The business side of photography
Some photographers don’t understand the value of nothing.
Customer: I want to buy this $1,400 refrigerator. After you deliver it to my house and install it, I’ll pay you $200. How does that sound?
Store clerk: Our cost on that refrigerator is $800. If I accept your $200 then we’ll be losing $600 plus the expense of delivery and installation, and we won’t make any profit.
Customer: But isn’t $200 better than nothing?
Store clerk: Of course not. Forget it.
When marketing photography services, commercial and corporate photographers must understand that business clients differ significantly from retail customers.
For retail clients, those who purchase family portraits or wedding photos, the photos themselves are the final product. But for business clients, photos are tools to achieve a larger goal, to increase revenue.
Retail customers often make decisions based on a variety of emotions, whereas business clients are driven by a single emotion: fear. Fear of making a poor decision, fear of losing money, or fear of looking bad in front of their superiors.
In the case of a small business, where the photographer interacts directly with the owner, the primary goal is usually to help the business increase sales. However, the priorities of a larger company are different. While increasing sales is still important, it’s not always the primary driver when hiring a commercial or corporate photo.grapher. For example, photos may be used for communications and public relations.
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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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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.” Wow! 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 use this information to improve their own site.
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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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. (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.
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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?”).
