YOU DON'T NEED A NEW LOGO

"Will you look at my new logo?" "I'm rebranding, will you look at my website?" 

If you've ever spoken to another photographer, you've probably heard a question similar to these.  In fact, you very well may have asked one of them at some point.  It's not that uncommon for photographers to be changing their marketing materials on a regular basis - but is it helpful?

First, your logo isn't your brand.  Your brand is the way people feel about you and your business.  Your logo simply represents that experience.  Changing your logo doesn't change your brand.  In fact, it can often simply confuse it.  

Your brand is the sum of the experiences that a consumer has with your company.  It's based on the interactions they have with you, the quality of the product you deliver, and the way you make them feel.  The logo simply helps reflect the impression.  It's true that a poorly designed logo can certainly cast doubt on your brand promise, but...

Believe it or not, often a "bad" logo is better than a "new" logo.  When you change your logo, you cash in any equity you might have had.  Even if you don't love your logo, chances are your clients (and potential clients) hardly notice it - until you change it.  

One of the disadvantges of working for yourself is that you don't have to check off with anyone before making changes to things like your logo.  The end result is that photographers like to tinker and tweak away at things like websites, logos, business cards, and color schemes.  This prevents you from building consistency in your overall brand experience, and consistency is the most important key to building your brand promise.

In reality, there are only two good reasons to change your logo - to escape negative brand sentiment, or to reflect a major change in your business.  If you're making a major change, it can make sense to incorporate new brand collateral in that process, as you work with a professional brand consultant or designer.  If you've changed your focus (or found your focus) a "re-branding" can help clarify the story you're telling your ideal client, and reframe your marketing.

On the other hand, if your business has a high amount of negative brand sentiment, a new logo won't fix your problem - but it might help give you a fresh start when introduced along with changes to your business (see reason above).  If you don't fix the problem, there's no negative sentiment that can be fixed by changing your logo.

So, why are you getting a new logo again?  What do you think - I'd love to read your thoughts below:

ARE YOU SUCCESSFUL?

Are you?  How do you know?  What does being successful mean to you in your business?  I think its easy, as photographers, to get caught up in this picture of what it means to be succesful.  I think it's easy to think that success = rockstar.  I think it's easy to look at our industry and end up with a distorted, twisted concept of what it really means to be successful.  

Is it about being sponsored by the "cool" lab?  Is it about being featured on the "cool" blog?  Is it about selling out a workshop, or building a following of photographers?  Is it about having the most blog readers, or the newest and best camera gear?  Is it about having a retail storefront?

There are a lot of ways you can define success, and there are just as many ways to run your photography business.  How you choose to define success will determine where you spend your energy, and it will determine the type of business you will build.  

For me, success means one thing - to add value to my family.   That's why I do what I do.  It's why I run a business, and it's why I choose to be a photographer.  Everything else is just details.  To be more specific, value means time, money or peace of mind.  My business has to add those three things to my family, or it isn't successful.  

TIME

Running a business is hard work - and a lot of it.  It takes a lot of your time, but the trade off is that - for the most part - you have huge amounts of freedom in how you spend your time.  You have the ability, and the luxury, to live the kind of life you want to live.   For my business to be considered successful, it has to allow me the freedom to be with my family.

MONEY

It has to make money.  That's all there is to it.  My business has to allow me to provide for my family.  Photography isn't just a hobby for me, and if I'm giving my life to this, it better give us the financial return for the work I put into it.

PEACE OF MIND

I love what I do, and I love sharing that with my family.  My responsibility is to be sure that the business is running solid - because a failing businesses doesn't help any of us sleep better at night.  If I'm up nights worrying about clients, or jobs, or finding clients or jobs, then my business isn't successful. 

Oh, and by the way - there's a difference between "being" successful and "appearing" successful.  Too many people care far more about the later.

So, my question is: How do you define successful?  Are you there?  If not, how are you going to get there? Leave a comment below and join the conversation!

INTERVIEW W/ JIMMY MONCRIEF FROM CIDERR.COM

I had a chance to talk with Jimmy Moncrief of Ciderr.com a few weeks ago, and he answered some questions about their innovative new service.  I thought I'd share with you, since some of you might be interested in checking it out!

What is Ciderr?

Ciderr is the only service on the internet that specializes in giving vendors the power of crowdfunding for their business. Helping them tap into a $19,000,000,000 registry market and helps spread their brand further and faster than traditional market methods by turning their clients and their friends into marketing agents.

Where did the idea for Ciderr come from?

I was seeing how a few businesses were doing gift cards. That's a very popular way of allowing others to gift "money" to their friends. But the further I got into it, it became a logistical nightmare. Since it dealt with a physical product, I had to create a easy way for my clients family to know about it, easy way for them to buy a gift card, I'd have to give a physical card or product to them and then create a system to figure out if the card had been used or not. It was too many variables.

Then the idea of Ciderr came to me. I saw what Target, Bed Bath & Beyond were doing and I wanted the power that these companies have had for decades. The power to have brides "shop" at their stores and then have a vested interest in telling ALL of their friends and family to shop and learn more about their business. It's brilliant marketing and has increased their sales tremendously. Why couldn't I bring that to small businesses like mine.

How is Ciderr helping photographers market to their clients, and future clients?

The average age for brides and grooms are raising every year. In 2008, the average age for brides and grooms were 27 and 29. In 2010, two years later, their ages went to 29 and 31. These couples are already established. They don't need to register for products that traditional registries offer anymore. That era for the most part is gone. Since they're older and established, the percentage of brides and grooms paying for their own weddings is increasing year to year as well.

What these couples want is not toasters and vacuum cleaners, they want to afford a beautiful wedding and hire their dream photographer. What they need is help. They may be able to afford the photographers time but they just need help (or just want) extra services like a bridal shoot, more hours of wedding coverage, more pages in their album, etc. So instead of registering at Williams Sonoma, they registry with their vendor.

Much like a traditional registry, they tell all of their friends to give them wedding gifts from this registry. And any contributor is asked to spread the word about the registry on behalf of the bride and groom. So marketing wise, a vendors branded registry could go viral. Amongst the people coming to the registry are other couples who are engaged and love the idea of Ciderr and hire the vendor because they stand out from the other vendors they've seen!

How is Ciderr different from other registry options available for wedding clients?

All registry systems on the market are aimed toward the bride. But we understand how busy modern brides are today. They don't have time to gather all the information and create an online registry from scratch. A bride could literally register at a vendors registry in a minute or two since all of the setup and hard work has been done for her.

Ciderr is aimed at the vendor and the first registry system that can be fully branded to a vendor. So Ciderr simultaneously makes a vendor more money and markets for them at the same time. If a vendor markets it right, they could drop other marketing methods they've been using in the past and save literally thousands of dollars each year while increasing their revenue.  

What should photographers know about offering a service like Ciderr to their clients?

When comparing a family heirloom like a wedding album that will be with you for a lifetime to a toaster oven, it doesn't take much convincing a bride what is more important. Especially when she already has the plates and appliances. We've asked photographers who simply don't know if their clients would like a registry system that Ciderr offers, to do their own independent research.  EVERY one of them has had an overwhelming excitement about the service. Our society is absolutely ready for a service like Ciderr and the ability to tap into a $19 billion dollar industry... as business owners, its simply too much money to ignore!

Anything else you want to tell us about what you're working on?

We're hard at work on Ciderr every day. We want to give our members incredible service. We're listening to them, giving them a place to put their ideas and input on Ciderr. We're actively improving it every day. We have some really fun ideas to increase marketing for our members even more. We're small and since we don't offer a ton of other services, we can move REALLY fast. We're excited about what's in the future. It's going to be fun and exciting and we want everyone on this journey with us!

Be sure to head over to www.ciderr.com and check them out!