A question for those getting paid for photography. It it just me or do clients seem to care more about price than quality. Over the last few months I continue to send out bids and not get the jobs. For example last week I sent in a bid for 5 day shoot for a large event. My portfolio backs up this with images ranging from presidents portraits , movie star porteriats and events for celebrities and large business groups. They tell me the budget and I came in within what was asked. They also mention last year many of the images were too dark to use and out of focus and did not what that same issue. Get an email and they took a lower price. As they put it a much lower price. I am sure from someone without insurance or E/O coverage as they did not know what this was when I sent in the bid. Like i said this is becoming common even with me lowering my fees.
Are you having this same problem. How are you handling it.
This is a real problem. Moreover--as you have already alluded (... last year many of the images were too dark to use and out of focus...)--it's not that they can't see the quality difference. They don't see a reason to pay for better quality.
Spock of Vulcan: "A difference that makes no difference is no difference."
Can it be that better quality simply makes no difference? In cases like corporate events, I can see that it may not make any difference. If the cheap event pictures don't come out: Nobody gets fired, profits don't suffer, and the minimal outlay is easily hidden in the budget.
I have to believe, though, that the quality difference does make a difference with customer-facing photography. Surely a high-quality, high-impact image sells jeans better than a lousy photo. I don't know, though, how that can be quantified. If an ad sells poorly, I'm sure the agency is not going to attribute that to their poor choice of photographer.
Two choices:
- lower your prices to appeal to the broader masses who will only spend so much money
- market to a different clientelle that can afford what you charge.
Quality doesn't have to change - that should be a staple in anybody's business plan.
However, many companies will find corners to cut and therefore product quality does diminish in the lower end products.
Again, pick ANY other market and you can see vast differences in quality vs price. The higher the price (assume quality), the fewer people will pay for it. But that really doesn't mean to follow that the lower price is automatically lower quality. Some business models are happy to sell to the masses at a lower price a still decent product.
So choose your business plan: stick to your quality/prices and offer them to willing customers who can afford the prices and definately want the quality, or possibly lower your prices to find more people willing to pay for it.
In the end, it comes down to profit. If you can sell 12 high end clients per year your say $12,000 package, which nets you $5,000 in profit, then you're making $60k/year.
Or you may be able to lower your prices to $10,000 for the package that 24 customers per year will buy: netting $3k per job or $72k per year. Yes, it's twice as much work, but we are in control of our businesses and therefore work load and profit.
In my little part of the business the large middle of the market is almost gone...there are still high end jobs being produced and the entry level photographers doing the low end jobs. Trouble is that many of us are toiling away in the vast middle range where there are fewer and fewer jobs. So if you are a middle guy and the other photog is a low end guy and the client doesn't really know or care about the quality, chances are they will go cheap to look good to their boss.
Even with connections to the potential employer, it's tough to compete for business at many institutions unless you are willing to be the cheapest. My firm is one of the most profitable in our industry, and yet, we tend to take the lowest bidder when hiring portrait photographers. The guy we hired does a good enough job, though I am sure there many here (or my wife) who could do better.
lordarka wrote:
The guy we hired does a good enough job
Key point right here, quality starts to lack when people feel it is "good" enough. It would be nice if everyone decided they only want the best as it will promote their business better, and show what the company is about. But in the end, its all about profit and whats good is good enough. Unfortunate in the way things are going. Luckily I have a few clients that still value my work enough to pay a decent day rate, and then there are others I need to teach, that my day rate does not give carte blanche for usage. There is a reason there are contracts!!
When times are good and money is free flowing price is less discriminated by clients. Over the past 15 years we have had to make pricing adjustments with still providing the same quality. Had we not, we would not be in business. But that's business. We all suffer due to this lousy economy.
I think everyone above has a point which applies to you.
I also think Hammy has the key point.
The baseline issue from which they all spring is that these days EVERYONE is a photographer, and digital editing software makes "most" photos appear to be of "acceptable quality."
So specialization and selling yourself is a really key issue.
