When to raise prices?

cdifoto wrote in post #4106125
I'm not playing the budget angle, but the higher price one isn't working either.

The problem I think with my area is there just aren't enough weddings. When you look in either of our 2 main newspapers on any given day, it's a surprise to an engagement announcement...

You have two daily newspapers and you call that a small town? Move to a real small town and you get the fortunate situation of having very little competition.

MrsOpie wrote in post #4106050
I met with a bride 3 weeks ago and she told me who else she was considering for the job. I check out the websites and this is what they were offering:

#1 $2,400
$1,400 shoot fee for complete coverage
engagement session
$1,000 product credit

#2 $2,000
$1,200 shooting fee for complete coverage
engagement session
bridal session
$800 product credit

My Package $1,600
6 hours coverage
engagement session
bridal session
$600 product credit
high res wedding pictures on disc

I was the cheapest photographer out of the bunch and she went with guy #2. She also wanted to remove the $600 product credit so she would get her package at $1,000. Half the price of the other 2 people. She was willing to pay double for guy #2 instead of going with me. She would even get the digital negatives with me and she wouldn't get that with the other 2 photographers.

I just don't want brides to think of me as a "budget" photographer.

Looking at who she was considering, my guess is that she had two photographers at the top of her budget, and then if she decided to go cheap, she had you (hopefully at $1000). Maybe she preferred the others, but more likely, she liked all of your work equally and assumed the higher priced was the better photographer, and decided to go with the "best"

Well Lloyd...... I just don't know anymore based on what I see around here. It's true that a lot of folks do not buy on logic, but at the same time I see a number of thoughtful, hardworking, careful shoppers who compare packages and look for their best "value."

I want to disagree with you, but I don't have any hard data to prove you wrong .

picturecrazy wrote in post #4106100
I can almost bet if your rate was $2500 she would have gone with you.

People, for the most part, do not buy on logic.

I dont agree that cheap brides dont look at the photos before booking, certainly thats not the case where we are anyway, we met all our brides for this year before hand to show them our portfolio and all of them had seen photos on our website before that..... all of this occurred before they booked with us.

I actually raised my price 2 times within the past 5 months. Not that I want to jump into the "high end" side right the way but I got too many booking and I do believe my work worth more than what I initialy charged. And some of my clients actually told me I should have charge them more? Ok, so I realize that s the time to raise my price. I am not trying to complete with anybody because I believe every bride and groom will know what "style" they are hunting for

notapro wrote in post #4106264
You have two daily newspapers and you call that a small town? Move to a real small town and you get the fortunate situation of having very little competition

2 papers covering 2 towns. I didn't say they were daily. I'm in a town with 12,000 people. Half of those people are only here 9 months of the year - they're the faculty and students of a state university. The other half are hard working honest people who really do consider $1,000 a lot of money.

I think the higher end one are also those with established reputation, maybe it's the safety thing some brides are paying.

sam0329 wrote in post #4106412
I actually raised my price 2 times within the past 5 months. Not that I want to jump into the "high end" side right the way but I got too many booking and I do believe my work worth more than what I initialy charged. And some of my clients actually told me I should have charge them more? Ok, so I realize that s the time to raise my price. I am not trying to complete with anybody because I believe every bride and groom will know what "style" they are hunting for

There must be something magical about Edmonton.

cdifoto wrote in post #4106444
There must be something magical about Edmonton.

with oil price > $80, the whole province of Alberta is booming. They have more oil than the Saudi if the price is right.

That explains it. I'm not in an area with young wealthy people.

Haha... sorry, no offence, but you re right, most of my clients are pretty young

We have young people, but they're not wealthy. They work in factories, fast food, farms, etc. Not even the upper middle class type stuff like corporate. Not to say there isn't any of that...it's just not prevalent enough to build a client base upon or market to.

cdifoto wrote in post #4106429
2 papers covering 2 towns. I didn't say they were daily. I'm in a town with 12,000 people. Half of those people are only here 9 months of the year - they're the faculty and students of a state university. The other half are hard working honest people who really do consider $1,000 a lot of money.

Oh... okay, when you said 2 papers "any given day" I thought they were daily papers. Take away the university, and you are in a town with only slightly higher population than mine. I agree that these theories don't work in a small town if you want to work locally. Nobody here would ever pay $300 for a portrait session or $5K for a wedding photographer. Most weddings here are under $10K all in, and you could easily have a decent wedding for under $5K. Everything is so much cheaper than in the city.

cdifoto wrote in post #4106444
There must be something magical about Edmonton.

I don't think it's edmonton specifically that's magical by any means.

Yes, oil is a big part of the province... but it's the oil companies that cash in on this, not joe public. Most people my age make pretty average wages. meanwhile, because of the oil boom, the cost of living is skyrocketing while wages are not. The people of edmonton are LOSING money year by year.

I've just talked to many great photographers doing extremely well from ALL over the place. Take a look at a community like dwf or osp, big success stories from every corner. POTN is quite a limited community and has a high novice ratio, so it's not the best place to get a feel for how well many are succeeding.

I know this but there aren't any famous/popular/high demand/high price photogs in my area. There's George Weir in Lancaster but that's one of his locations...his other is I believe in New Jersey to hit the NYC market. He's also established.

I'm not saying it's impossible to succeed. I'm just emphasizing that it's not as easy as just saying "raise your prices."

notapro wrote in post #4106513
Oh... okay, when you said 2 papers "any given day" I thought they were daily papers. Take away the university, and you are in a town with only slightly higher population than mine. I agree that these theories don't work in a small town if you want to work locally. Nobody here would ever pay $300 for a portrait session or $5K for a wedding photographer. Most weddings here are under $10K all in, and you could easily have a decent wedding for under $5K. Everything is so much cheaper than in the city.

I would love to be more mobile. The problem is actually implementing that. How do you establish yourself in an area that isn't your own? How do you tap into a city 2.5 hours away when that same city is already inundated with photographers all across the price & quality spectrums?