Lowering Your Rate Without Hurting Your Brand

This is part 2 of a guest blog post by Jimmy Moncrief of Ciderr.
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In Part I of this article I gave an example of a problem my friend was having interacting with a bride that was looking to discount his services and we talked in general terms how filmmakers are in a very unique position to increase their prices if they position themselves correctly.

Part II is about specific tactics filmmakers can use to increase their prices and increase their marketing without discounting their brand.

Limited Time

In Part I of this article, I stated that luxury brands rarely discount. However, when they do they discount for a very limited time. You will hear catch-phrases like “this weekend only.” I don’t personally discount my prices but if I did I would definitely use a very short time horizon. If you use constant discounting you will denigrate your brand and your discounting will be less effective. I personally know of two wedding professionals that book over 75% of their weddings in one month, because they promote a 20% savings if you book this month, strategy.

Registry

First and foremost, you should know upfront I’m extremely biased here. I am a wedding photographer and our CTO is a wedding filmmaker. We both use a wedding registry to book more wedding and increase our prices. With a registry the pricing conversation changes from how much can I afford to what do I really want. Why? Because ultimately, it’s less money out of pocket for the bride and groom. Therefore, they are able to book a higher package. Additionally, the bride and groom are marketing your company for you.

Again, I’m biased but the registry concept is a proven business model. Williams-Sonoma was a one-store cookware company. They had a problem. Newly married couples couldn’t afford their luxury cookware. They introduced a wedding registry and now Williams-Sonoma is worth over $5 billion dollars and still heavily focuses on its registry to drive sales.

Incentives

We cannot resist free. Humans are naturally attracted to the word. Why? Because “free” is a no-riskproposition. Therefore, think of things that you could offer to seal the deal, that wouldn’t cost you that much more money. Examples include:

• An extra hour of coverage
• Two extra DVDs and a thumb-drive
• In summary, wedding filmmakers are in a very unique position to increase their brand prescence and pricing if they chose to invest in their brand and think outside the box.

What ideas do you have to make it possible for your clients to pay less, without hurting your brand?

Jimmy Moncrief is the cofounder of Ciderr and a wedding photographer. Ciderr is a web application that lets filmmakers and photographers create custom-branded registries for their business. Use discount code: daredreamer for a free month of ciderr.