I can see how it is tempting to shoot weddings, pets, maternity, newborn, children, family, portraits… especially in this economic climate. To be honest, it’s almost silly not to. I get it – squeeze in a few portrait sessions and it’ll be enough money for your kid’s braces.
However, per last week’s article on brand creation, we can conclude that brands are categories (such as weddings). And the more categories we tap into (weddings + pets), the more diluted our business image gets.
Don’t fret. I have a solution, but it takes hard work and resources. Let’s first examine how other companies do it.
Darden Restaurants
Ever heard of Darden Restaurants? Good chance most people haven’t. Darden is the world’s largest full-service restaurant company. Part of this umbrella includes:
- Red Lobster
- Olive Garden
- LongHorn Steakhouse
- The Capital Grille
- Bahama Breeze
- Seasons 52
Those brands familiar? They’re well-known restaurant chains! And they’re recognized for certain categories of food. Red Lobster – seafood. Olive Garden – Italian. LongHorn – steak house…and so forth.
- Have you ever seen a Red Lobster commercial promote Olive Garden at the same time?
- Does Olive Garden’s “carne” menu section talk about LongHorn’s equally wonderful steaks?
Each brand is very successful and coexist nicely because they don’t directly compete with each other. If I’m in the mood for Italian, I am not going to think of Seasons 52.
So imagine this, you are Darden. Red Lobster, Olive Garden…are all of the different categories in your diversified business. See where I’m going with this?
There is one catch though. All of these restaurants have different websites, different brands, different logos, different commercials… This can get very costly (even if it’s time in wearing multiple hats). The more time you devote in diversifying, the more sacrifice you make that could potentially strengthen a single brand. These are trade-offs.
Gap, Inc.
There’s a good chance that we all know of Gap. Under Gap’s umbrella includes:
- Old Navy – $ – latest fashions at great prices for the whole family
- Gap – $$ – casual clothes for the whole family
- Banana Republic – $$$ – modern, refined clothing for men and women
- Piperlime – latest in trendy fashion designs and colors, shoes and accessories
- Athleta – women’s yoga clothing, swimwear, running clothing and athletic clothing for fitness, golf & tennis // designed and tested by women athletes for women athletes
As I listed above, each brand offers unique propositions. They target clients according through costs, tastes in fashion, age, gender, and athleticism.
What’s the difference between Gap and Darden?
Darden – each brand is promoted sovereignly through independent stores and websites
Gap – each brand is promoted sovereignly through independent stores, but in juxtaposition on website
Gap’s trying to take advantage of the shared traffic of all retailers. I don’t agree with it, and definitely suggest against it for creative professionals.
Remember that brides commission you for you and your professionalism and experience in weddings. How can you also be a pet, maternity and landscape photographer? Better yet, how can you also be a mechanic, doctor, programmer and race car driver?
Conclusion
You’re able to promote different identities at the risk of trade-offs. The more time you devote to one, the less time you can to another. Two words: prioritize and sacrifice.
All in all, once you have narrowed your focuses down, develop separate identities. Creating a website is easy; and hosting is about $7 a month.
Ideally, you do not blog about your food photography in your wedding blog and vice versa unless you can somehow tie the two topics together.
What I want you to do now…
- Like the post? Share via Retweet or Facebook buttons and I’ll give you an e-hug!
- For fun, comment on how many and what types of hats you like to wear hehe! Don’t worry, we all do.
Your foodie and wannabe fashionista,
Lawrence Chan
P.S. Speaking of creating websites, the long awaited single column blog theme is just about done. It has some wicked features that is worth looking into. Just you wait.
P.P.S. Tonight, Julie and I ate at Olive Garden and were reminded of Italy. Even though the foods varied greatly from Italy’s, it didn’t stop us from reminiscing. Can’t wait to go back!
P.P.P.S. For those emailed about crafting goals from last week’s brand creation post, it’s a matter of perspective.
No related posts.
:) Gratzie again Lawrence! Come back to Italy!! Did you guys try the Florentine Steak in Florence!? INCREDIBLEEEEEE.
I don’t think we did…bums! I will go back (and hopefully soon).
On some days, I’m a wedding photographer.
On my fun days, I’m a landscape photographer.
On my work days, I’m a marketing strategist.
= 3 hats
How about you?
I am a Children’s photographer because their dads are all deployed to Afghanistan. Haha.
I am a Family photographer because my market is already married and weddings happen down at City Hall to foreigners who don’t buy wedding dresses.
Hahah!!!
But just wait!! Wait till I move back to California. Then it’s on. LOL.
THANK YOU!!!! Such a well crafted post. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Because our search engine is domain specific, I really try to work with photographers to make sure the work they showcase on their blog is primarily weddings. I get it – their kids are cute…and so are mine, but prospective brides (and through many surveys) just don’t want to sift through, the sports, landscape, maternity, and other shots if they’re looking to hire you as a wedding photographer!
These are very good points, Lawrence. I can’t help but think of Jonathan Canlas who constantly posts on his blog all the different things he shoots. From weddings to birth stories and from family photos to food, he shares everything he shoots. It’s all about his vision, which is clearly evident in each photo. He doesn’t “specialize” in any one thing, besides from being a 100% film shooter. His work is amazing and clients looking for a wedding photographer can see the value in great family portrait work as well as food…since all of that happens at weddings.
He does have focus (and it’s a little more broad). You said it too. It’s film. Anything and everything film.
Branding yourself in two different fields of photography is challenging. Myself, I’m a commercial photographer and a wedding photographer. Two separate websites, two separate client bases, two separate identities, two separate (and different) marketing plans. It’s a balancing act with many challenges.
As I see it, the advantage Darden has is each of their restaurants have speciality fare and are physically separate. You don’t have someone ask you at Capital Grille if you want the Red Lobster menu.
I wonder how many photographers maintain separate studios (or offices) for each of their sub-specialities? At one time I did, and it worked well for branding me as a specialist. Even though the overhead cost of maintaining two locations turned out prohibitive in the long run, the short run benefit was immediate brand recognition for the wedding segment of my business. Instantly I became a specialist in the wedding field because when couples came to visit wedding photography is all they would see.
Keep up the good work, Lawrence!
What if you shoot two categories (events and weddings in my case), with two apparently different target clients (pro event planners and brides) but my two groups actually meet in the middle (the wedding planner is part of both categories)?
It’s a question of pros vs. cons. See whether there is more benefit to merge the two images or keep them autonomous.
My verdict remains the same – separate identities if you have enough resources to handle it.
Thanks Lawrence!
excellent post…would love to know your thoughts on a landing/splash page as a point at which people choose the type of photographer? Wedding/babies, etc. Do you feel as if it should be still completely separate?
Completely separate!
Riddle me this Batman…..how come Apple didn’t create a different brand when they decided to get into the phone/music/music player business? Shouldn’t they have had one brand for the computers, and one for all the other stuff since they are clearly different, specific product lines? They even went so far as to rename the company in order to broaden the umbrella of their brand to match the product line?
Also, while separate web/blog/brand presences for two different and unrelated specialities (children’s portraits and commercial architectural photography for example) can alleviate and potential branding disconnect, what do you do in the case of two somewhat related specialties that can potentially drive business towards each other? If you photograph a wedding, chances are one of the families may want to hire you for their family portraits, or the couple may want to hire you when they have their first baby. Maybe the bride has a younger sister who’s in high school and needs senior photography. If you operate two completely independent labels, and the wedding client only knows about your wedding business, website, blog, etc…. how do they know you also provide portrait services, and how do you avoid missing out on capturing the potential portrait business from a wedding client? Would the Gap model be the better option here?
How do you know Apple’s corporate goal? What if it was an electronic device for every creative or person? Then everything that they do is all right.
Just as how your blog could encompass everything about “storytelling,” which means that you could tell stories from a child’s perspective or a bride’s perspective. Normally, photographers don’t have that focus so they sort of shoot everything without justification (except for money).
If you’re trying to be known as a story teller, then bravo. If you’re trying to be known as specifically a wedding photographer or a family photographer, then major failure.
It’s all relative to what your business focus is. Hope that answered your question.
Great post again!
I figured this out this year, along with the fact that I was trying to wear way too many hats. So I’ve now narrowed it down to four things, and all have different websites:
1. Christine Buijs – this is my personal work and artwork. Including photography and HD video. What I’m most passionate about and want to focus more on. This may involve catering more to an advertising industry.
2. Premiere Weddings – the company I’ve founded just for weddings and engagement photos. I’ve always done this on the side, but only recently decided to separate it from my name – as I want my name to be associated with other things. I still however use my skill and want to train others under the “Premiere Weddings” umbrella. Since creating my new website in August, I’ve had three inquiries from couples that I didn’t have any personal connection too! This is a great sign that my marketing is finally working, as when I hosted my weddings portfolio under my name, http://www.christinebuijs.com/weddings, I didn’t get anything like that. It was all only personal connections and people I already knew somehow. I realize that’s a great way to start, but eventually you need to go beyond that. I feel very comfortable blogging just about weddings and now having an outlet just for that!
3. Teaching – I teach for a Canadian photographic retail chain, doing workshops on evenings and weekends. This is sort of my “steady money” job as I develop the other businesses.
4. Studio Rentals – I also rent out my studio and offer production services. However I am going to be paring back on this as I am no longer as in need of this source of revenue, and I’m starting to like having my place to myself :-) It has always been a side money thing, so i wanted all the marketing to be basically free. Word of mouth, facebook group, craigstlist, and website. That’s it!
Even with four hats that is quite a bit to manage. So I have prioritized them in the order above – Christine Buijs and Premiere Weddings are now my most important; I will be getting rid of Studio Rentals and eventually paring back on teaching as well, once I’m in a position to do so.
I will to even further focus my number one priority – that is my personal creative work. I still have a wide range of interests but it’s increasingly going towards directing, both for advertising and creative projects.
Again, good to see that this is a strategy that big companies use! (And Gap and Darden are not the only ones). And glad I’m on the right track :-)
p.s. Lawrence – I come to your site regularly now specifically for weddings marketing – and that is exactly how I think of you and your valuable advice. I’m not really interested in learning about other types of marketing from you, as much as many of these lessons can apply to many things. I like the fact that Tofurious is so focused. And that’s what keeps me coming back for more!
LC. Great article. I was going to talk about specializing as one of my points jn my talk tomorrow. Might have to mention this article. You should join me in Italy next year. :)
KK – didn’t mean to steal your thunder, but this was a continuation from last week’s post. You’re more than welcome to mention this to your class. Send everyone my regards!
Dude, you don’t know how much I want to go back to Italy. I got to save more money because I have lots of things I want to buy lol.
Great post Lawrence! How would you handle social media? You can’t (well, you’re not suppose to) create multiple Facebook accounts, so how would you handle the portraits vs. landscape photography there?
I haven’t caught up on your other posts yet, but about your P.P.P.S. being narrowly focused. While it may be be a na…rrow focus, people who are not stylish may *think* they are stylish. Or, they pick you because they want to be portrayed as stylish and you, as “the edgiest wedding photographer for stylish couples”, can do that for them…in their way of thinking, anyway. Kind of like J* marketing to “fabulous people”.
Oh yes, and the single column blog. How much longer? I was just about to buy one of the “other” popular blog templates, but will hold off if yours is coming soon. =)
You’re post really spoke to me. I am a photographer, Industrial Organizational Psychology Ph.D. candidate, social worker, intern, and mother. I also photograph families, seniors, commercial stock, events (but not weddings), models, and boudoir. I used to think I was the ‘Jack of all trades’ but I’m beginning to think I’m just confused. :) It seems obvious now why no one part of my business has really taken off. What to do… what to do…
You. Are. A. Rockstar, Jenny. :) :)
Your point underscores the power of delegation, focus and long-term value. Thank you again for sharing! Sometimes, letting go of what we have for the prospect of gaining something even greater can be VERY scary. That said, the long-term value in consistently honing your service and refining your style is what allows great companies to grow while others stagnate or fade away. Simplicity is truly more skillful than complexity.
I too wear”different hats”. I started in this business photographing newborns, and maternity and then I photographed one wedding and was hooked. I definitely noticed my newborn/children business decline when I changed my website to be more wedding oriented. After reading your article I may have to think about changing that up in the future. Its hard to keep up with 1 site, a blog, and face book as it is.
This is a very interesting post. I’ve heard so many opinions in favor of keeping things separate, but it was a lot to manage. But I really do see the value in it. My only question is with coming up with the names. I’m currently using my name for my website, but if I have 3 different brands, would I need to come up with 2 more names? I’ve heard several pros and cons about using your personal name versus a traditional business name. I wonder if I choose more business names, what type of photography do I keep with my own name? I know I’m babbling. I’m just trying to make sense of all this.
Thanks for making me think!
Yeah, I began branching out to bring in more money. I often thought about how it would effect my brand name. Especially since the word “wedding” is in my company name. I thought about making an umbrella company that includes two entities. Who knows what I’ll do.
[...] It’s okay to catch trout too, but do it strategically. I talked about it in another article, “So You Want to Photograph Weddings, Pets… and Anything that Pays. I Might Have a Solution.“ [...]
This is so true. When I first started my own business the website had information about wedding video services, photography, corporate video and event videography and it was hard to speak to everyone. After stepping back I decided to have a separate site speaking only to brides.
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I´m totally agree about this way of view, but what about the photogs who mix various categories and are quite succesfull in both like Anna Kuperberg who shoot weddings, pets and children.
Maybe their success are in the “style”, is present in any picture whereas wedds or pets.. How do you see this Lawrence? Specificly the cas of Anna (www.kuperberg.com)
Tks for your knowledge..!
It’s not impossible if your belief statement is clear, which is rare for small businesses.
For example, consider Apple’s diversity. They sell computers, tablets, music players, television converters, etc. However, they are all very clear from the beginning – think different.
[...] not preaching that you should diversify yourself. I’m talking about Brand Philosophy. If you’re interested in creating the [...]