Rangefinder Magazine
February 2005

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Power Marketing Super Conference by CharMaine Beleele
The Cure for the Common Soul

ALL PHOTOS BY CHARMAINE BELEELE EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

It was the look in my husband’s eyes that sent me to the Power Marketing Super Conference. As we packed equipment to go to River Park on a Sunday afternoon and photograph three sessions of back to back senior portfolios, my husband gave me such an expression as he said ruefully, “Honey, tell me again why this is a better use of our time than going to dinner and a movie?” Being a dedicated artist, I sputtered, “Spend money. Make money. This was a no brainer, Sweetheart.”

Again, the look! I suddenly realized my quality of life should be more important than making money. Had I become such a common soul that my dedication to art was displacing my family time? Desperate to find a cure for my case of the common soul, I turned to “marketing doctor” Mitche Graf for help.

Three years ago he introduced me to the art of marketing, but the commotion of daily work had blinded me. Success in the studio brought me sleep deprivation. I knew I needed some practical marketing techniques that would allow me to work smarter, not harder. In my mind’s eye, I could see Mitche, like a physician, writing a prescription, checking me into the Power Marketing Super Conference before my workaholic syndrome put me in a real hospital.

Mitche says, “Marketing is a tool, not a magic pill, a cure-all or a secret potion. It takes hard work. Some photographers need to be reminded that the camera is also a tool to get what we want out of life. The Power Marketing Super Conference is designed to be an ever-evolving program to invigorate marketing skills for professional photographers. Then they can enjoy doing what they love while making a nice lifestyle for themselves and their families.”

“Dr.” Graf diagnosed me as an overbooked, underpaid workaholic. Since my case of the common soul was so severe, I took his advice for a healthy dose of education and headed for the wilds of Idaho. Mitche says, “Everywhere I go, I see photographers starved for more marketing education. I can see victims of poor marketing—good photographers who have had their spirit sucked dry. I can see it in their eyes.”

In denial at first, I feared such a workshop would stuff me with cookie-cutter equations that my clients could probably outsmart. On the first day, Mitche said, “This workshop has been developed to fulfill your need for education, motivate you to make positive changes in your marketing, and stimulate your creative juices. Learning is not a single event, but rather an ongoing process, and the groundwork laid this week will hopefully evoke changes in your studio that will impact you for the rest of your life.”

Like a good doctor, Mitche knew he had to stabilize his patient first. The first thing I needed was a way to get that look off of my husband’s face, and then I could concentrate on other business issues! Mitche quickly solved the problem by teaching me about “Primetime Booking,” an idea he ascribes to Doug Box. “It’s amazing,” Mitche says, “how quickly people will find time in their schedules if they know primetime and weekend sessions are more expensive than regular hours of 9:00 to 4:00.” Once I had learned how to fix the problem of overbooking at times that interfered with family life, I was free to study other marketing issues with my group.

The treatments for a common soul are marketing ideas in massive doses, and I was not Dr. Graf’s only patient in critical condition! Eighteen people from studios in eight states joined me to take the cure in the mountain glory of the Western Pleasure Guest Ranch, near Sandpoint, Idaho, not far from Spokane, Washington. Four factors distinguished the Super Conference from the ordinary workshop: the Western Pleasure Ranch setting, the artfully structured schedule, the slate of guest speakers and the strictly enforced intimate group size. Mitche says, “The best learning takes place during relationships created within the trust of the intimate-sized group.” Based on our answers on preliminary information forms, my fellow “patients” and I were put into teams to discuss power ideas. Group therapy!

	PHOTO © COPYRIGHT MITCHE GRAF

On the first day of the conference, we learned the four “Ps” of Marketing. Mitche explains, “Regardless of what you are selling—meat, corn or photography—the marketing principles are the same.” The Ps are strikingly easy to remember. Product and packaging come first. Mitche urges, “Give your client a reason to jump up to your target (value–added) package.” The second P stands for Position. We began to understand that we had to find a category we could “own, in the way Xerox owns copy-making, in the way Crest owns cavity fighting.” The third set of Ps stands for Price and Profit. In this category, we studied our hard costs and the perceived value of our photography. Next were Promotion and Penetration. These Ps include promotional options and their costs. At this point, what I learned about incentive pricing was worth the price of the conference.

On the second day of the conference, from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, came Mark Huender, (www.markbigpixr.com) who demonstrated his latest incentive products: art pieces utilizing the creative techniques in Corel’s Painter program. Artful products will now enhance my bottom line! Also on the second day, Mitche hosted extraordinary sales expert, Jeri Rainer, owner of Rainer’s Portraits, (www.rainersportraits.com) from Moscow, Idaho, who treated us to a complete psychoanalysis of the common personality types exhibited by clients. She taught us to differentiate the way we treat each type of client that visits our studio: the F.O.S. (Fun-Outgoing-Social) type, the D.M.W.M. (Don’t Mess With Me) type, the T.I.O. (Think It Over) type, and the L.T.P. (Love to Please) type. Her clever categorizing of our clients taught us the psychological ramifications of how we treat each individual in both the camera room and the salesroom. That evening, Mitche shared the speaker’s platform with Steve L. Larsen, ASP, from Anoka, Minnesota, owner of Portrait Gallery Studio, (www. portraitgallery.com). He is also the Chairman of the PPA Business Initiative Committee. His challenging lessons included the Five Cs of Value Strategy:

1. Comprehension: What drives the client to you?

2. Creation: What have you created that is of value to them?

3. Communication: They have to know you have it before you can sell it to them.

4. Conviction: What can you do to convince them to buy?

5. Capture: How many dollars can you collect in return for your value?

Another concept elucidated by Steve and Mitche was the idea of “The Difference Maker,” a real key to success. The Difference Maker is “that single worthy thing about our business that has made, or continues to make, the difference in creating profit and success.” Such a difference maker could be a special price or a unique product. Mitche adds, “Once we know what our difference maker is, we must develop its significance and show it off in a tantalizing tag line.”

Last of the guest speakers was Rangefinder’s own writer, yours truly, CharMaine Beleele, from Fort Smith, Arkansas (www.angelkissedphotogra phy.com). My decidedly right-brained program, “Awakening the Artist Within,” encouraged the class to think “outside the box.” My difference makers included ways to build an artistic persona within a community. I demonstrated how I use such unique sales tools such as an engagement picnic to entice couples to choose my services as their wedding photographer.

After the presentations of all four of his guest speakers, Mitche explained, “This conference is not just about me; I hope to always enhance the marketing lessons with other experts in various photography fields. I will do this whenever and wherever we hold other Power Marketing Super Conferences in the future.” By the way, the next Marketing Super Conference at the Western Pleasure Ranch is slated for April 17–20.

Throughout the conference, each of us described the most recently successful marketing technique we had used. All of these ideas were copied and given to us as inserts in the Powerbook, a thick loose-leaf binder full of reference material that grew fatter with every one of our lessons.

From Utah, Steve J. Mackley of Mackley Photography (www.mackleyphoto.com) brought the class a nice twist to the referral idea. He recommended we “send a letter and three gift certificates to all past clients.” The letter thanks them for past business and invites them to hand out the enclosed $25 gift certificates. The recipients of the letter get a free family session redeemable during the slow months of January–March. He proved the efficacy of his idea with numbers. He mailed in January and generated 3035 sessions, resulting in gross sales of $5000 to $6000, from only 1100 mailings.

From McBride Studio in Rexburg, ID, (www.mcbridestudio.com) comes a remarkably affordable marketing idea. Brian McBride explains, “We have what is called the Senior Station. This is a kind of a hang out room for seniors.” Brian described the way they let high school seniors who have sessions sign the wall. He says, “Kids love to leave their mark on something, so why not your wall in your studio?” Not only signatures, but also some classy artwork has been the result of this unusual feature. The idea works so well that they have four walls now.

After developing personal and professional goals, we studied three important marketing concepts. First we learned about the “hook.” Mitche says, “The hook is that uniquely special ‘sizzle’ that the client can only enjoy by buying your specific steak.” He adds, “Before you design your message, you must decide what is unique about your business. You must develop your hook, find your position in your marketplace, and define your image.” Mitche challenged us, “What is your hook? Is it your location? Is it a special product? It could be your personality or your excellent incentives.” Wendy Diel, marketing and sales director of Studio 205 in Brillion, Wisconsin, uses the “It’s All About You,” hook for high school senior clients. Based on this hook, she sends half-price session offers to seniors who book sessions during the summer. “The first year we booked 64 prepaid sessions during the two weeks that I gave them to call. The second year we had 100 sessions booked and pre-paid this way.”

The second marketing key was the discovery of our “position.” Mitche explains that we need to know if our studio was in the “Cadillac or the Mazda category. A sport car is as good as a sedan. Only they are different, and they appeal to different groups of clients in your market area.” To establish Clark Marten Photography’s position as the studio for high school seniors in the Columbus and Billingsly, Montana, area, Rachel Marten (www.clark martenphoto.com) created a partnership with the coolest teen clothing store in town. Buy $50 worth of cool clothes for your session, and get $50 worth of portrait credit. Very cool punch cards helped the studio and store stay coordinated. Plus she displayed local teens in large prints in the front window.

The third key to good marketing was finding the kind of “image” each of us wanted to create in and with our studios. Mitche says, “Examine your mystique. Discover what image you want to present, and then arrange every detail about your business to enhance that image. All of us had brought copies of our marketing literature from our studios. We traded our postcards, price lists, folders, flyers and pamphlets. These helped us understand each other’s images. I now have all of them in my resource file, for inspiration. We sat on the sun-drenched porch of the resort while business teacher Steve Larson gave us constructive criticism. He analyzed the different paper, textures, fonts, color, printing and textual messages, presented by each studio.

Over the three days of the Power Marketing Super Conference, I developed a term for Mitche’s most fascinating concepts, noted carefully in the margins of my Powerbook. I call these words of wisdom “Grafisms.” I have posted a dozen of them on my fridge where I can see them every day, but here are my favorites:

1. A Grafism for the marketing skeptic: “Good marketing puts your quality of life first.”

2. A Grafism for the workaholic: “Simple is successful!” Mitche explains, “Clear personal goals will help you achieve your specific professional goals. A clear vision of where you are headed with your life will enhance your chances of having your business seem to just fall in place.”

3. A Grafism for the discouraged: “Never Quit.” Successful marketing campaigns require repetition. Mitche says, “The most successful entrepreneurs, like Walt Disney, Howard Hughes and Bill Gates, had to shoulder failures, and they did not quit.”

One conference might not completely prevent a photographer from contracting a case of the common soul, so I am now in “Dr.” Graf’s 12-step Program to avoid workaholism and re-infection. To keep my marketing self in shape, I exercise my mind with a 15–30 minute marketing book-reading workout, once a day—very therapeutic. The first indication I am returning to good health is my significant weight gain in the one place I like it: My wallet! Best of all, in an emergency I can always take two Grafisms and call “Dr.” Graf or one of my marketing classmates in the morning!

Find out more at www.mitchegraf.com/. Mitche Graf will be teaching a class at this year’s WPPI convention. His program will be part of the WPPI Business Institute to be held on Saturday, March 19. His class is called, “How to Develop a ‘Hook’ for Your Studio.”

CharMaine Beleele, with an MA in communication, owns Angel Kissed Photography Studio in Arkansas. She teaches communication at the University of Arkansas in Fort Smith. She is also a regular correspondent for the Arkansas Catholic newspaper. Email her at photoangels@sbc global.com or contact her at her new web site www.angelkissedphotography.com/.