the photos you provide to clients are an asset to them, and they do not depreciate over time, they can only appreciate. (unless they divorce, then it's another issue.)
I'm not sold on the term either. Especially when the photographer starts to market around the term. It doesn't have the same strength as if you were to say "half a million" instead of "500 thousand." It just makes it so obvious what the photographer is trying to do. "I offer investment wedding opportunities." lol
If you are aiming for a higher end client then Investment is a better choice of word. If you are aiming for bargain hunters then it would probably come off as a little pretentious.
Marcus Watts wrote:
If you are aiming for a higher end client then Investment is a better choice of word. If you are aiming for bargain hunters then it would probably come off as a little pretentious.
I use the word "price". Don't have a scientific reason why, but the idea that I like to think is that when something has a price, it costs the individual something...there is an idea of sacrifice involved. Thats just my head at least.
Whereas an investment, to me, loses the idea of sacrifice because I'm expecting something from it. I don't feel like I have something to lose.
Ramblings...but I'm pretty sure you don't "invest" in a Tiffany's ring, a Mercedes or a Rolex watch, those all have a price.
Rolex, Mercedes etc do have a price, they also have a diminishing value.
People with money who like nice things are very often better educated than than those not in that position.
So the idea of increasing value of wedding photography is understood amongst those happy to pay for it. Price shoppers will get that but often years later or after they lose their photos in a tragedy.
Speaking from a client's perspective, a good wedding photographer is an investment. Saying that investments are strictly monetary is ignorant. In fact, how often do you hear terms these days such as "invest in your future", or "invest in your child's education". In both cases, you are spending money with the hope that you better yourself or somebody else as a result.
Before I started 2nd shooting for Spencer, my wife and I hired him for our wedding. The two trips to St Croix, the travel, the album, they were all very expensive. My wife made the determination that pictures were the most important thing to her because it was the only way to really relive the experience. Now, three years later, I'm glad she pushed for that.
With all due respect, lightwelder's notion that pictures are no more an investment than a lavish honeymood is ludicrous. I don't even hardly remember my honeymoon, and in 20 years I'll probably remember even less.
Because of Spencer's phenomenal pictures of our wedding, my wife and I will always have a pictorial tour that will allow us to relive the event as if it were yesterday. As the years go by, and the wedding becomes an even further distant memory, that album will increase in value exponentially to us. Both in sentimental value, but also in our perceived monetary value. The more it means to us, the more we'd be willing to pay to get it back.
So you all can nitpick all you want about if "investment" is slimy marketing, but as a client and 2nd shooter, I have serious reservations about any photographer who shoots a wedding thinking his pictures are worth no more than a lavish honeymoon.
Regards,
Carraig
P.S. For those specifying investments specifically as that whicih increase your wealth, how are your stocks doing the last couple years? Not sure anybody can argue that win or lose, stocks are considered investing...
We used to have our packages and prices page titled 'Investment' but after changing it to 'Pricing', we noticed far fewer phone calls and emails asking for...yes you guessed it..."How much are your wedding photography packages?" which used to drive us crazy as they are all on our website in plain view for all to read (including our competitors.)
We now have a separate page titled 'Investment Guide' but this covers a completely different area altogether and is most visited by other photographers across the UK (not our intended audience as the page was set up to provide industry info to those couples who have no idea how much professional wedding photography costs, and the variety of photographers out there all looking to take their money,) who do any kind of search for 'How much should I charge for wedding photography?'
We're happy with 'Pricing' now. Plain English that allows couples to get straight to the bottom line, if this is what they need to add us to their shortlist, or cut us lose if we're above their budget.
I was really surprised that many of you use term 'investment'. Actually I was thinking what the hell is going on? Do they sell insurance or something? That was my initial thought, take it as a foreigner's point of view.
Marcus Watts wrote:
If you are aiming for a higher end client then Investment is a better choice of word. If you are aiming for bargain hunters then it would probably come off as a little pretentious.
I think you've got it backwards. Higher-end clients tend to be a wee bit more educated and see right through the cheesy Investment BS.
Yet another trollfest...who cares what anyone other than yourself calls something?
Photography is indeed an investment that WILL appreciate in time. The return is decades of enjoyment. The portraits of my great grandparents have appreciated to a value that I cannot even calculate.
carraig wrote:
P.S. For those specifying investments specifically as that whicih increase your wealth, how are your stocks doing the last couple years? Not sure anybody can argue that win or lose, stocks are considered investing...
I agree with everything else you said... but if your stocks haven't done very well over the last two years you're doing it all wrong (assumption - routine biweekly or monthly investment into a market-tracking basket of stocks, or more conveniently a minimal-cost market-tracking index fund ... now if you asked about over the past 10 years... meh... not as exciting I suppose )
lightwelder wrote:
I'm still not convinced. Just because you hire a skilled mechanic and avoid the bad ones, it doesn't mean that you invested in any way. Plus, the first thing a crappy tog would say is that they're investment worthy.
The fact still remains, a good wedding album, or good photography is just as bad of an investment than a lavish honeymoon. They're both going to leave you with good memories, but they're going to hurt your bank account. And it's going to hurt all the same, whether you call it 'investment' or 'cost' or 'price'.
I disagree completely... a mechanic isn't an investment because even if they screw up your car.. you can always buy another car (unless its something truly rare like a 1964 Ferrari GTO). But you can't get your wedding.... for the sake of your example.. you could even take another honeymoon. But to recreate a wedding would be damn near impossible...
TTLKurtis wrote:
I think you've got it backwards. Higher-end clients tend to be a wee bit more educated and see right through the cheesy Investment BS.
You're wrong. The less educated find the use of words from the english language not in their more limited vocabulary as pretentious or cheesy.
That does not limit them from creating their own, say using the word dope to mean cool.
Investment is however in the dictionary and has a meaning appropriate to the use we are talking about.
Nic Cleave wrote:
We used to have our packages and prices page titled 'Investment' but after changing it to 'Pricing', we noticed far fewer phone calls and emails asking for...yes you guessed it..."How much are your wedding photography packages?" which used to drive us crazy as they are all on our website in plain view for all to read (including our competitors.)
Nic
Nic I was JUST about to write the same thing. I honestly think Investment is a much nicer word to use than "Prices" but people just weren't clicking on it but instead I would get a lot of calls/emails asking me for my prices. Looking at Analytics more people are clicking on "Prices" now and the calls have dropped asking me what I charge.
1. It's going to cost you more than you might think it will
2. And you won't complain about that, because it's not a purchase, it's an investment
3. If you make the WRONG investment (hire the wrong peeps) you will be in the same boat as those who "invested" in Enron or Worldcom
4. Unlike an iphone or a 60" plasma screen your wedding photos will indeed increase in value for you and some people in your family every time you gain a new pound or lose a relative. So like we hope our investments, this one will grow.
that said a lot of millennials use the word in the same way you and I use "buy" for the most frivolous of things....Show more →
Spot on!
While I use the pedestrian "rates", I certainly see the logic behind "investment". After all, which is more appealing?
$4000 cost of photography
$4000 investment in photography
)