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Feedback 3: Your competition

June 12th, 2009 in Opinion by


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More feedback on my email, Your next album company

It’s hard to compete … We’ve seen a massive influx of photographers from Eastern Europe charging very low prices and supplying reasonable products.

I understood the impact of this EU “migration” in British hotels and restaurants, but I honestly hadn’t thought about the impact on photographers (Jo and Kirsten will be shaking their heads!).

Even so I feel that this kind of competition is always with us … in one form or other.

The purpose of outstanding presentation is to add value to your photography. That’s why, whoever you use, your albums must help you stand out in the market.

If you can’t think of five reasons why people should choose you, there’s probably only one: you’re cheap. Said differently, differentiate or drop your prices.

But here’s the thing: if you agree with that sentiment, you’ve ruled out most suppliers in the market.

Two final thoughts… If you’re interested I posted a series of emails early this year on dealing with the recession and album-based marketing.

And as my last post demonstrated, QBY has exactly the same challenge.

Cheers, Ian

PS Comments invited!

 

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    • Feedback 2: Our competition

    June 11th, 2009 in Opinion by


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    More feedback on my email, Your next album supplier

    Changing to Queensberry is like changing my Ford Focus for a top range Audi … Not sure many people are going to cope with that.

    Depends what you mean by “many”. But certainly we never expect most people to choose Queensberry. Products that differentiate need to be aspirational (ie more people want them than can have them). That applies to your own “products” too, of course.

    In business, rather than ask how much something costs, it’s useful sometimes to ask how much it’s worth. And how it positions you in your market.

    There were 42 album companies at Focus this year … something must be going right for them all.

    Not necessarily. There used to be dozens of little oil companies, car companies and computer companies too. Right now the barriers to entry for digital book companies are very low. Things will get shaken out. And you didn’t even mention the very cheap press books you can buy from Apple and goodness knows where else.

    Many of the old UK companies make a very good living from supplying their legacy products.

    It didn’t pan out for Spicer Hallfield. My post was simply to suggest that you think twice before hitching your wagon to products or companies that may be in a long, slow decline.

    Cheers, Ian

    PS Comments invited!

     

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    June 10th, 2009 in Opinion by


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    Prompted by the unfortunate demise of Spicer Hallfield, which was once the UK’s foremost album manufacturer, I emailed our list in the UK yesterday. The gist of my message was that their ex customers should think twice before choosing a replacement supplier – especially if their gut reaction was to look for someone offering a similar product at a similar price.

    My email generated quite a lot of enquiries for Sonya’s team, plus some feedback that I thought I’d discuss over the next few days. But let me start with the tough one…

    Someone called my email an “unbelievable bit of ambulance chasing”.

    Hmm, I’d agree if we were offering discounts to ex Spicers customers, or matching their prices for six months.

    As it is, ALL we offered was something to think about, which I’m personally happy to stand by.

    You can read what I said here. (And when we first heard the rumours, I touched on some of the same points here.)

    Cheers, Ian

    More feedback tomorrow.

     

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    • Sad for them

    May 22nd, 2009 in Opinion by


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    Sad as it is, it’s no secret that one or two of the traditional album manufacturers in the USA and UK have had serious problems, and not just because of “the economy”.

    It’s hard for everyone when a company struggles, hard for their staff, hard for their suppliers. Harder still when you know the people involved.

    Hard for their customers too, who’ve spent a lot of time getting to know their people, understanding their systems and foibles, making bookings with couples who will expect one of their albums…

    So why have they been in trouble?

    Because companies like Queensberry started eating their lunch.

    It’s easy to see, when the world changes, that previously successful companies find it very hard to change with it. It’s hard to let go of the old world because they were successful in it, because the market associates the new world with their new competition – and because their clients generally don’t want to change either.

    Unfortunately, when faced with needing to find a new supplier, many people look for someone offering a similar product at the same price. They could be hitching their business to another dying star…

    Sad for them, good for Queensberry clients.

    Cheers, Ian

    PS I first published this accidentally and I’ve edited it a bit since. Reading it back it still sounds a bit harsh, and it’s not meant to. I just wanted to make the point that this may not be the best of times to resist change. But many people do, and (indirectly) that’s good for our clients.

     

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    • How far is the extra mile?

    April 1st, 2009 in Opinion by


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    How far is the extra mile?

    Four of us went out for dinner in Auckland on Sunday. When we arrived they gave each of us a fresh oyster in a spoon. It was part of the welcome … even before they asked us if we’d like a drink.

    There were four problems.

    One of us is pregnant and can’t eat shellfish.

    One of us doesn’t like shellfish.

    One of us didn’t like that the oysters were sitting in vinegar (albeit a fancy Chardonnay vinegar … it was a very flash restaurant).

    The fourth ate one because it seemed rude not to.

    Four oyster lovers would have been in some kind of heaven, but this was an extra mile in the wrong direction. Shades of those strangers in your viewfinder.

    How far Which way is the extra mile?

    Cheers, Johannes

     

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    March 10th, 2009 in Opinion by


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    podcaster_001I just got back from a seminar by one of Australia’s best seminar presenters.

    For all his professionalism and preparedness, his Dell laptop wouldn’t recognise the USB microphone he was recommending. A simple problem, but he couldn’t fix it and neither could the audio tech who was recording the presentation.

    And before you Apple fan boys start chortling, the audio geek was recording the event on a Mac using the latest version of Logic Pro, and he told me he was having problems with that too.

    What happened? The presenter demonstrated with $25 Logitech headset instead, and we moved on.

    I flew home on Air New Zealand and their state of the art touch screen entertainment system refused to boot. What happened? The purser went through the plane, offered everyone an air points credit and we moved on.

    Twice in one day is a bit much, but  s@#$ happens at the bleeding edge. It helps to be comfortable with that reality.

    Remind me I said that when my own stuff stops working!

    Cheers, Ian

    PS I’m still going to buy the microphone.

     

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