We all know that we would like to everything our way and just our way…but why? Do we think we are something special? Or do we just like to be high maintenance? That may have been the case while I was growing up ( sorry no dates!!) but why is now expected and what does it have to do with photography?
Well lets take a walk back in time. One of the things that put us on the fast track to where we are was the move from individually crafted items produced in low numbers. that was ok as long as the demand of those items was matched with the ability of the producers to keep up. Suddenly, a young upstart named Henry Ford decided that everyone needed and should have a way to get around and it should be affordable. Abracadabra and there were suddenly hundreds of black four wheel horseless carriages put-putting around! And hence the beginning of the Mass market revolution, lots of average products for lots of average folks. Everybody was happy and a limited ability to chose began evolving as the ease of producing and communication those choices increased.
So back to today… now we are seeing an ever increasing demand for choice, choices that reflect who we are. By simply googling we can come pretty close to not only getting what we want and in the quality we want ( that suits our budget etc.). And the ability to self design our choices is ever increasing just walk through Ikea.
So what does this have to do with photography? Well the wedding and portrait industry was part of the great massification as well, just take a look at your parents old photos. We have been slow to catch up and one could argue that we aren’t even close yet. While the wedding industry has adopted different operating model through the rise photojournalist style it is still a one size fits all approach. Furthermore, we have been locked in a time warp of a business model built around selling paper prints!!
So….how’s that working out? Turns out not so good since nationally sales have been down..well DUH!! Who wants paper when they can have their images in whatever shape size, color or whatever, they want. We used to be very limited in what we could do with photos and 99.99999% of the time after the initial oooohhs and aaaaahs, they were neatly tucked away in a drawer only to be discovered 20 years later when we were getting that old desk ready for the garage sale. The behavior hasn’t changed that much since, it has just changed shape, instead of tucking the images away in a desk we put them on a disc or load them into a computer and forget about them…until a couple of years later we want to show our kids how cool we looked. And to our horror of horrors they have disappeared, vamoosed, poofed, blown away!!!
So the point of this little ditty is we have not only a chance but an obligation to work closely with each and every client to develop a package of services that best meets their needs. Ya it takes time on our part and energy and effort and dedication to giviing our clients the best and most personalized service they could ever imagine.
More on this later…..don’t want to overload.
