of-the-art internal circuitry. “Norman has not, until recently, done much in the way of keeping up with electronic flash technology,” Brooks said. For instance, Norman lagged behind the European manufacturers in adding a special coating to flash equipment to block ultraviolet rays that can alter a photograph’s color.

Norman is upgrading its product line, Brooks said, in direct response to its rivals. But “even with their most recent updates, they’re antiques,” he said.

Domestic Competition

Norman also faces competition from such domestic rivals as Hillside, New Jersey-based Dynalite, which sells lighter, more compact equipment used by photographers who work on location, and Lumedyne, a Port Richey, Fla., firm that makes lighting gear with parts that can easily be replaced if they break down.

Bill Vogt, president of Lumedyne, said his company’s sales have grown at 20% to 30% annually for the past several years as the company has made inroads in the West where Norman has long been dominant. “My theory is Norman is reacting to that,” Vogt said.

Companies that react to events, rather than anticipating them, often have problems. But with an increased emphasis on research and development, Norman said he believes that his company can develop new products that will re-establish its reputation as an innovator.

This year Norman is introducing a slew of updated products, including a battery pack that generates twice the power in the same size and weight as the old model.

Willig said response from photographers to these new products has been positive, and the company remains “quite profitable,” although he wouldn’t provide details.

Despite the increased competition, Norman and Willig seem relatively unperturbed. For one thing, Norman said, the firm’s order backlog is higher than it’s ever been. As for the slowing growth, he said that has happened because the firm reached a level of maturity where remaining market share is harder to win.

‘Easy at First’

“It was easy at first,” Norman said. “All we had to do was go into a new area and start opening up dealers.” Norman has 250 dealers across the country. “Now we’re saturated with dealers, so the growth is coming from new products.”

Can Norman hold out against the foreign competition? Observers point out that Norman’s products still have some crucial advantages.

Bob Shell, technical editor at Shutterbug, a trade magazine, said durability remains an important reason to buy Norman’s equipment. “To a professional photographer, that’s more important than being state of the art.”

Also, Norman has an edge in price. Foreign manufacturers have been at a disadvantage because of a relatively weak dollar the past few years, which makes their products more expensive here. And photographers must pay more for the extra features many imports offer. Some professionals, such as those who specialize in portrait or school photography, don’t need many extra gadgets.

Another thing in Norman’s favor is that he cultivates camera bugs when they’re still learning the trade by making at least half a dozen appearances a year at professional trade association meetings and maintaining tight relationships with photography schools such as the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara.

Establishes Loyalty

By lecturing at schools, Norman introduces students to his products early on. That’s important because once photographers set up their studios, they seldom change brands, Seattle photographer Brooks said. “Professional photographers are the hardest people to change. They’ll stick with something they feel comfortable with and have been successful with,” he said.

When Norman was a 19-year-old electronics student, he accidentally detoured into photography. He was rejected for an electronics assembly job and instead landed a job with a camera and flash repair service. When a request by Walt Disney Co. for some customized flash equipment came in, Norman volunteered to build it. Disney was impressed and word began to spread about Norman’s well-built flashes.

Norman initially routed his custom-made equipment through other companies, but soon realized that he could make more money by striking out on his own. The business grew steadily over the next several years, but Norman’s ability to finance it remained limited. He sold out to Photo Control, although he stayed on to run his own division.

Business ‘Took Off’

“When I sold it, I put my feet on my desk, hired a shipping clerk, hired a production manager, hired other people. Then the business started taking off,” Norman said.

These days, Norman, 48, who sits on Photo Control’s board of directors, spends some of his days doing paper work and others shuffling between the engineering and production departments developing new products.

He tries to stay in touch with his customers by soliciting suggestions from photographers, and he answers every response to customer surveys. Recently one photographer wrote to Norman complaining that his elbow kept bumping a switch on his power pack in the middle of a job, causing the light to change. Norman said he’d fix the problem himself and attached a small knob to the switch to keep it from being moved accidentally.

But with the competition increasing, banking on personal service to keep customers might not be enough. “It’s tougher now than it used to be,” Norman conceded.