Imagine going to your favorite restaurant. After a delightful meal, it’s customary in the US to leave a gratuity. In fact, it might be insulting if you do not leave a tip!
Conversely, imagine going to your best friend’s house. After a delightful meal, you pat your belly and compliment the host for a spectacular spread. Next, pull out your purse or wallet and leave a gratuity. How do you think the host will feel?
Awkwaaaard. Yet, it’s perfectly fine if we offered wine or flowers for our host, right?
Why are similar dining scenarios yielding different results? Behavioral researcher, Dan Ariely, calls these situations market norms and social norms, respectively.
More importantly, how do we apply this strategy into our businesses?
(tiny excerpt from Chapter 8 of Social Media Marketing for Digital Photographers)
Wearing Different Hats
Everything boils down to wearing the two aforementioned types of hats – social and market hats. Each are quite fashionable in their own scenarios. However, if worn incorrectly, it’s as awkward as wearing pajamas to a cocktail party.
Below are some photography situations in their respective categories.
| Social Norms Sharing photos during consultation Dialoging via social media Shooting clients Delivering goods |
Market Norms Discussing pricing Signing contracts Issuing invoices Collecting balances |
This is where husband and wife teams become handy. Each can specialize (not exclusively though) in fashioning a certain hat. Take the restaurant The Melting Pot for example.
The restaurant has two different people for each task. One person strictly handles all of the relationship-building. The other person’s job is to take care of the money part.
I know that having two people in a boutique business can be difficult. I’m not saying it’s not possible to wear both hats … just don’t:
- wear both hats at the same time or
- wear the wrong hat for respective situations.
Sharing Hats
While I am afraid of sharing hats in fear of lice, I do encourage sharing of this post if you found it beneficial (via social media buttons below).
We all have a list of favorite restaurants. Comment one!
Sincerely,
Lawrence Chan
P.S. Social Media Marketing for Digital Photographers is near the finish line. Everything is done except for the cover … any ideas what it’ll look like? I cannot wait for the end of October, so that I could pick a copy up at Barnes & Noble!
P.P.S. A lovely comment I received from Nick Coleman about my pricing e-book! Thanks, Nick! And keep rocking!
Read more about this e-book HERE.
Or …
- Pricing Strategy PDF
- Psychology of Choices
- Sample Price Sheet
- Pricing Strategy PDF
- Psychology of Choices
- Sample Price Sheet
- 1.5 Hour Consultation
- Skype Desktop Screen Share
- Market Research
- Help Customize Pricing
- Help Customize Packaging
- Demo Sales Tactics
When I’m in the mood for something Mexican-y, Chipotle is hands down my first choice.
Yummy. That sounds really good right about now. I think this may be on my menu today!
Lawrence, I ate at a place in NYC called Out of This World Cafe. OMGoshness! This was in 2000, but I’ll never forget the freshness of everything.
You also mentioned something about a place to stay in NYC for the Photo Expo…when I went (and the only time I’ve ever been) we stayed at a harbor (in a pop-up camper) on the Jersey side and took a shuttle over – we came out under the WTC.
Would you be able to give an example of wearing the two hats at the same time, as it relates to a photographer. I understand the illustration as to a restaurant, but, am having a hard time grasping it in regards to a single photographer that owns their own business.
Freebirds is my favorite place right now. They cater to gluten free too!
This is exactly what we do when we have wedding client meetings… one photog discusses how they met/how they invision their wedding, etc, then the other photog discusses specifics of their day (time, etc). While one photog is having a dialogue, the other takes notes… so you’re not writing and talking at the same time. Then when it’s time to discuss pricing, the notes are already there and no one felt like they were at the doctor’s office. We don’t even get out the pricing info until after we’ve chatted a bit (social norm). When it’s time to discuss pricing, we physically get up and get the pricing sheet, emphasizing a shift (market norm).
We started doing that after I read a blog post here!
Keep up the good work…
I like your physical approach to changing norms. Interesting …
:)
Dang, it’s like you’re reading my mind. Just today in a phone conversation with a new client I had to wear both hats. Talking friendly & being personal then in the same sentence saying “so I’ll email you an invoice in just a few minutes.” Ugh. Gag. I hate wearing both hats.
Favorite restaurant? CoCo Ichibanya! Mmmmm, curry….
Great insight Lawrence! Thanks.
I always struggle to be “good cop” and “bad cop” [relational and business focussed] at the same time when meeting clients. So my solution thus far has been to be social and relational during our face to face time and when the business [market norms] pop up I always say that I’ll email them on that… is this wrong in your opinion??
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