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Hire a Photographer!

November 29, 2011 By 3 Comments

I hear it and see it all the time: wedding vendors that do fabulous work but have lame photos to show for it. They spent hours sweating over the perfect food display or those gorgeous tissue paper pom-poms hung perfectly from a tree or the centerpieces on top of the perfect linen. Then after the fact, often months after the fact, the wedding photographer, after much arm twisting and begging sends them a file of stunning prints of the B&G, the wedding bands and a picture of shoes! Wow, score!

Now whose fault is this? Well it damn sure isn’t the photographers. They were hired to shoot the B&G and the list they sent them, not your details. (unless they were on the brides list, that is)

Here is a tip: 

Hire your own photographer!

Then they are working off of your list. You should get the images in a timely fashion and have just the shots you want.

OK, here it comes…

I am about to get hit by photographers that forbid other shooters at their weddings. In this instance, get over it. These vendors are hiring their own professional so they get the marketing materials that they need and have every right to own. Besides, you obviously aren’t shooting what they need in a way that helps them. Your client is the bride. You need to find a way to work this out. I mean come on, 9 times out of 10 this outside shooter will be done before the guests arrive and you won’t ever see them.

But WAIT! There’s more!

Hey you photographers just starting out…

I am always asked how you can break-in with the top designers and planners. How about you start hitting them up to shoot their details? Do a good job over a period of time and they may just add you to their roster.

In my outsider, twisted opinion that is a win for everybody.

  • The vendors get exactly what they need.
  • The wedding photographer doesn’t have to worry about shooting for the vendors.
  • The new photographer gets some real world experience and some new contacts.
What’s not to love?
Oh, and I get great images to work with when marketing my clients.
Filed Under: Ask Christine, Back to Basics, Building Your Business, Marketing, Outrageous Marketing, Website Design Tagged With: , , , ,

Of Fairy Dust and Pretty Pink Unicorns

September 13, 2011 By 3 Comments

I had lunch yesterday with friend of Think, Ashley King of Ashley’s Bride Guide.  Much of the conversation revolved around Fairy Dust and Pink Unicorns. It’s really scary how much Ashley and I think alike.

First up, Fairy Dust.

All you need to do is advertise with me and you will have all the brides you want.

You hear this from just about every sales rep you meet.  They know your marketing budget is small and they want all of it.  Sadly, you also hear it from the talking heads that represent the major players like the Knot and Wedding Wire. The truth is that no one place is going to do it for you, you have to spread your exposure out as well as you can and have it all point to the one place you truly control: your website.

All you need is a Facebook page.

No, again your Facebook page is just a sign post to your website. If you post all your content on Facebook they have no reason to go to your site and all that traffic goes to Facebook, not you. Facebook is important, don’t get me wrong, but it is only a piece of the puzzle

The Wedding industry is recession proof.

Wrong. While it is true that people will keep getting married, even that is less true than it used to be. There as been so much written about this, including a lot of it on Think, that I won’t bore you with it. Beyond that, the amount that couples spend is directly effected by the economy. When people are struggling to pay their mortgage and put gas in their car they aren’t going to spend $500 on a custom aisle runner or card box. They are going back to basics, back to what matters.

If you offer low end alternatives no one will buy your high end offerings.

Really? Nothing could be farther from the truth. Why would you purposely leave money on the table? More importantly, if you give budget brides a gateway into your offerings if they find extra money they may well buy your higher priced items.

 

Pink Unicorns

It was interesting that it isn’t only me that hears the constant cry of, “I only want to do luxury weddings.” ~sigh~

Long before I started writing on this public blog, back in the days when Think was subscription only, I began trying to dispel this myth. Yes there are some really high end weddings in America, but no where near enough to support every vendor that is chasing them. Yes the weddings that brides see in the major blogs tend to be high end.  Yes, a large group of brides want a Style Me Pretty wedding but not many can afford it. The problem is that when it comes time to write the check to make those weddings happen, very few (and shrinking) can actually ante up. When faced with the cost, most regroup and back way down.

Here is one more point you may want to consider. The really high end weddings, a quarter of a million and up, are being planned and designed by the people that have been planning and designing for that family or peer group for years. Not someone they found on the web.

“Wait! ” you say, “I want the $100,000 to $200,000 weddings.”  That market, the upper middle class, is the one that is shrinking faster that all others.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal was addressing how giant Proctor and Gamble is restructuring to match the new realities and had this little tidbit.

In the wake of the worst recession in 50 years, there’s little doubt that the American middle class—the 40% of households with annual incomes between $50,000 and $140,000 a year—is in distress. Even before the recession, incomes of American middle-class families weren’t keeping up with inflation, especially with the rising costs of what are considered the essential ingredients of middle-class life—college education, health care and housing. In 2009, the income of the median family, the one smack in the middle of the middle, was lower, adjusted for inflation, than in 1998, the Census Bureau says.

The slumping stock market and collapse in housing prices have also hit middle-class Americans. At the end of March, Americans had $6.1 trillion in equity in their houses—the value of the house minus mortgages—half the 2006 level, according to the Federal Reserve. Economist Edward Wolff of New York University estimates that the net worth—household assets minus debts—of the middle fifth of American households grew by 2.4% a year between 2001 and 2007 and plunged by 26.2% in the following two years.

P&G isn’t the only company adjusting its business. A wide swath of American companies is convinced that the consumer market is bifurcating into high and low ends and eroding in the middle. They have begun to alter the way they research, develop and market their products.

Does that last sentence remind you of any high end wedding gown designer? It should, it’s exactly what Vera Wang is doing.

So what does this mean to you?

It certainly doesn’t mean you should give up, I am not trying to spout doom and gloom. It means that you may need to rethink your goals in light of what is really going on with your target market. Is there a way that you can offer some product to the lower end bride?  It is really smart to put all your marketing drive into getting a market that is evaporating?  There is money out there to be made, it just may not be where it used to be.

 

 

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Inspiration, Trends Tagged With: , , ,

Branding. Are You Confused?

September 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The topic of branding has been nudging me a lot lately, sort of like my cat does when he wants attention. I have talked a lot about branding in the past; about what it is and why you should pay attention to it. It seems that recently branding has become one of the darling buzzwords of the industry and creating your personal brand is all it takes to become a gajillionaire and land your own TV reality show. Gah!! What are you thinking?

 

Here is what branding means to me.

 

Branding is the visual (or auditory, think Intel) signal that triggers a response in people. That response should be the instant recall of all you do, have done and stand for. It should imediately evoke in them a knowledge of your style and place in the industry.

It is not enough that they recognize ‘it’, they must recognize everything for which ‘it’ stands. What’s more, it had better ring true.

You can’t hang a shiny new upscale logo on a meat and potatoes caterer and think you are suddenly upscale. First you have to earn it. The same thing works in reverse.

 

It doesn’t matter whether you are just starting out or are well established, your visual trigger, or brand, has to represent the whole backstory. It has to tell the tale.

There is only one way for that to work, you have to know the backstory, you have to know who you are and what you stand for. What’s more, you have to be honest about it to both yourself and your consumer. Today’s consumer can smell a fraud a mile away.

 

You see, it isn’t really the visual signal that matters, it is what it represents.

 

You know me, here are a a few examples.

I work with a association of wedding vendors. They have established over time an repetition a solid brand represented by a certain red circle logo.  New board comes in, hate the colors and wants to change the entire look of all the marketing material.  I got to test this out last month at a series of bridal shows.

I would first hand out a piece of the new marketing material and the response would be the typical bridal show blank stare.  I would then hand them a piece of the old collateral and the response was one of immediate recognition.  They not only knew the association but had been to its website and loved it. All it took to change the response was a single red dot icon.

What do you think, should they lose the red dot device?

 

I am working with another client, a caterer who started out as a meat and potatoes, simple fare kind of operation.  Over the years  her business has grown dramatically. She has established a reputation that is trusted as a qualified professional operation and she has hired a wonderfully creative chef. She is now able to offer a decidedly upscale, gourmet type of cuisine. Unfortunatly, her logo still evokes pot roast instead of fillet with truffle butter. There is nothing inherently wrong with the logo. It is just that in the minds of potential customers is still means pot roast.

The challenge is, to create a new logo to represent what her company has evolved into without losing the positive response that already exists. The backstory has evolved, the visual trigger has to as well. The plan is to subtly change the logo, keep the colors and redo the website and copy.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Then there is the dear friend that has built a personal brand with out even thinking about it.  What logo and branding there is came about more by chance than design.  You have all heard me talk about eWedNewz and Paul Pannone. His brand has skyrocketed in the last year just by relentlessly doing what he does, by always being true to himself and never being afraid to put it out there. Today, newz with a “Z” means something. It means edgy, honest and unafraid. He didn’t go into this with the goal of claiming the letter ‘Z’ as his own, but it got hung on him and he is running with it.  In this case, he built the backstory, the brand if you will, and the visual icon just developed.

A great logo and the right colors aren’t going to make you or break you, what they stand for will.

 

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Branding Tagged With: , ,

Some Companies Get It, Some Don’t.

September 1, 2011 By 2 Comments

One of the keys to continuing to be successful in business through the ups and downs of culture changes and economic upheaval is to stay focused on what your customer wants. Customers evolve with time, businesses have to as well.

Two very different articles crossed my path this morning and they highlight this better than anything I could do or say to convince you.

(Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

 

First was an article in the Boston Globe talking about David’s Bridal’s decision to close their Priscilla’s of Boston division. Started in 1945, Priscilla’s was the epitome of high end gowns for many, many years. It salons were upscale, gorgeous and exclusive. The purchase of Priscilla’s by David’s in 2007 was their attempt to tap that market at the height of the wedding bubble. Unfortunately, the bubble burst, the economy tanked and the culture changed but the business model didn’t. The market for high end gowns sold in a slow paced pampering environment all but dried up.

This quote in the article from Yolanda Cellucci, once the reigning queen of the high end bridal salon says it all

“I used to carry Bob Mackie wedding dresses that cost up to $25,000,’’ Cellucci said. “We had a baby grand piano in the foyer with a pianist. There were models, and we served champagne. People don’t have time for that anymore. Everyone is rushing.’’

Cellucci saw the writing on the wall and closed her famous Boston salon 2 years ago. This was a woman that was smart enough to have an ATM installed in her parking lot. She never missed a trick.

David’s, also a very savvy player, hooked up with Vera Wang to go the other direction. Wang’s moderately priced line for David’s, White has reportedly been a tremendous hit. Know thy customer!

On the other end of the spectrum is Chicago’s House of Brides. I have listened for years to bridal salon owners call HoB every nasty name in the book because they saw the writing on the wall and opened an online store in addition to their brick and mortar operation. Originally opened in 1929, HoB could have continued to plug along with one little store but they jumped online and stayed ahead of the curve.

Today’s press release announced the opening of their 10th store, The Quinceanera Boutique . Something else that the article highlighted was it’s Diva Bridal Boutique, a shop exclusively for Plus size brides.

The Diva Bridal Boutique is the first salon in the nation dedicated to plus size brides. The Diva Bridal Boutique showcases fashion-forward designer wedding dresses exclusively in sizes 18 – 40. All wedding dresses are available in Women’s sizes only including the samples. Plus size brides can try-on dresses in Women’s sizes instead of the industry’s standard sample sizes of 10s and 12s. Diva Bridal Boutique features dresses available for immediate purchase or special order.

Talk about listening to your customer and giving them what they want.

Now you tell me, is it better to continue to do what has worked in the past or to continue to evolve as your customers do?

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Blog, Building Your Business, Trends Tagged With: , ,

Bridal Shows: Grab All the Opportunities

August 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Earlier this week I showcased the booth that A Magical Affair did at the Perfect Wedding Guide show.  Well, I want to use them to drive home another point about getting the most out of your bridal show marketing.

The team at PWG did a good job of offering opportunities beyond just renting you a booth. In addition on the Mezzanine level along with the fashion show they set aside space for tabletop display. A Magical Affair took good advantage. They did 2 tabletops, each completely different. Just a note, the fact that they were able to secure 2 tables tells me that there were some vendors that passed on this opportunity. Big mistake.

The first tabletop followed the current trend of less formal but still heavily decorated. It also made good use as a showcase for paper product like menus and signs. Played right, these can be a profit center for planners. Take a look.

The second table top was sleek and elegant and the near opposite of the first one. It was equally as big of a hit.

centerpiece, tabletop of elegant winter wedding

Take advantage of every opportunity that your bridal show offers.

If you don’t you are missing a great chance to maximize your investment. If had read the book, you would have known that.

 

Filed Under: Blog, bridal shows, eBooks, Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Notes from a Bridal Show. Part 2

August 17, 2011 By 1 Comment

Anatomy of a BoothBridal show fail

Some people do the same booth every show.

Some people grab whatever is handy at the last minute.

Some people don’t even try.

 

…and then there are those that consistently grab the bat with both hands and KNOCK IT OUT OF THE PARK!

 

This is the story of one of those hits.

I have been watching the ladies from Enchanted Florists for several years. Their booths never cease to amaze me. This time I was in a position to watch their booth creation from empty floor to thing of beauty. From the time the floor show opened for set up until the show started, they were like a team of busy, industrious bees.

Take a look at the set up.

From a bare concrete floor, to a shaby chic, boho thing of beauty.

Here is my question to you: If you are going to participate in a bridal show, are you going to do everything it takes to make the most out of it? With bridal shows, it really is “Go big or Go home!”

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Blog, bridal shows, Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Has Our Client Changed?

June 1, 2011 By 4 Comments

Conventional wisdom is that wedding vendors market to brides,

but is that still true?

I have been tracking a rising trend of grooms doing more of the planning than ever before.1 Time was when the groom picked maybe the band and maybe, just maybe the men’s wear. Other than that, they knew they were better off just staying the hell out of the way. This was between their future bride and their soon to be Mother in Law, both of which he knew better than to piss off.

That was then, this is now.

I  have been having a discussion with wedding vendors all around the country and most are saying the same thing: Grooms have more power in the process today and they view it much differently. Men view shopping (and to them that is what this is) as price, contracts and commodities. They don’t see the nuances. They see apples to apples when we all know that simply isn’t true.

Grooms may or may not be as emotionally invested in the wedding as the bride.2 They are flexing their muscle to impress her by handling it in a very businesslike manner. Determined to get the best price and the tightest contract they are bringing their negotiating A-game. Lovely.

So how did this all happen?

Our culture is changing, for one thing. If you have read any of the numerous studies that have come out in the last year or so about the rise of women then you should have seen this coming. By the time women reach the average age of a bride in 2011, they have completed university and begun to establish their career. They have learned the value of team work and delegation of duties. They see their role of wife as an equal partner and the see the wedding as belonging to the couple not just her. Another change is that her career is of high importance to her and she realizes that she has to work very hard to rise in her field. So she does what she has learned to do: she delegates.

No longer is the conversation, “Honey, please help me decide between these 2 invitations.”  Now it is more likely to be ” Look, you have more time than me, you have great graphic skills, deal with the invitations.” Women have long grumbled about the entire job of wedding planning falling on their shoulders and they are finally finding a way to change it.

That is wonderful, but it comes with it’s own issues. Men are just different in the way they approach the issue of acquiring goods and services. We as wedding vendors have gotten very good at how to sell to women. Now comes this new creature that we formerly either humored or ignored that is now the decision maker. It is time to hone you A-game and learn to sell to these guys. Your future may depend on it.

 

1Like most trends, this is most prevalent in the urban centers. Talking with professionals in less urban areas, this isn’t as much an issue…yet.

2 Notice I said wedding, not marriage; many of them are even more invested in the marriage than the bride.

Filed Under: Blog, Trends, What Brides Say Tagged With: , ,

Are You Chasing Unicorns?

April 25, 2011 By 2 Comments

This quote from today’s eWedNews really got me fired up.

eWedNews’ ongoing discussions with every category shows most wedding professionals have not taken the most basic, simple steps to know what their market value really is. Many say they’re focused on products, website traffic and honing efficiencies to make their business run better. Many have no answers when asked if they could be chasing after business that really isn’t there.

Isn’t one of the most basic parts of a business plan the question of whether a market even exists for your product at your price point? What you want to sell may or may not have any relationship to what your market will buy.

I hear it all the time.

Client:I really only want to do luxury weddings.

Me:Really. How many weddings over $250k are there in End of the Road, Idaho?

C: I don’t know.

Me: uh-huh….and what is the average budget of a weddings in your market and what is the total market value in your area?

C:I don’t know, exactly, but my usual bride has about $12K. I see weddings in the magazines all the time that must have budgets more like a quarter of a million. I know I can do those weddings.

Me: uh-huh.Why do you think better marketing will really make those $12k budgets magically find more money? How many people in End of the Road, Idaho can afford that kind of wedding?

The wedding industry is beginning to make some small gains after the debacle of 2008, but we are no where near the free spending heyday of  pre-recession America. Oh, and you can keep hoping but the wedding of Wills and Kate isn’t really going to change that drastically. The recession has changed the way many of today’s couples look at all things wedding. It is less about the spectacle and more about the meaning.

Rather than just wishing for the market to miraculouslly rebound, or building your business plan around the weddings you see in magazines, how about taking a real look around your own market. The information is out there, it’s called The Wedding Report. Take the time to find out what the budgets in your area really are. What are the couples in your area really spending on gowns and venues and flowers and transportation.

You may just find that you have been pinning your hopes on catching a Unicorn while ignoring the herds of beautiful horses that surround you.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Back to Basics Tagged With: , , ,

Shane McMurray on How to Price Your Product

March 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Nobody knows how to sweep away the fairy dust with a GIANT broom of numbers, facts and statistic like McMurray.

Shane has been the undisputed champion of honest numbers for as long as I have been in the market.  Every day we face the major media in the wedding industry sprinkling their peculiar brand of fairy dust to convince you that the world and the economy is a big bowl of cherries. McMurray’s honest numbers and analytical approach has a way of pointing out the pits in that bowl.

In this video, McMurry takes that same analytic approach to show you what you need to do to price your business to dominate the marketplace and your bottom line.

Pour a cup of coffee and learn something.

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Building Your Business, wedding marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Know Your Market: Gen Y Brides

March 28, 2011 By 3 Comments

Have you been paying attention?

Brides today think differently and it isn’t just about the economy. Oh, that’s part of it. I guess I should say it isn’t just about the money. It is about the experiences they have had, the way they think and the way they were raised.

We now live in a time that values self-service and self-reliance. Ask the internet any question short of brain surgery and you will find not just instructions but a video tutorial on how to do it. Your brides are well aware of this. They were also raised to believe that they could do anything they set their mind to. Forget the fact that they may have no talent whatsoever. No score soccer leagues where everyone gets a trophy ring a bell?

How about transparency? Everything you have ever done is on the web. Every complaint or ruffled feather in the last 15 years is still out there for someone to search.

Transparency and the internet color their take on pricing too. Yes you may be in a very expensive market, but hey, they look at the websites of vendors in small town middle America looking for ideas and don’t understand why you are more expensive. They talk to brides all over the world in forums and see that one bride got her bouquet for $$ and don’t see why they should pay you $$$. They surf the web for the lowest price and find it, then use that to convince themselves that you are just out to scalp them. If there are photographers on Craig’s List that will do packages for $250 doesn’t that mean that the other $2750 just go in the higher priced photographers pocket?

Make no mistake, I get it. I understand why what we do is expensive and I get why you charge what you do. Remember though, I’m on the inside, she isn’t. Her lens is much different from yours or mine.

Self-service and instant gratification is another part of what makes her different. If she wants something, she pulls it off the rack and takes it home. Instant. Long gone for most of today’s women is the hands on, well-trained sales rep. It is a concept that she has never know. The friendly face that you saw every time you entered you favorite boutique that knew your style and was right there to recommend new things and steer you clear of what didn’t work is a joy they have never known. In short, they have never known the service level that true wedding professionals provide on a daily basis and when they see it they are dis-trustful.

Here is a little story that illustrated my point.

I have a  friend, a life long New Yorker, who recently went to a medium-sized city in Canada for a conference. I spoke with him while he was there and his take was “Everyone is so nice and friendly here that I keep looking over my shoulder for the knife to get plunged in my back.”  He was so used to things being one way that when he was treated with kindness, respect and great service he just didn’t trust it. Your brides don’t trust it either.

Do I have a point to this rant?

Just this, it’s not you. Today’s brides are different. That is why things like Costco Bridal and Micheal’s DIY invitations, iPod Weddings and Flowers by the Box are getting traction.

Keep thinking re-invention. Know your market, reach them in the way they want to be reached.

Filed Under: Ask Christine, Rants & Raves, What Brides Say Tagged With: ,
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