Remember your first time? Doing whatever. Maybe photographing your first wedding? Years back when Subway turned up in New Zealand it took me 10 minutes and enough questions to drive mum up the wall to finally place my order. Why? Because I didn't know how. I've just committed to spending a lot of money on our wedding photography, but before I did, I was nervous. Not so much because of the money, but because I wasn't sure what I'd get for it. It was my first time. I'm in the industry, talk to photographers all the time, and write articles about marketing and business every day.  But I still felt To View More >>

There are dozens of album design tools on the market, and almost none of them can be used to free-design matted albums. The exceptions are PJ and two others. A few more have workarounds where you drag and drop images on to templates that match pre-designed mats ... but that's hardly creative. Why do so few programs have this ability? First, it's quite hard. ;) Hard to create a layout on the fly, and simultaneously capture all the data to create both the prints and the mat. And hard, when you've got the data, to ensure that the resulting layout meets all the album vendor's requirements ... and To View More >>

1.4 million people have seen this movie already, but don't let that stop you. A few days after selling out Boston's Symphony Hall, one of the world's best violinists went busking with his Stradivarius for 43 minutes in a DC metro station. A thousand people streamed past. A handful stopped, nobody clapped ... and he made $32. Grab a coffee and read Gene Weingarten's story in The Washington Post. He arranged the performance as "as an experiment in context, perception and priorities". Do I want to make a cheap marketing point out of this? Not really, but it makes you think. Cheers, Ian PS Sal Criscillo To View More >>

Our UK Account Rep, Jo Newman, emailed me today: I thought you might use Mark's comments as an opportunity to talk more about our plans to XXXXXX XX XXX XXXXXXXX . [Sorry - Ed]  I was a bit disappointed when I saw your second post about Mark's comments.  It didn't mention marketing at all :) In fact I've had a few comments and quite a few emails talking about our brand strategy over the last few days. And Robert emailed me weeks ago saying I should be stressing branding more and pricing less: if photographers don't "foster an expectation consistent with their pricing level" they're fighting To View More >>

Tupperware 'fan boys' are everywhere. Prodding the skeptical, hosting Tupperware parties, and enthusiastically trying to convince their peers of the benefits. Their argument: Once you try it, you'll understand. And most people do. The experience of using Tupperware's product is usually enough to quickly switch a sceptic's loyalties, and soon enough they'll be passionately promoting the product themselves. That's (loosely) Tupperware's business model, and you can see how it would have a snowball effect. They've built a brand around positive customer experience and word of mouth marketing.  As To View More >>