“In Los Angeles, there are a gazillion taco trucks. How did Kogi BBQ penetrate the competitive market and become the king of Korean tacos?
Simple – no one took that category. However, that alone won’t generate success. And how will they defend themselves from copy cats? Watch the video.”
I left one question unanswered – how will they defend themselves from copy cats? Any ideas? How do these strategies translate into wedding photography?
What I want you to do now…
- If a light bulb moment went off, please share it with the Retweet button below or via facebook.
- Comment below with ideas!
- Got a question? Comment your question below and I will either reply or make a follow-up post
Yours truly,
Lawrence Chan
P.S. My favorite items are the burger sliders and chicken tacos. Korean cabbage…so delicious.
P.P.S. The longer the wait, the better it tastes? Something to think about.
No related posts.
I’ll get the ball rolling
By focusing in one category, it also means that you cannot do anything else! The reason for this is because of dilution and lack of clarity (even by your customers). There is no doubt that when I say Heinz, you will think of ketchup. So when I say (your name) photography, I should only think of weddings (or pet, family, etc.); just one, not all.
If you can’t define your own business category, how will your clients? If you clients can’t, how will they refer you more business?
“Uh, they shoot great wedding pics! And they’re a dog photographer. They did my dog photos recently and they were GORGEOUS! Oh and I had them photograph my home because I want nice pictures when I post it on the MLS…”
While i agree with the marketing strategies whether planned or accidentally stumbled upon by Kogi BBQ. It’s kinda like the door man at a new trendy night club. With allot of fan boys. I do believe that as a photographer once can be multifaceted in their approach. That is to say, you can successfully photograph, weddings, dogs and portraits too. Although Sony is in the electronics business they have numerous product lines that cross over. As do many companies. I personally believe that diversification is should not be looked down upon but rather embraced. Especially when well done.
I can see the confusion that this may cause for potential clients. Even in the fashion world, separate licensing and separate lines exist for Ralph Lauren, Armani, in the couture and mass markets. Here it is their brand that is recognized as a quality product: hence, perfumes, eye wear, clothing, shoes, home decor and so forth.
Back to possible client confusion. This is why it is essential to segregate sites or on line branding for photographers. Or, at least categorize. A bride shopping for a wedding photographer, may love dogs but would be confused and lose focus on a dog post (albiet, it could craftily fit in to the scheme of weddings). So keep your wedding site separate from your dog site. At least that’s MHO.
Ture, Heinz owns the Ketchup brand and a large segment of the market but they also own the following brands: Bagel Bites, Ore-Ida, Fridays, Boston Market, Chef Francisco, Classico, Lea & Perins and more: {http://www.heinz.com/our-food/products/north-america.aspx}. Diversity is king?!
P.S. Lawernce, thought you were a Vegetarian. What’s up with the chicken tacos and burger sliders? Love your posts and insights!
Diversity is for jesters, while specialty is for kings.
Think about it this way – would you like a veterinarian, surgeon, general practitioner operate on your heart? Or your dog? But they all have an M.D.!!
Look in clothing – Gap represents youth, Banana Republic represents safari, Express represents chic, etc.
Focus will always triumph. However, it’s okay to use a different name to do business. Gap and Banana Republic and Old Navy are all the same company, but under different names.
P.S. I was a vegetarian for several years (cultural sacrificial reasons), but gave into the lure of filet.
I believe the question you’re asking is the same question Kogi’s asking themselves. In essence, Kogi is just another fad precedented by other trends like boba tea and pinkberry yogurt. They are fully aware of this and are attempting to strike while the iron is hot with a national expansion. I can only assume their business model is similar to pinkberry – capitalize on the popularity, expand and sell while the brand is in its peak.
Playing to trends is an extremely quick and rapidly changing landscape. You have to be pretty adept and nimble to market successfully to these fads and to create value in something that is a bit gimmicky and trendy. Part of the allure is the secretive speakeasy feel of the truck. Their marketing and branding hides that their food really isn’t that good. There are plenty of wedding photogs out there who guise their substandard photos with strong marketing and branding. I’m sure everyone has their favorite big names to list. The ultimate aim is to have both a strong product and a strong brand.
The slick marketing of kogi has always struck me as more short-term than long-term. Most trends follow this structure. The obvious take-away as wedding photographers is to be on top of your technology game. There are some helpful points to take away from the kogi marketing strategy, but as a whole business to model your photography studio after, it seems a bit less applicable. That’s just my two pennies though.
Fad or not, hype or not, it’s still something cool. Just like the iPad, yet people are still creating apps for it…really cool ones too! This serves as an ecosystem, which enables creators to create and consumers to consume; everyone benefits.
In fact, let’s take this discussion one step further. There were those who disliked Elvis…or Lady Gaga. Fad? Who knows. As long as the flames are fanned, even through hate, their existence will remain (this discussion will be in the future for advanced students).
I’m not refuting what you’re saying. I’m just saying that what they’re doing is so far strategically sound (except for their restaurant), which is why I sort of have a feeling that all of this happened on accident. Nevertheless, if they don’t rely solely on one aspect of marketing, they should be okay.
Anyway, we’re not here to talk about whether it’s a fad or not. In fact, I think it’s great that they were able to capitalize on it. The commendable thing is that they were able to make it work and quite frankly that’s good for my books. Let’s face it, who are we to determine what’s a fad or not? In fact, Who knew that sex sales 50 years ago? It was business taboo / suicide.
Thanks for the interesting food for thought Lawrence. I think people need something memorable that they can capture and be associated with. Think about how you can capture some of these things: color, fonts, a shooting style, a region, or location, ethnic groups, religious groups, your friends, family, ect. This is not easy, but thankfully it requires each person to be themselves (something everyone can do) to discover it. Imitation will not help people find a unique hill, it will create a need to compete with the others who are already there. Be yourself, put in the time, and create a hill to stand on; you’ll be the only one there.
What if someone wants to stand next to you on that hill? Just more food for thought.
we need one of these KOGI BBQ in Canada!
Loved the guy at the end lol. This is a great topic, one I’ve been trying to figure out. With so many photographers now in every market it is very hard to stand out. Me and my wife’s business is very new so we are not sure weather we are going to go all wedding or all portrait. If we do both we are going to separate the two a little better than we do now. The first thing so far to stand out that we did was to have a site designed for us that doesn’t look like every other photographers site. every one seems to be using the CSM sites right now. We went with no flash and just a different feel. Check it out here. Other than that we are still trying to figure it out.
The wedding photography market is oversaturated, as are many industries like video gaming, mobile phones, and the food industry.
Yet there arises the amazing successes like the Nintendo Wii, Apple’s iPhone, and things like the Kogi truck. To rise to the top in an oversaturated market, it helps to apply a blue ocean strategy of creating new demand in uncontested marketspace:
- Define your target market
- Quantify the profitability to ensure it can generate money
- Talk to your target market
- Characterize the specific features your target market would want
- Cater your photography/branding to that and cut out the fat of what they don’t want (maybe that clientele doesn’t care for *gasp* albums or *gasp* slideshows)
- Sell ONLY to your target market in places where they will be
- Test, define, and repeat all steps again
In the meantime, utilizing all the skills, talents, and capabilities you personally have should be what is spoken through and ties together everything in your business.
Thanks for sharing your insights! I agree with all the points you made. Sometimes it takes a listen to a concept from a diffident angle for it to hit that lightbulb. As I have been spending alot of time researching and contiually improving my craft I realize that the ultimate difference we could make is, maybe, 85% how we maintain the presention and content of our work and the relationships we build. With the ease of entry into this profession due to dslr and software technology, it’s hard to find uniqueness in each photographers work. Anyone with the right knowledge and hard work can produce nice quality images. So we need to push harder to find our own niche. So I am hopeful that us diehards will prevail! . Hope to meet you at Wppi Roadtrip in Sac!
This is a fantastic case study. How does it apply to wedding photography?
In terms of focus, in my own experience I have catered to couples who want fairly pure photojournalism, captured moments with little posing or setup shots. And while I have certainly lost customers because of this, I think I have gained more. I also do photojournalism, travel and editorial portraits, but have placed and market that work from a separate website. I think this strategy has helped both businesses.
I wonder how to apply the “barrier to entry” aspect. One obvious barrier is price, though in this economy that can be tricky. I have negotiated my price down a few times this year and have had great experiences. Another might be when you are setting up a meeting with a prospective couple. What kind of message do you send when you say “Well, I was planning to spend Sunday with my family, but I can miss that family BBQ and meet with you in my office.” ? That to me reeks of desperation (the same way, back in my single days, when girls always seemed more interested in me when I had a girlfriend than when I was on the prowl! A friend of mine called it “the desperate scent.”)
That is a good question! This is actually why I am hosting these seminars. There are some things that I cannot post online. You will understand when I tell you; my strategies *cough* have revolutionized some businesses.
Ask me in person or come to one of my seminars. I will be at Skip’s Summer School and WPPI Road Trip in Sacramento. Or…track me down and buy me coffee
What I’ve been learning in this “Strange New World” is that only the real me is needed to make my business shine. Yes the tools of communication have changed but Twitter can never replace the true passion that I have for my clients. As a photographer, I need to understand every new tool that becomes available in this space but my goal is only one niche, one target, one category. 2 years ago I decided that I was not going to use textures on my images and for a while it seemed like that was a bad business move. However, this year my bookings are up and when I asked a client why did they choose me to photograph her wedding she said “All the other photographers were using all these crazy Photo Shop textures”.
I’ll teach you a little strategy; it’s rather simple.
*** Find the strength of others and turn it into a weakness.
For example, if McDonald’s brags about being able to produce the fastest hamburgers. In-N-Out took the position of cooking their never-frozen burgers nice and slow, freshly grilled just for you.
Now, chew on that for a bit and see how it can be applied to wedding photography
I think the question here is, not only what niche or target market are you going after, but how do you plan to defend your niche once the competition begins to stand next to you… How do you stand out?
Take fusion photography for instance, as of right now, there’s no other photographer in my market that is advertising for it.. I’m not even sure if there are any that offer it. So let’s say that I start shooting fusion weddings and I begin to book more and more weddings, and create a small buzz for myself around my area. What do I do when “Joe Blow Photographer” wises up and starts shooting fusion weddings and undercuts me by a hefty margin? How do I defend my niche?
I think that there’s a simple answer and a more complex answer. The first answer is to just be the best at whatever it is that you’re doing. Obviously easier said than done, but in order to keep a firm grasp on your corner of the market you need to be leaps and bounds better than your next competitor.
The second answer I think has to do more with branding and salesmanship, but I’m not even sure where to begin lol.
Thanks for making me think Lawrence!
Good start, Matthew! If I may suggest, I think I have a better solution.
*** It is better to be first, than to be the best.
For example, who is “Buzz Aldrin?” 99% sure most of the world won’t know. He was the second human being to set foot on the moon, followed by Neil Armstrong.
Let’s think wedding photography – who was the first person to burn a bride’s dress? John Michael Cooper. Let’s say that I were to burn 20 dresses tomorrow for a shoot, but who’s going to be remembered? John Michael Cooper. In fact, I will only reinforce his name by doing what he did.
I completely agree that it’s better to be first. But I think you have to ask yourself, the first at what?
What is going to create a buzz like burning a brides dress or taking out a full page ad claiming that your wedding packages begin at $20,000? (here’s looking at you Mike Colon) How am I going to create so much recognition for myself that anybody else who does what I do is easily seen as a copy cat?
I think I see where this is going. John Michael Cooper is known as the God Father of Trash the Dress… it all started with him burning that dress. He’s also known for his dark, creepy, goth style of wedding photography. But that’s all he does… he doesn’t do classic weddings, or take pictures of dogs; he sticks to catering towards the weird bride lol. So, because of that, he’s become known as “The wedding photographer that shoots alternative/goth style weddings.” Anybody who tries to take on that type of style is seen as “The wedding photographer who shoots like John Michael Cooper.”
So the whole idea is to find a niche (preferably be the first at it) and stick to it… don’t do anything else. Make a name for yourself as “The Photographer that does _______” So you’re protecting your niche by becoming known as the “Godfather” in a sense. The big task is finding a niche that people care about : ).
It sucks to have to focus in one category, but that’s how it works…and for good reasons too. I wrote an article about this called “Girl In The Green Scarf” on Tofurious.
You’re thinking in the right direction To own that category is a matter of whomever has the most money to advertise or connections to public view to make that name stick.
Lawrence – you’re a brilliant marketer. No doubt. The content on your site tells me that again and again, as well as watching how you operate, interact, launch, and simply conduct yourself.
I find it slightly ironic, then, that you’re pushing “clarity” and focus, yet here you are, Wedding Photographer AND Marketing Consultant (and food connoisseur to boot, but last I checked you weren’t selling that!)
I mean, it’s Gap/BR/Old Navy in one sense, but I think that clarity doesn’t necessarily mean focusing on ONE thing and one thing only…and you’re proof in the pudding. Perhaps you touch on this, but clarity can definitely mean having more than one clearly defined paths. But there’s the key – clearly defined. I’m hoping that some of our wedding/pet photographer friends don’t give up one or the other without realizing there’s a good way to do both.
[And if you are no longer shooting weddings, then, well, ignore my example, but I still think the point is valid!]
If you’re ever up in Wisconsin, let me know and I’ll treat you to some cheese curds and brats (or whatever other WI food suits your fancy). And if none of that sounds good to you, there’s always a New Glarus Spotted Cow to be had.
Hehe that’s an interesting perspective. Here’s my rebuttal –
Is it possible to walk, breathe and chew gum at the same time?
You are right though. I don’t deny it.
Here’s the best example that I can use to truncate a long explanation – have you ever heard of A1 Chicken Sauce?
In regards to me, you’re isolating very different sections of my life, so it’s not a proper correlation. Otherwise, you got the point!
Thanks for the cheese offer; sounds delightful! I love cheese [and wine].
Oh, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, and I feel like my comment came across a bit strong now that I’m re-reading it (I hate the internet for things like this sometimes) but yeah, I think it’s worth noting that clarity can mean doing several things, but that you have a clear definition for them all and don’t just group them together under one label or brand. Sorry it didn’t come across a bit less, um, confrontational? Whoops.
Mmm, cheesecurds. They come both beerbattered and fried, or fresh and squeeky. And wine is always good. Yum.
I didn’t take it the wrong way or personally. It’s a perfectly valid perspective. And I agree, without tones, plain words can be ambivalent.
In terms of the categories, it depends on the degree of it. Here’s a more subtle example –
John is an award winning surgeon who so happens to love golf so much that he teaches toddlers how to swing.
Maybe I should preface myself. Wedding photography was not my first business (per intro video). This is my 4th. Business has been in my veins for some time now, therefore so does marketing. So I’m not drawing my marketing knowledge solely from wedding photography. If I had to sum it up, I’m a wedding marketing consultant who so happens to shoot 5 weddings a year for fun because I simply enjoy shooting.
Never knew they had squeaky cheese. I’ll have to google that. Doesn’t matter though because I don’t discriminate when it comes to food
Hi Lawrence, it’s been so long since I wrote to you…I miss that! I was just talking about those new generation catering trucks (a.k.a roach coach) with my husband when we saw on the news about the hype about these specialty food catering trucks targeting college campuses, like UCLA. And I think Kogi was the first one to do that… Then I saw your post about it and thought what a great example of how these catering trucks are using Twitter to market their location with their niche food specialty.
I just wanted to tell you a little story, true story, about Lee Sandwiches, popular for their Vietnamese Sub Sandwiches stores in Southern and Northern Cali, called the “Banh Mi”. Well, before their sandwich shop franchise they owned a catering truck up North CA, grew bigger to multiple trucks, grew even bigger to opening catering truck food warehouses to supply to catering trucks, and now branching an empire of Vietnamese sandwich and coffee stores all around the US.
My uncle had a catering truck with the Lee Sandwich Brothers for about 30 years now and when I was younger I would remember going with him on his truck routes and helping him sell stuff, and with the Silicon Valley boom back in the 80′s-90′s his business was booming with the growth of companies , but now with less companies and jobs lots of catering trucks don’t have consistent routes to service and went out of business. It’s a competitive business, what makes their truck so special from the others? First of all I’ve never heard of the Korean Taco before, what the heck is that? Just the hype of what it is alone, I would hunt down a truck and try one!
I love how the Kogi BBQ truck has changed the catering business for the younger generation by using Twitter and having a large fan base of followers. What made them special, they were the first to do it and banked on it, and I’m pretty pissed I didn’t think of this for my uncle to do too! When I went to college, about 10 years ago, I would never see a catering truck at college campus, I would only remember them during lunch/break time at companies. I love how Kogi started off with targeting specialty foods to college students, and incorporating Twitter into their business strategy! Brilliant! I saw the prices for these Tacos…they aren’t cheap…I’m not sure how these college students afford it. I sure can’t…but I guess getting in line at midnight for 2 hours for some savory hot Asian Tacos with your friends is an experience they are will to pay for…
P.S…when can I take you out for some Korean BBQ the old fashion way…can’t wait in line for 2 hours in LA for a Korean Taco…I have a baby now .
-Vivian Tran
AllMadeUpTeam.com
Orange County Makeup Artist
Great video this is my first time tuning.
Funny that you use Kogi Truck as an excellent example of well executed marketing.
I am a frequent listening of NRP 89.3 talk radio and this week they actually featured the founder of http://www.roadstoves.com. Road stoves new opened only in the last year has become a very successful one stop shop to take your food idea on the road. They take care of everything from marketing and graphics to the permits/insurance and truck. Kogi truck was the first project the founder of Road Stoves is actually a good friend of the owner/creator of Kogi truck and helped his friend get Kogi on the road thats what gave him the idea to make a business of it.