Alcohol company becomes drunk on photography!!

we can use the same principal in labeling images as Macallan uses for selling whisky, for AUS wine.
In order to make grant application. we should first select wine company with excellent reputation for vintage and corkage wine and develop a portfolio which best describe the essence of the wine product.
i'm not sure if this is what is required. ^^;;;; plz let me know if i'm on the right track -jung eun-


The Macallan is a famous distillery from Speyside. They have been known for releasing optimally aged whiskeys over the years. Their aging and blending process make the whisky something that the connoisseurs wait for. They are again producing an ultra exclusive limited edition bottles of precious whisky distilled in 1946. This is being done in collaboration with Albert Watson. Each bottle of the ultra exclusive whisky will be priced at $16,000.

Watson is a Scottish photographer who has recently won The Royal Photographic Society Centenary Medal for his iconic celebrity and fashion-based work. He is at the helm of the second edition. This exclusive Albert Watson collaboration is an offering from the Macallan’s Masters of Photography series. 36 bottles of the rare 64 year old single malt will be produced. One of a kind platinum print from Watson’s project for the distillery will come with each bottle. The bottles should be available any time soon.


Sotheby’s had recently auctioned a Lalique Cire Perdue decanter for a record breaking $460,000 which has become the basis of the high price of the precious whisky. Macallan is also releasing a regular but aged for twenty years single malt in limited edition for $1,000 a bottle. Even this malt will be limited to a 1,000 bottles. Watson’s project depicts the path travelled by the wood used for the distillery’s casks from Spain to Speyside.

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not so much marketing...

but the evolvution of journalism, and social media and what not
Click Here

Websites!

I believe these days the website is probably one of the most important things when a photographer is marketing themselves, and not have a website up to scratch the next competitor is only a few click away. So having that perviously mention "OOOMPH" is a very important thing, while browsing around a came across this website, some pretty amazing websites, maybe not the best photographer, but the presentation is certainly there

Vandelay Design

some other favorites of mine are

Marc Paeps

Blair Bunting

Day19

Brian to Photo

all over which are quite different in style, so i guess it is also very subjective, but certainly easy to navigate and just attention to detail cause so website people haven't even taken the time to keep the scale when resizing images. Anyways i think all these certainly have the wow factor!

Marketing yourself as a Professional Photographer

I thought I would discuss a few tips in how to kick start your business as a Professional photographer.

In this day and age it's a very good Idea to have a folio for potential clients to view.

This could be web based as a lot of our work is viewed and more accessable via the web:

Having your own Website is definitely a must have!
Alternatively websites such as Flickr or a personal blog are ideal too.

Here are some examples:
[http://www.flickr.com/]
[www.tumblr.com]
[www.blogspot.com]
[wordpress.org]

[Image found at :http://blakesarmy.com/index.php?p=1_2]

This being said, nothing beats a good quality printed folio for person to person viewing!

[image found at:http://blog.noplasticsleeves.com/?p=1509]

[http://www.mullenbergdesigns.com/portfolios.html]

Here is Scott Mullenburg's site. The man behind the design of Bill Lusks'[http://www.billlusk.com/] Folio ( previous Image)[http://www.mullenbergdesigns.com/portfolios.html]

BUSINESS CARDS!!!!!!!


Just as Camille mentioned below how photography is important and can add that "oompff" to your cards compared to plain Typography/Design actual business cards are a first and foremost to any photographer.

Keep them on you always!!!

[Find examples of creative business cards like the above here: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/100-really-creative-business-cards/]


Business cards and word of mouth - they're very powerful tools!

There's probably two takes on the business cards. More creative- more memorable.. Or More exact and to the point the easier for contact.

I think you should be promoting yourself with at least one hero image if not several (this way clients get a sneak preview of your work before viewing the website/blog) but ensure that it's easy to find your contact details. You don't want your card to be too busy!

Be confident! I believe we've all been here before. You're out with your camera and someone ask's the obvious question,"Are you a photographer?"

In a world were Dslr's are selling crazy and every Tom, Dick and Harry has a Consumer/Pro-Consumer Slr you should be answering with a confident," Yes" and hand them a business card.

There's usually a follow up question asked with an incredulous tone," A Professional Photographer?" Once again be sure of yourself, none of this .... Ugh... well i'm studying... but.. will be soon answer. Either you are or you aren't.

A certainty of yourself along with a professional business demeanour(this includes contracts, pricing), clean cut business cards and a website will add a positive business identity and create potential for future work.

These were just a few tips to help market your photographic career. There are ofcourse many other avenues. Advertising, excellent customer relations, faith, perserverance, networking and putting in the hard yards.

Joseph Michael Anderson

Photography Marketing Newsletter

While browsing for some Marketing information I found this excellent website that allows us to
subscribe for a Newsletter called Photography Marketing Secrets that helps you build your business in smart and effective ways.
They also do webinars for Photography Marketing.

Just thought it might be interesting for those who are keen.

This is their WEBSITE

http://www.photographymarketingsecrets.com/newsletter/subscribe/subscribe.html

Photography VS Graphic Design in Marketing (Business Cards and other Marketing tools)

To start off with, let’s be clear with the definitions of both Graphic Designing and Photography. Photography is (Thinkquest.com) “the art of recording an image in history which we find captivating, amusing, or thought-provoking. And, unlike many other mediums, it provides us with a "true-to-life" image, which is not too much different than to what our own eyes would see. This art can only take a split-second to record.”
Graphic Design is (AIGA.org) “the combination of shapes, colours, typefaces, images and words that cause you to react or feel something.”

Because we are creative visual people, I’m going to battle these two with images.

Graphic Design cards: Their aim is to sell, sell, and sell with pictures, words, logos and other types of visual elements. It often has to be simple and attractive; the viewer has to lock onto the business card, banner or billboard as soon as they see it.

Business card 1:
Here we have a Graphic Designer advertising himself, we obviously suppose he’s created his own business card and quite frankly, it’s flat. It has diagonal logos of his initials and that’s about it. Nothing too exciting. He could have created something much more fun and pleasant to the eye but has decided to stick with simple and obvious.
As said previously, their job is to trick the viewer into selling, or attract them in some way that is different and bold however, here, there is nothing to find.

Business card 2: Now this is a shame but this is a Photography Business Card. Some Photographers choose to not put a photo on their business cards to promote themselves but I have seen better than this. At first I thought it was the actual business card of Light Space where we had our exhibition last year but obviously not.
The colours are just again flat and boring. No oomph, nothing too quirky to entice you to call this guy. She’s got her website address on the card so one can hope it looks better than this.

Now the nice ones!

Photography Business cards: Our aim is also to sell, sell, sell but how do we do so without straying away from our domaine that is photos. Some Photographers choose to sell their business using Graphic Design logos, however, some have found very smart ways to fit their photographs and business details onto that little card.

Business card 1: Now I know this guy got his cards from Moo but how cool! He’s a photographer so we have the photos, he’s obviously carefully chosen the ones he thought would sell best which I say was a good move. They’re nice; he seems like a travelling photographer going here and there and we see that. He’s chosen to print out different photos for his business so would hand a certain photo to a client he feels fits that particular photo.
On the other side, his details are written so he’s giving his clients a very simple business card that includes his medium and contact details.

Business card 2: Smart! That is all…But seriously, again how cool! We don’t see his type of photography but he is using his medium to promote himself, it’s not a graphic design type of business card, it has a photo, we can ‘see’! The lens shape card is very smart and well thought of, which is what a potential client likes to see. It’s different, it’s photography.

Business card 3: This is my favourite because it’s clean, neat and simple. The feeling I’m getting from this business card is a classic Black and White Photographer still using film (obviously the subject of his photo lets me feel that), he’s a simple photographer, knows how to attract clients. There’s no fussing around (there never is a need to fuss around with Photography, what you see is what you get), he’s using his own photographs to promote his business. The ideal thing with Black and White photography is that it’s ALWAYS attractive. So it’s hard not to seduce a client with this.

Conclusion; Photography is a very effective way of attracting potential clients to your business. A photograph shows real life, it’s no make believe like logos, or pictures. There is no guessing because it’s shown there in photos.
A Hair Salon has more chance of selling if they promote themselves with photographs rather than logos, a restaurant has more chance of this also! When a products needs to be seen in photos in order to sell, it cannot be replaced by logos. Photography shows reality. And clients want to see what they are buying.

Camille Nicholls 3rd April 2011

Marketing from a business perspective. (Brief overview and introduction to the business function)

Marketing is managing profitable customer relations. Marketing is the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return.

So.... what exactly is marketing?
Lots of people think that marketing is only about selling and advertising. Hence the reason why we are subjected to such a vast amount of visual and audio bashing from companies across media like TV, direct mail, email, cold calling, internet ads and so on... Selling and advertising is only the tip of the iceberg.

Now days companies need to understand that marketing is not about the old school ways of making a sale. New school marketing is about satisfying a customer’s needs. If a marketer understands a consumers needs, it can then develop products better structured to the consumer, thus providing superior customer value and increased customer capture.
Quote from Peter Drucker, a management Guru in his field, “The aim of marketing is to make selling unnecessary”

There is always a method to the madness, Marketing has a simple 5 step model process, the process needs to transition from one to the next , a leap frog approach would not work in anyones favor. (the below 5 points can further be expanded)

Firstly , we have to understand the marketplace and the customers needs and wants.

Then, we need to design a customer driven marketing strategy.

Then, we need to construct an integrated marketing program that delivers superior value to the targeted customer segment. Within this step we would see the 4P’s of marketing develop. The 4 P’s are : Product . Price . Promotion. Place.

Then, we need to build profitable relationships and create customer satisfaction.

Then we capture value from customers in return AKA – Get that cheddar.


Hope that helps with a very brief introduction into marketing?
It really is a massive function that one can spend years studying, I think knowing some basics to it would be good, and understanding some of the more specialized functions related to what we will be doing in the assignment will be good... Once we have more direction in the assignment, we can start going into those fields.. There is some stuff I have left out of here, but we explore that stuff over the next weeks. Like a little more depth to the 4P's, then the 4C's of marketing, SWOT analysis, the macro environment, parts of the psychology like Maslows Hierarchy of needs.... and so on...

Rob