An overlooked tool for editorial photographers is Editorial Photography Estimator. The free version is still available but not the commercial version which included data for advertising photography. A new edition of the commercial version was supposed to have been released in 2011.

It’s very important to remember that Editorial Photography Estimator (EPE) is from 2001 and its numbers are out-of-date. However, the underlying concepts are still valid. Editorial fees, for both assignment and stock, are based upon the circulation of the publication and that publication’s ad rate for a full-page colour ad.

EPE lists hundreds of US magazines, some of which are no longer in business. Nevertheless, a photographer can update or create a new entry for any magazine they want, as long as they know that publication’s circulation and ad rate, both of which can usually be found online.

With all pricing software, never follow the numbers blindly. Software cannot account for a photographer’s location, overhead, expertise, talent, business plans, etc.

The EPE web site has a link to the documentation for the discontinued commercial version. This explains the logic behind both versions of the software. Some quotes:

It was obvious very quickly after creating this software, that photographers are  insanely underpaid.

The Estimator does not grant any discounts for multiple image use. While some publishers might try to get such a discount, such a system is not appropriate for editorial work nor has it been traditional to give discounts for multiple images.

To help with negotiating a fair editorial photo fee, EPE software also displays the photography cost per magazine copy. For example, if a $1,400 fee for editorial photography seems too high, when you consider that the magazine circulation is 200,000 copies, that fee works out to be only 0.7¢ per copy.

Editorial Photography Estimator is worthwhile if only for informational purposes.

Marketing collateral refers to the various forms of communication a business publishes on its own. By contrast, paid placements, such as advertising, are not a form of marketing collateral. Advertising is part of the sales process whereas marketing collateral supports the sales process. To a small extent, marketing collateral might be considered “advertorial” content produced by the company.

Advertising often fails because consumers simply don’t trust ads. Advertising claims are not always backed up by any information. Customers are very skeptical because they know that advertising is only concerned with taking their money.

This is where editorial-based marketing collateral comes to the rescue. The public trusts editorial content. Newspapers prove this every day. Editorial content not only informs and educates customers, it also builds credibility and earns trust.

Marketing collateral should educate the consumer about a product, service or the company itself, rather than try to make a direct sale. Good editorial content talks to the customer in their language and doesn’t use any advertising jargon.

Thanks to the Web, it’s easy and inexpensive for a company to publish editorial content. Yet for some unknown reasons, many companies don’t do it.

• Use an About Us web page to talk about key people in the company. Don’t just list business hours and location.

• Create a blog to explain how to get the most from the company’s products. Talk about how the company’s services are delivered.

• Use testimonials and case studies to show how other customers have used and benefited from the company’s products or services.

• Produce online white papers to elaborate on key specifications, highlight design features, showcase the manufacturing process.

There’s no such thing as too much information for a consumer trying to make a purchasing decision.

But there’s one important element that can never be left out.

Photography.

Good editorial photography tells a story, enhances the marketing message and draws customers in.

Guaranteed.

And if that isn’t reason enough to hire a (editorial) photographer, consider this:

• Generally speaking, photography for marketing collateral is priced lower than that for advertising.

• Newspapers won’t accept advertising as a public relations handout but they will accept most editorial-based marketing collateral.

Lower priced, more opportunity for free publication by the news media, more credibility, more trust.

What’s holding your company back?

Here are a few gentle ways to insult a fellow photographer:

• He’s a few pictures short of a slideshow.
• She’s obviously not working with a full frame.
• His zoom doesn’t extend all the way.
• Her flash isn’t firing on full power.
• Her shutter speed is a bit slow.
• His aperture isn’t exactly wide open.
• She’s dragging her shutter.
• He’s been spending way too much time in a darkroom.
• He’s working with a shallow depth of field.
• She’s not exactly high definition.
• “Low resolution” is his middle name.
• His lens cap is on.
• Her memory card is empty.
• She’s not exactly the sharpest lens in the bag.
• He’s not exactly the fastest lens in the bag.
• His camera is clicking but nothing gets recorded.
• Her camera is firing but the film isn’t advancing.
• He’s a couple of stops short of a good exposure.
• She still uses film.

Any more to add?

A 2007 USA study, with the catchy title of “Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness”, showed that marketing actions, such as changing the price of a product, can affect consumer enjoyment of that product.

The study used functional MRI to observe the brain activity of test subjects while they sampled differently-priced wines. The subjects were told the five different wines were valued at $5, $10, $35, $45 and $90. But unknown to them, there were really only three different wines: the $5 and $45 wines were the same; the $10 and $90 wines were the same.

Bottom line: the more expensive the wine, the more the test subjects enjoyed it. When the $90 wine was labeled as $90, the subjects liked it. But when it was labeled as being $10, they no longer enjoyed it. Subjects didn’t enjoy the $5 wine but when it was labeled as being $45 then they did.

To make sure the test subjects were being truthful about which wines they enjoyed, functional MRI was used to monitor brain activity. Levels of enjoyment can be seen by increased activity in certain parts of the brain.

What this seems to show is that consumers take (emotional) cues from the marketing surrounding a product. In this case, higher prices led to higher levels of enjoyment.

Many businesses already know this. But photographers need to learn that lowering prices in an attempt to get more business will backfire in the long run. Photo buyers will always associate cheap prices with low quality and no one enjoys that.

When a photographer discounts their prices, they’re only discounting themselves.

Often, a company has an employee lunchroom, staff lounge or a similar area in the workplace. A not uncommon problem is that some employees leave behind dirty cups or other types of mess on a table or in the sink.

Enter behavioural psychology.

As a fun experiment, a small Toronto office has given each of its employees a free coffee mug with one of their business portrait outtakes on it.

The plan is that since each person now has their own coffee mug with their face on it, they’ll be motivated to clean up after themselves and won’t leave behind a dirty cup. However, should an employee leave a mess, since their face is on the mug, everyone in the office will immediately know who the culprit is.

The employees may think they got a free coffee mug but they really got entered into a science experiment.