value

Free and worth every cent

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Everyone loves free because there’s no risk involved. If a free item is unsatisfactory, throwing it out can be done without hesitation or regret.

It’s free and priced to sell.

Free means you don’t have to make any judgments or decisions. When it comes to free or cheap photography, the low price becomes the most important feature. Good photography? Poor photography? Who cares because it’s free!

I wouldn’t buy anything that I have to pay for.

But viewers of photography don’t care what it cost. They care only about the quality of what they see. There’s a big disconnect between a business that tries to get free or cheap photography and its customers who want good photography.

I wouldn’t pay for anything unless it’s free.

People always assign a value to the things they buy. If something is received for free, they assign a value of $0. For example, if someone loses their $75 sunglasses, they’ll moan, “Oh no, I’ve lost my $75 sunglasses!” But if they lose a free or cheap pair of sunglasses, that person will say, “It doesn’t matter, I got them for free.” The cheap sunglasses are disposable and not worth any effort.

For the photographer who does cheap or free photography: is your work disposable and not worth the effort?

For the business that tries to get cheap or free pictures: is your business image disposable and not worth the effort?

 

Value of experience

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You get paid to do what others can’t or won’t do. Maybe they don’t have the time, maybe they don’t have the tools or maybe they don’t have the know-how. In any case, if someone can do what you do, they won’t pay you to do the same thing.

This means that a professional photographer should have better tools, better production values and better abilities and more creativity than their competition and even their customers. But this is not always the case.

An amateur photographer, and maybe even a customer, might own the same or better tools than a professional photographer. An amateur might have the same creativity and ability as a professional.
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The science of buying photography

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We’ve all heard the phrase “path of least resistance”. In nature, (and that includes us humans), when given the choice, the path of least resistance will always be chosen first. The path of least resistance is the path that leads to a destination that’s good enough.

This path can vary from person to person, depending on the situation at hand. For example:

For a cup of coffee, one person might walk to the next-door 7-Eleven store. It’s quick, the coffee is cheap, it’s good enough for right now.

Another person who wants something more flavourful and made-to-order, “good enough” means they may have no choice but to go several blocks for an expensive Starbucks coffee. More resistance involved but they deserve that coffee.

For someone who needs even more, they might drive a distance to a fancy hotel café which serves coffee in a fashionable location. Much higher resistance but being seen in that expensive restaurant will enhance this person’s reputation.

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Seeing beyond the tools

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If you bought the same guitar as Eric Clapton, would you play music just like him? If you owned the same golf clubs as Tiger Woods, would you play golf just like him? If you used the same pen as J.K. Rowling, would your books be just as successful?

The answer to all of the above is, of course, a resounding “no”, (despite what the product manufacturers might say).

But yet, many people think that if they buy the same camera as a professional photographer, they will shoot the same pictures. Why?

From Margaret Atwood’s 2002 book Negotiating with the Dead :

To be an opera singer you not only have to have a voice, you have to train for years; to be a composer you have to have an ear, to be a dancer you have to have a fit body, to act on the stage you have to be able to remember your lines, and so on.

Being a visual artist now approaches writing, as regards its apparent easiness – when you hear remarks like “My four-year-old could do better,” you know that envy and contempt are setting in, of the kind that stem from the belief that the artist in question is not really talented, only lucky or a slick operator, and probably a fraud as well. This is likely to happen when people can no longer see what gift or unusual ability sets an artist apart.

The amazing technology built into digital cameras has created an under-appreciation and a devaluation of photography. Many forget that a camera is just a tool, like a guitar, a golf club or a pen. An experienced photographer is not someone who knows how to push a button. But rather, they know when to push that button. A professional photograph gets its value from what it shows and from what it doesn’t.

 

Pyramid Power

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Many things can affect the performance of a business, such as: the quality of its products or services, the abilities of its employees, its marketing, its public and media relations, how it reacts to change and, sure, a bit of luck doesn’t hurt either.

The late Peter Drucker, author, political economist and management consultant, is credited with pioneering the most important social and management theories of the 20th century. A quick web search will turn up many of his famous quotes, including:

There are only two things in a business that make money: innovation and marketing. Everything else is cost.

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Help your photography customers buy

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Some companies have reacted to the current recession by circling the wagons, laying-off staff and raising prices. It’s about protecting themselves and putting the company’s self-interests first.

If customers aren’t buying, then raising prices to compensate for low sales volume only closes the door even more. Raising the price of a product or service can often boost sales, but not during a recession.

Close doors or open new paths?

Let’s say you own a restaurant and people aren’t coming into your place as often as before. Folks are either going to a lower-priced fast food outlet or they’re eating at home more often. What can you do?
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Priceless

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There’s a joke that asks: “If price and worth mean the same thing, why do priceless and worthless mean the exact opposite?”

Price is set by the seller and worth, or value, is set by the buyer. Price is usually influenced by various market conditions and worth can be affected by marketing. The two are connected.

Ideally, a client wants high-value photography for free. On the other hand, a photographer wants their images to sell for a very high price. Does this mean that a photographer and their client are opposites?
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