For Photographers

The Paradox of Price

No Comments

Okay, a little Monday afternoon math and no calculators are required.

Consumers want the most value for their money. Value can be defined by the benefits provided by a product or service, divided by the cost of that product or service:

Value = Benefits / Cost

This over-simplified equation shows that for a given set of benefits, as the cost decreases, the value to the customer increases. It might seem that maximum value would be reached if the cost is zero. But if you remember your grade school math, you cannot divide by zero.

Continue reading →

Door Number Three

No Comments

While viewing a news web site tonight, there was a survey asking readers a question and the possible answers were: Yes, No, Undecided.

Why would anyone take the time to respond to a survey and then answer “Undecided”? It’s like a student raising their hand in class to answer a question posed by the teacher and then, saying, “I don’t know.”

Why did the survey even offer the third option? If everyone chose “Undecided”, the survey would be meaningless.

What does this have to do with running a photography business?

Continue reading →

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

No Comments

Should you peruse some of the job “opportunities” for Toronto photographers on LinkedIn, you may see these glittery gems:

1. The job: Go to a few dozen used car lots each week and photograph cars for a publisher’s used car web site and print magazine.

Required: an “awareness of fumes, odor, gases, compounds or dusts related to the automotive industry.”

Not required: any photo experience.

Benefits: may get free parking at one of the publisher’s offices.

Continue reading →

Restaurants and Photographers

1 Comment

What do restaurants and photographers have in common?

When it comes to choosing a restaurant, or a photographer, a consumer in a larger city usually has many hundreds of choices. In the eyes of the customer, most restaurants, and most photographers, are more or less the same.

Why choose one restaurant, or photographer, over another? Convenient location? A positive previous experience? Price? Good word-of-mouth? Maybe the web site looked nice?

Restaurants rely on their menu to entice customers. They usually post menus online and near their front entrance. But compare how restaurants present their menu.
Continue reading →

Cost Of Progress

No Comments

Between 2001 and 2010, I bought six Nikon SLR digital cameras: two D1X’s, two D2X’s, one D3 and one D700. Total cost for these cameras was about $30,300 plus about $3,000 for memory cards, $480 for card readers and many thousands more ($21,000 to $26,000) for computers and software.

For comparison, from 1991 to 2000, I bought six Nikon SLR film cameras: two F4E’s, one F90X, two F5’s and one F100. Total cost for these was about $14,000 and no memory cards, no card readers, no computers and no software.

Yes, digital cameras are fantastic and the technical quality of digital photography is far better than that of film.

Although the equipment cost of running a photo business is at least triple that from ten years ago, (not to mention all the other expenses), fees paid by editorial publications have gone down and the rights-grabbing has gone up.

Interesting blog article by Paul Melcher on this topic.

 

The Four-letter F-word

No Comments

Search for the most powerful words used in marketing and the most cited word is the four-letter F-word, Free. The word Free gets customer attention but is it really effective in making sales?

The F-word is so overused these days, that we almost automatically tune it out. We know nothing is really free, there’s always a catch. Free will get attention, but it’s never taken seriously.

It’s important for a business to remember that your customers are not looking for Free. Rather, they’re looking for good value for their money.
Continue reading →

Champagne And Cameras

No Comments

It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye. After clinching a playoff spot yesterday, the New York Yankees celebrated in their dressing room with beer and champagne.

Notice that all the Yankees are wearing eye protection. If you look in the background, you can see plastic sheets covering the players’ lockers. Everyone and everything is protected.
Continue reading →

css.php