marketing

Message Tailoring

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When a commercial or corporate photographer markets their photography services, they must remember that a business client is quite different than a retail customer. Even then, business clients are not all the same.

For a retail customer, someone who buys family portraits or wedding photography, the pictures themselves are the final product. But for a commercial customer, the pictures are a business tool, a means towards an end.

With a small business, where the photographer deals directly with the business owner, the customer’s primary need when buying photography services is to increase their sales. But with a large business, the customer’s needs change. Sure, a large company still wants to increase its sales but that’s not the primary motivator when hiring a commercial or corporate photographer.

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Time to look

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Following on the previous post that photography is much more influential than text, here’s a quote that might be familiar to some:

In a world which is expanding day by day, literature is no longer enough . . . Our busy age does not always have time to read, but it always has time to look.

Those words are from French writer Theophile Gautier who was commenting on the power of visual arts including the new art of photography. The quote is from 1858.
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Searching in all the wrong places

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After searching through twenty-four Toronto photographers’ web sites yesterday, trying to help a customer find a suitable photographer, I gave up. The customer needed some fashion-style photography which I don’t do.

One photographer’s web site stated, “I specialize in fashion, beauty, weddings, portraits, children, maternity, glamour, food, product, catalog, commercial, editorial, landscape and pet photography.” Whew! Everything but the proverbial kitchen sink.

Another photographer said he was “based in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Paris, Rome and Sydney.” Jeez, talk about covering all your bases!

The slideshows on one site contained 89, 112 and 172 pictures. Who has the time to click through that many photos?

One site required the viewer to click through four splash screens before getting to the actual content. A few Flash-based sites barely functioned. One site popped open a new window for every photo. Several sites had unreadable text. And yes, a couple of sites had music playing.

One photographer wrote, “I am a very busy photographer but I have decided to accept bookings for 2012.” Gee, how considerate of that photographer!

From time to time, photographers should pretend to be a customer searching for a professional photographer. See what customers have to put up with while tediously searching through endless photographer web sites. Then apply this information to improve their own site.

 

Topic of conversation

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Why do people shop at dollar stores? Is it for the customer service, the wonderful store ambience or the quality of the products? It’s only because of the prices.

Why do people buy coffee at Starbucks? Is it for the customer service, the wonderful store ambience or the quality of the products? It’s certainly not because of the prices.

Consumers choose to shop at a particular store for a variety of reasons and price is not often the primary motivator. Instead, customers search for the best value for their money. Value is always in the eye of the buyer, not the seller.
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Expected Value

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Do you have a spare $800,000?

If yes, then HTT Technologies has a nice automobile just for you.

HTT (High-Tech Toys), in Quebec, has designed its 750-hp Pléthore LC750 supercar for a very exclusive audience. HTT has been quoted as saying that its target customer is the billionaire auto enthusiast. (By the way, the 390-km/hr Pléthore LC750 is cheap when compared to the 415-km/hr Bugatti Veyron Super Sport which is $2.5M).

If the price tag isn’t exclusive enough, the company says it will build only 99 cars. Exclusive design, exclusive price, exclusive production.

Sure, HTT could’ve designed a nice, average car. But that wouldn’t get all the free publicity that an $800,000 supercar gets. Plus, HTT has said that selling an average car would require a huge sales volume to earn back its investment.

Apparently, at $800,000 each, the company needs to sell only a handful of cars to break even on its initial investment. The company has said that it hopes to sell about six or seven cars per year.
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Marketing Professional Photography

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When marketing its products or services, a business is usually told to focus on selling the benefits of those products or services. Sell the sizzle, not the steak. But this isn’t entirely accurate.

Human nature is such that people are motivated by the need for risk aversion. People will act more to avoid a loss than to gain a benefit. We fear loss more than we desire a benefit. This is known as the Prospect Theory.

From the New York Times:

…most of us find losses roughly twice as painful as we find gains pleasurable.

A professional photographer seeking new clients should frame their marketing more around loss avoidance and minimizing risk rather than just pointing out potential benefits. New clients are usually concerned with avoiding risk since they’ve never worked with that photographer before, (i.e. “Can we trust this photographer do the job properly?”).

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Importance of marketing collateral

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The key to enhancing business image and winning consumer trust is through the use of marketing collateral.

Marketing collateral refers to the various forms of communication a business publishes on its own. By contrast, paid placements, such as advertising, are not a form of marketing collateral. Advertising is part of the sales process whereas marketing collateral supports the sales process. To a small extent, marketing collateral might be considered “advertorial” content produced by the company.

Advertising often fails because consumers simply don’t trust ads. Advertising claims are not always backed up by any information. Customers are very skeptical because they know that advertising is only concerned with taking their money.
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