Lessons

Lesson Info

Branding is your Business's Personality

so what we're gonna learn in this segment is all about marketing brandon getting people in your door okay which I know is a big topic of concern for a lot of photographers there's a lot of factors that go into getting people in your door we're going to learn about the to cut types of consumer mindsets who your client is how to develop your brand ah brand is so important people think they just have to do advertising or marketing or cross promotions or whatever to get clients in the door if you don't have a solid brand you're not going to keep him or there once they see you they're not going to hire you so it could be your doing these great marketing efforts but because your brand stinks and you don't look professional you don't look like you know what you're doing and you don't have a good feeling for your client when they come and see you you may be losing him at the front door because of that ah brand is so critical and people think that it's not but you cannot and part of that is ide...

ntifying who you are you can't build a strong brand on a week identity okay sarah petty said that she's some great marketing classes and I've learned a lot from her about marketing tunisia not to nish are we going to do that the value of merchandising your products and I touched on this a lot in the last class but showing your products is key to selling them and key to getting people in the door I mean you guys saw the last segment just when I held up that painting all of a sudden you were inspired and you wanted to create it not only but she would have loved it for your own family your clients feel the same way if you don't show them the work at its highest quality in printed form they're not going to want to buy it okay they're not gonna want to hire you they're not gonna want even come through your door in the first place and then of course we're going to talk about marketing strategies on the budget I am a cheapskate marketers estimate that you should spend about ten to fifteen percent of your gross revenue on marketing I spend probably two percent to three percent on marketing cause I'm a cheapskate so we'll talk about that um buying mind what your clients act so weird sometimes why are they crazy I mean they seem kind of nuts don't they feel like you'll see the client come through the door who has the porsche carrera or the porsche cayenne and she buys your lowest package and carries a chanel purse what the heck and yet you'll have a couple who is he's a mechanic and she's a stay at home mom they have twins and they buy your highest deal they spend all the money in the world what is happening why would a woman who on thanksgiving morning for those who are not in this country thanksgiving is an american holiday and right after thanksgiving is something called black friday all the retailers in this country put their products on sale like there is no tomorrow trying to get you in the door to buy for them to get in the black so why would a woman get up before dawn to shop the fifty percent off sales after thanksgiving and then go to the gourmet whole foods down the mart down the street for organic groceries that costs fifty percent more than a general grocery store she's not far or she dismissed understood she's a little bit misunderstood okay there are two types of consumers this is kind of what I've willed it down too and you know there's there's arguments for and against this so keep that in mind but to me there are two types of consumers there's thie traditional consumer they are driven by prices features and status that's what encourages them to buy is the price low doesn't have a lot of features or will it make me look good the chanel purse because I'm carrying something that everybody wants okay they love a good deal and they will also spend on products that offer status okay the's consumers spend wildly in a good economy they are the people who get this country in debt ok they will spend money on credit cards like crazy they reign in tight when economic growth stalls ok this is who we felt when the markets crashed in two thousand eight this is who we felt rain in okay this mindset is very slow to change and they will on ly spend if they think they're getting a good deal okay then there's the neo consumer this one is driven by quality design experience and authenticity totally different parameters there are highly individual and look for things with personal meaning okay they look for products that are outside of the mainstream nemea company that targets the neo consumer apple exactly they're on the cusp of though because they are starting to become mainstream ten years ago apple was the totally targeting the neo okay nowadays they're on a very fine line as to whether or not they're targeting traditional or neo consumers neo consumers spend very judiciously all the time but they will spend a lot on products that they deem worth it okay if they see a product as a commodity they will act like a traditional and demand the best deal oh that's why that woman we'll go into target on black friday and only by a fifty percent off because to her everything at target is a commodity she can get it anywhere it's to her it's just expendable stuff it's not unique it's not authentic it doesn't provide an experience so give me the best deal how does that ring true for you as a business owner are you producing a commodity are you like everyone else what is your brand look like is your brand like everyone else is your experience like everyone else are you producing a product that's worth it starts to make you think doesn't it yeah allie digital files it's just a commodity yeah they're offering their offering their offering this should all be the same price so yeah I mean it's changing what your product is yeah that's why we're having so much trouble against all these shooting burners it's not that we can't get good dollar amounts out of our customers it's because the customer has now learned that a digital file is a commodity so it should be cheap so we have to fight that by producing experience be having an authentic brand and producing products that are worth spending the money on that are unique that they can't get anywhere else that that target that neo mindset yes my model is a hybrid model I have to give the digital files I'm I have my target client is a woman she's young she's baby making age she's grown up digital she's a generation they're starting to get together with her generation behind me so I have to satisfy their wants otherwise they are going to go down to the shooting burned down street but what I can do is educate them on the importance of art on the importance of the print and brand my studio around that ideal okay so hopefully I just kind of split the consumer in part for you and showed you a little bit about how to think about your own business in terms of your target audience whenever you I mean it's almost it's in life as in business it's the same whenever you do any sp feature talk like this you have to consider your target audience how do you communicate what you want to communicate if you don't know what the audience wants or needs or hears so studying your market is a critical component of having a successful strong business okay so now begs the question who is your client it's okay to be a commodity there are plenty of high volume studios out there who target the traditional there chief they bring him and quick out in out its volume that makes their money most single owner businesses however can't produce that kind of volume with their manpower so they have to run a boutique studio therefore for the most part they need to target the neo consumer okay so ask yourself who you target be very objective be harsh on yourself and say ok what's really happening in my business what do people see what is the consumer see when they look at my business and that's when it comes down to brand what do they see what do they feel what did the experience how do they advocate for me okay branding is part of what makes your business unique it's who you are it's your business model your personality or strategic approach your decision making model your customer service your communication how you use your strength and how you cope with your weaknesses you cannot build a strong brand on a week identity okay that's what sarah petty says and she's absolutely right you have to know who you are what your strengths are what their weaknesses and how you're going to build your business on that because once you know who you are you can build a brand around that so I want to talk a little bit about case study and I'm gonna introduce my my sweet sister here who runs jenny mason photography come on in jen how are you think woman is the reason that I actually even do photography for a lot of for the most part and she runs a rockin business in southern california and we I mean we're the same genetic material can you not tell that we're sisters but we're so wildly different okay just wild wildly wildly different we have different personal lives we have different family lives we have different personalities and that's what I really wanted to focus on this and jenny is going to help me talk about some of our similarities we both started photography young you were both newborn artists you're family so different than mine why don't you just kind of address some of our similarities and what you think they are well we both we both are in photography although I have four children and you have one I mean if we go into personality differences I'm very cautious analytical I review things very carefully and very detail oriented you on the other hand are more of a risk taker a little bit more adventurous um you like tio just jump in and go for it do you think some things we have here are pretty similar I mean as far as our businesses go for sure for sure I mean we both have retail studios are both working moms we both have similar incomes from our businesses we both have perfectionist tendencies wei are very collaborative I mean together way kick ideas back and forth we're always trying testing things out on each other in different in different markets we have basically the same pricing structure I mean we collage corrupt collaborated so it's been a long three days we collaborated on this pricing structure and really thought through it it's what five years in the making oh easily easily trying things doing a little different changing it trying it again and then we finally came up with this high road model that works for both of us so we're doing state you're more expensive than I am she's in a different market but we're both focused on aren't we both boutique model okay so if you look at us from the outside like jenny's website is jenny mason photography dot com if you want to check her out I mean we even have the same template deal with pizza that way our do she did it I'm like oh that's pretty way so we both bought the same template for our website okay silly but it's we are sisters we do do think similarly we have very similar marketing strategies are selling method if you looked at our studios paper the paper you would think we were the same studio sure okay for sure but wait these similarities air great but when you look at our differences it's even more so okay tell him about how you're different and there's a nice list is going to say I I'm based in orange county which is really close to los angeles california I my within about forty five miles of my studio's four million people um I and definitely more expensive that the level income level is a lot higher there and I have access to a more affluent customer base so my marketing is a lot broader than my marketing strategies are a lot different assed faras how many people I can reach with the most effective costs and different things um as far as young as far as our personalities I'm easygoing relax whatever one and she's the no we're gonna do it my way one stubborn and easy going no no you're like I said I have four kids and she has one um I'm much more I'm nonconfrontational I'd like to kind of ease my way into a situation kind of like figure it out she's definitely like you know bullheaded going to get it done way talked about risk taking a ce faras conservative and liberal not necessarily in a political political aspect but just the way we approach things in life yeah that's kind of how I met yeah as faras planning I take a long time to plan on going todo for example with our new pricing strategy we kind of talked about it bantered it back and forth and she dove in and I think like three days later she had full things done everything and I was like six months later still going oh maybe I should implement thinkit's time it's working for julia I think I'll give it a try I like to just make sure I have all my ducks covered and everything lined up before I go ahead and do it and I want it I want it to be right so I'm a bit more cautious in that way um reserved outgoing yeah I think that just about sums up but it this these characteristics of us are how we make decisions in our business so I guess the point of me bringing jenny up here to really highlight this is to note each one of you is different very different from one another even though from the outside your businesses may do the same thing they may look the same way but we have different brands we have different strategies we are a unique individual people so that makes us different and you could build your business based on what your strengths are and your weaknesses so you can take your weaknesses and make decisions in ways that minimize those weaknesses does that make sense to us father so who are really does reflect in your brand yeah you're awesome thank you for for having these awesome isn't it fun teo seem put a face to the name well better half a over here jenny thanks you think jenny really started me on I always say I copy everything she does and it's pretty much true um jenny started her business two years before I did and um when she we found success in it that's when I had the confidence to leave my day job and do it myself so if it weren't for her if it weren't for her I would have a photographer business if it weren't for her I wouldn't have a child she had her little boy chase who's now three he was an oops baby and she gave birth to him in her early forties and because she got pregnant I'd never wanted to have kids and because of chase coming into the world I decided that I wanted to have one too and a month later I was pregnant with team so if it weren't for her than I would never have my baby boy and so many things so jenny is very very dear to my heart thanks tone um ok so your brand basically reinforces everything about your business and everything the consumer sees about your business you can't build a successful brand and business on who you are you should do it on who you are so that begs the question who are you I mean really what is your brand okay defining a brand we'll help you create a business that is uniquely you james heaton said branding is not a push but a paul branding is an expression of the essential truth or value of an organisation product or service the essential truth what is your essential truth you're why your purpose your brand should reflect everything about why you do what you do why do you get out of bed in the morning who why should anyone care that you get out of bed in the morning okay purpose that's why I've been so adamant about purpose and all of my workshops here on creative life because it is essential to who you are marketing is what you do branding is who you are branding is strategic big picture marketing is tactical steps to make it happen does that make sense you feel the difference between what a brand is and what marketing is it's very important to find the difference marketing may contribute to a brand but the brand is bigger than any particular marketing effort the brand is what remains after the marketing has swept through the room it's what sticks in your mind associated with a product service organization whether or not at that particular moment you bought or did not buy powerful stuff isn't it branding it's so vital to bring in clients and maintaining that relationship with him marketing unearth and activates buyers branding makes loyal customers advocates and even evangelists out of those who by is it all kind of coming together now are you seeing the difference and why branding is so important if you don't have a solid brand any marketing effort you do is futile why would you waste all that money on marketing if you don't have a solid brand companies spend millions of dollars to brand themselves gazillions of dollars at some of the most important things they do so think of your brand as the face of your business as its personality just like you as a person which actually makes it easy because you're a cz artists it makes it easy for us because so much of our heart is put into our work anyway and who we are that that is what becomes our brand unfortunately makes us very vulnerable because it makes it so that if someone doesn't come to you as a client it's like they're rejecting you which is the hardest thing that we as photographers have to overcome in the hurdle of this thing called being in business but trust me if you can learn to step outside yourself a little bit and look at your business as if a ceo was looking at it objectively you will become much better it's separating your emotions from that process okay so how do you develop a brand what starts with u the artist okay discovering your sense of style and your artist's inner voice will help you define your brand and once you have that brand do not deviate from it everything you do I mean if you look over here on this table these are branding materials okay everything has a look and feel fresh light organic textural I mean you get a very and marketing materials are just one tiny little component of your brand how I dress how I talk how I communicate how I make decisions in my business how we treat customers what the experiences when they walk through the door what they smell when they walk in the door what they step on when they walk in the door I have a wrinkle in my carpet right now and it's driving me absolutely the wall like I've got to get that fixed us such bad so bad for my brand silly but it's true branding sends a message and targets young mothers emotions it has to do with your studio look you're marking materials your photographic style your personal style the products of carrie and most importantly what your customers say about you okay for the aesthetic portion of it here's what my studio used to look like before when we first moved into it oh good grief this was two months of work my husband I said it spent two months every night until midnight fixing this place the walls were like sherbert colors there was thirty years of paint carpeting for used to be a pottery studios there was all kinds of painting potter in the floor that we had to scrape up um it was just a mishmash of mess venus well now this is what it looks like um very much suits and even so nowadays this we just painted this back wall back here so it's now it's a brown tone like the furniture you see here soft brown and much more suited to my brand is amazing how just painting one wall makes a huge difference and how you feel in a room okay but walking into my space and looking at my marking teary als so if you pick up my brochure okay by the way you get this free if you buy the course um paying at my brochure in the hospital you see it it's very lights refreshes got tiffany and on there it's got me on there it has our message or tagline is let the beginning never end and it has our why in here the birth of a child marks a defining moment in your life from this day forward everything changes you have a new reason for living you have a new reason to love and just weeks from now your little one will no longer fit so tiny in your arms there only this little for so long with a newborn porter session of jewel images we will help you let that beginning never end oh okay so immediately it's simple it's clean it's fresh it's light it's all I mean this is us this is what we shoot this is how we work so when you walk in the door of my studio do you feel that yes comfortable homie it's about fine are it's up hot about how to display pieces in your home I mean people always ask me to live here no no I don't live here looks like I do but I don't