Square Peg For A Round Hole

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You may have noticed, if you live in Toronto, that the city, or at least its politicians, suffer from extreme New York City envy. Toronto copies New York’s tourism campaigns and slogans, follows all NYC trends, and constantly compares itself to the Big Apple.

Toronto, in 2002, unveiled its newest slab of concrete called “The Yonge-Dundas Square”, which was modelled after New York’s Time Square.

The “ydsquare” web site states: “A unique aspect of the Square is that it is not operated like other Civic Squares … City Council decided to … operate Yonge-Dundas Square as a business venture.”

The Yonge-Dundas Square has become a magnet for public relations events.
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Many Returns

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Over the past two months, I’ve had the experience of trying to sell some used photo equipment online.

Most professional photographers try to keep up with technology by upgrading whenever a new tool comes out. Many photo businesses have to stay current to remain competitive.
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Beginner’s Guide To Pricing Photography

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This very long and meandering post is intended for new photographers. It outlines some general concepts behind setting a price on photography services.

 

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.

– Woody Allen

 

First rule: Never give a price over the phone or off the top of your head.

Second rule: You’re running a business. You’re supposed to make money by charging more than your costs.

Third rule: Like all businesses, you tell your customers what your services cost, not the other way around.

Fourth rule: Never base your prices on Cost + Profit Margin. Always base your prices on value to the customer. Charge for what you know, not for what you do.
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Ready for your close-up

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I photographed a week-long tennis tournament last week for the event organizers. The media relations folks were, as always, fantastic. They were friendly, helpful and always available. They answered every question, sorted out every problem, had all necessary tournament information available and arranged every interview. Free pizza and beer were handed out at the end of each day and ice cream was given out on very hot days!

The media work space was perfect: a large, air-conditioned room with tables, chairs, power, Internet access and refreshments. There was even some large comfy chairs for people to have a quick afternoon snooze. Did I mention that some days ran 14 hours?
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A Leg To Stand On

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I just finished post-processing 1,017 images. Several of those photos will be used for marketing and public relations, both in print and online, later this year and next.

The client doesn’t know which images will be used over the next twelve months so all the photos had to be processed and delivered now. Over 2,400 images were shot and those were edited down to 1,017. I probably could’ve edited it down a lot more but I wanted the client to have a broad selection to cover all future possibilities.
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Timing is Everything

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A couple of weeks ago, Editor & Publisher posted statistics from its sister company, Nielsen Online, showing the average time-on-site for the top 30 newspaper sites in the USA. These numbers compare June 2008 with June 2009.

Some news sites like NYTimes.com experienced a 50% drop, whereas the Boston Globe’s Boston.com enjoyed a 300% increase. With only four exceptions, all the news web sites had numbers far below the average time a reader spends with a print newspaper. According to the 2008 Readership Institute Study, the average American newspaper reader spends 27 minutes with a paper.

What does this show, if anything?
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Adding Value

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The phrases “added value” and “extra value” are tossed around by many businesses these days. Some companies use these terms not because they know what they mean but because they’re nice-sounding catchphrases that might lure in customers.

Value is determined by the customer and not by what a business might say. If a customer needs 24-hour service, then free parking is not an added value. If a customer wants a salad, then an “extra value” meal with large french fries has no extra value.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

– Warren Buffet

Adding value means a business goes beyond customer expectations. This is a relative scale because different customers have different expectations and needs.
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