Author: Leslie Burns

Remember the Modern Postcard debacle? Well, another company is at it–devaluing the creativity of one of their core constituencies. This time, it’s HP and designers. HP has a site where companies can make their own stationery based on templates designed by Paula Scher…for free. Yup, that’s letterhead, cards, etc., and at no cost.Way to go HP–it’s not like designers ever buy HP printers and other products. And Paula, thanks for thinking only of yourself and not of your professional community. How much money did they pay you to sell out your colleagues and reduce the value of design like this? What is the price for a designer’s soul these days?And it’s not like this is a new idea for HP or that HP is a photographer’s friend either. They promote iStockphoto right on another page of free templates. So why are we buying HP products?! They don’t care about us as customers, apparently, except to capitalize on the coolness of being a creative–for their own marketing.Enough venting…I want to call on everyone, photographers included, to contact HP and tell them this is a terrible marketing choice. Let them know that you will be telling all your colleagues and clients about this and asking them not to use HP products until these programs are pulled. Let them know programs like these won’t help their business, they will hurt it.We made a huge difference with Modern Postcard–we can do it with HP too. Let us creatives all stand together against the devaluation of any creative service.

Newest Creative Lube podcast is now available…on iTunes or get the feed here.

I get a daily digest of advertising news in my email every day and at the end of the articles there is a quote. Today’s quote really struck me as a perfect example of the right kind of competition we should have in business:

I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.
–Mikhail Baryshnikov

Yesterday was my husband’s birthday and I gave him an iPhone. I don’t have one yet myself, but getting him one made a lot of sense. He is, after all, my guinea pig for ADD-friendly organizational techniques and tools (I wonder if that means I can write it off…).

Christopher recently started working as an independent professional and switched to a Mac; it was this second change that made getting him an iPhone a really good idea. We have a friend who is still using a PC and integrating/syncing the iPhone is not perfectly seamless with one of those machines. But with a Mac, it’s amazingly simple and, if you have ADD, you want to avoid distracting things like weird software hiccups.

More importantly, the essentially perfect integration between the two main tools in a modern businessperson’s life makes keeping on track and organized much easier. ADDers need to implement structures to be more successful but often they have an almost “natural” distaste for organization. Using one tool that works across platforms makes being organized less of a pain.

The elimination of distracting “hiccups” combined with simplicity of use makes an iPhone a great tool for ADDers. Fewer excuses arise to dump your organizational attempts and it feels less like building structures than using some other tools. Does this mean you must go buy one? No–if your system is working, there is no reason to fix it. But if you are still all over the place organizationally-speaking, perhaps this could be a good tool for you.

Over time I’ll see how using this new tool helps Christopher achieve his goals and let you all know what I learn.

There are going to be some opportunities to see me in person (and pick my brain) which I wanted to share.

On October 11th, I’ll be joining Selina Maitreya at her event I Know This Much is True in Los Angeles. APA-LA is bringing Selina in for this event, and I am her guest for the second part of the evening event–just like here in San Diego (see previous post). Come see us–and bring all your marketing questions!

On November 7th, I’ll be speaking at ASMP-Phoenix. I’ll be presenting a variation on my Beyond PMS talk, coving things like what tools work, how to make good tools work better, and how to get marketing things done. We’ll also spend some time on pricing and, as always, there will be a lengthy Q and A session at the end.

While I’m in Phoenix on the 7th, I’ll be offering personal consultations all day before the event. You need to reserve time in advance (50 or 100 minute sessions) as I have worksheets you’ll need to complete ahead of our meeting, so that I can prepare ahead of time. That means we can spend all our time together working, rather than going over the basic info, etc. Contact me directly to book a consultation. 10% of the fees will go to ASMP-Phoenix and the rates are discounted for the event.

Also, don’t forget about the ASMP Strictly Business 2 events in early 2008! In each city I’ll be offering private consultations (same options–50 or 110 minutes–and discounted rates) the day after each of these weekend events. The 30-minute mini-consultations offered via ASMP (as an add-on to SB2) are already booking quickly, so don’t wait until the last minute to book time if you are interested in working together or you might miss out on a private face-to-face meeting completely.

Last night I was honored to be Selina Maitreya’s special guest at her presentation to the San Diego APA and ASMP chapters. It was a fantastic evening.

First off, I want to commend the two groups for working together to bring Selina in. In too many locations APA and ASMP chapters hardly talk to each other, much less put on combined programs. This is, I think, a sad example to set–not working together, that is. I am extremely proud of our local folks for stepping outside their insulated comfort zones and reaching out for the betterment of all. Way to go guys!

Selina’s presentation offered important information for photographers, albeit in a format that made them scratch their heads a bit at first. This isn’t a “how to” presentation like we’ve seen in the past, but rather a call to action and thought. Its impact, however, is important, I think. It also happens to mesh well with many of my ideas and observations on how the industry was, is, how best to navigate it for future success. I encourage all of you to see Selina if she comes your way, and to buy her new book.

For those of you in Los Angeles, she will be presenting there next month on October 11 (Thurs), and offering private consultations while in LA (these are already booking up so contact her now if you are interested!). Though only sponsored by APA, all you ASMPers (and the unaffiliated) should come as well. I will again be her special guest for the Q and A session at the end. Bring all your questions–this is your chance to pick 2 consultants’ brains for the price of admission!

Looking for the perfect item to remind yourself and/or your clients of your value, creativity, or just my favorite mantra of “I don’t suck”? Look no further than the BAP spreadshirt shop.

There’s a link on the Parts Department page of the BAP site too, in case you lose this post.

Yesterday I learned about another source for a marketing product many of my clients could use. I contacted the company to say that I might be able to recommend their product to my clients, but I’d have to see samples first.

Their response was that they’d be happy to send samples–as long as I paid for the shipping. When I pointed out to them that this was not a great way to market their products, they replied that when they sent samples out, they rarely got them returned so they make potential customers (and reviewers like me) pay for the shipping to make up for it.

Sigh.

If you are going to offer a service that makes products (like printing, web design, etc.) you had better be prepared to give samples to potential customers without expecting them returned. Obviously for web design this is easy–show sites, but for print products, you’re going to have to make physical samples. Nice if they are returned, but don’t expect it and don’t penalize everyone ahead of time by making them pay. Making and sending samples is part of the cost of your own marketing!

Needless to say, I told that company they could keep their products until they changed that policy, then we could talk.

There’s an old saying in French: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same). This is true in our industry as much as it is anywhere. There are discussions and fears all over about new technology and its implications, especially as it relates to value. It has always been thus–especially in advertising.

When radio came about, it took a while for previously print-only advertisers to get the hang of the new technology and for companies to figure out how best to exploit it for financial gain. Same for TV. Now the same thing is happening with the ‘net and broadband services in general.

However, as the money pulls back from traditional TV, more and more is getting spent in web-based advertising. Also, newer technologies may permit a greater integration of TV and targeted advertising that we’ve hardly dreamed of–imagine watching a show and seeing a product you want to know more about–click on the product with your TV remote to be taken to that product’s site, on the fly, where you can learn more and even order it. That isn’t too far out there any more.

This presents photographers with significant opportunities, if we keep our heads about us. In the short term, yes, pricing and value are going to be difficult to quantify. However, rather than assuming the lower potentialities, try to look at the greater ones. In time, the prices and costs for these newer media uses will, I believe, rise to reflect their greater value to the advertisers and we should be ready to reflect this in photography license prices. That will be easier to do on the higher end if we push for greater prices now, rather than lowering the bar.

Of course, for those of you who are using media buys as a factor in your license prices, these new uses pose a difficult problem. Until the media is quantified (which will be done by others than us) there is little to go on for pricing. For these uses, I suggest perhaps doing a variation like determining the number of potential “eyeballs” and charging for each of them. Ask a client how much reach, in terms of people, they expect to get, then multiply that by something between tenths of a cent and a couple of cents per potential person.

After all, web banner ads, for example, are priced all over the place, but usually based on CPM (cost per thousand impressions)–like for BusinessWeek.com, 1 million impressions would cost $40K to $108K, depending on the banner size (that’s $40-$108 CPM). $40 per 1000 means the media costs 4¢ per appearance. Pricing your usage license a few tenths of a penny per view would seem a more than reasonable valuation (.5¢ would be 12.5% of media cost–a significant percentage from the advertiser’s point of view, but it is, at least, a starting point).

Of course, I’d prefer those numbers to be higher. $5000 for a million eyeballs seems pretty low to me. However, at the very least we can make a credible argument for it. As the valuation of web use shakes out for the media, it will become easier and easier to determine the relative value of imagery within those uses. In the meantime, this gives us some logical place to begin negotiations.

As I’ve said before in all my writings about pricing, I’m not married to these numbers. I want photographers to push for the highest prices their images’ values will bear. I am simply trying to find logical quantifying methods and provide credible arguments for their defense.

In the previous post, I lied–okay, it was more a sin of omission, but same thing basically. There is one thing you can do right now to make your business better immediately:

Make something. Make your something, your way, and don’t even begin to let anyone else tell you what that is. Not even me.