Photographers, how much would you charge to deliver 24 business headshots, 12 full-length environmental portraits and 4 environmental group shots?
Well, a Toronto photographer quoted $800 for this recent corporate job. This works out to $20 per delivered picture. The corporate client turned down this quote because even they knew the low price was ridiculous.
Photographers who try to discount or lowball their way into a job only hurt themselves. It’s been shown that customers are not fooled by bottom-end prices. So why do some photographers keep doing it?
In the same way that some consumers choose items mainly because they’re expensive, others equate cheap (as in: price) with cheap (as in: poor quality). …consumers often steer clear of less expensive options when good quality is highly important…
By marketing low price, you’re appealing to consumers who seek only utility. Such customers are looking only for something that’s better than nothing. They’re shopping for a photo that can serve the utilitarian function of filling an empty space on a page. These consumers are purely transactional.
The low-price photographer and the utility customer are well-suited to each other. Both seek the minimum. The photographer offers to do a minimum amount of work for a minimum fee. The customer wants a minimal product or service and is willing to pay only a minimal price. This is a good example of the Prospect Theory.
People are usually motivated more by risk aversion than by a chance to gain. A low-price photographer is trying to avoid the risk of rejection by charging less than what the job is worth. A low-price shopper is trying to avoid the risk of paying too much rather than trying to get good quality photography. In the end, both succeed only when they both lose.
When pricing, remember that few, if any, customers want to save money. Instead, customers want to get the best for what they pay. Customers want to avoid wasting money which is quite different from saving money.
Bottom-end pricing is futile for everyone involved. The photographer loses money on the job and will have difficulty getting ahead which leads to more low-price jobs. The customer gets what they pay for – ineffective, low quality work – which means they wasted their time and money.
Lucky that you work in such a market.