What Ben and Jerry’s can teach you about running a photography business

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Where do we get our ideas about how we should price our photography and set up our businesses? What makes us think that more is better? That in-person sales is better? That there is only one right way to do things?

Today I’m sharing a bit of a case study on Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and how they’ve created a place for themselves in the ice cream market and really dominated it. Ben & Jerry’s only sells ice cream by the pint, not gallons, yet still is at the top of the list of ice cream sales in the US.  Why does this work and how can we translate that success to our photography business?

Learn more in today’s episode of How You Pictured It.

About Kate Hejde

Kate Hejde is the host and creator of How You Pictured It Podcast and Dear Kate Brand Strategy. She helps photographers create a profitable business that fits into their lives. With over 10 years of experience running her own photography business, while raising three kids, Kate believes that business is not one size fits all and that you define your own success.  Kate teaches through her podcast as well as through courses, group coaching, and 1:1 mentoring. 

Check out Kate Online: Website | Instagram | Tiktok | Pinterest

FULL TRANSCRIPT

For this week’s episode of how you pictured it. I am working smarter and not harder. And sharing with you a video that I recorded talking about how there are different ways to market yourself and ways that you can be a more luxury photographer, Curate your experience and charge more for less. This is a case study about Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. If you are an ice cream lover, this one’s for you. If you are someone who would like to spend less time and make more money, this one’s for you. I am excited for you to listen. Did you know, you could learn something for your photography business, through the ice cream industry. Have you ever bought a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream? It is one of the top selling ice creams in the world. It’s actually above all of the other major brands and it is only sold in a pint. So why do people buy it? It’s small. They get less other brands offer a lot more ice cream for the same price, or even just a little bit less than what your pint of Ben and Jerry’s costs, but more people buy Ben and Jerry’s. Why?? Well, Ben and Jerry’s has special flavors. They’re unique. They’re custom to that brand. And they use only the very top quality ingredients. They’ve really made a brand for themselves and found a way to enter the market and create high quality ice cream, but give it, just give you just a little bit less so that it keeps the price affordable. So, what does this have to do with your photography business? Well, we can do the same thing. We can deliver really high quality images, a high quality experience, and maybe do a little bit less per session. To get our clients that high quality at a price that they can afford. So you could be the Blue Bell. You could do a straight, delicious gallon of Dutch Chocolate ice cream for $5 and 50 cents. Or you could be the Ben and Jerry’s where you’re delivering a small pint of ice cream for $6 and 50 cents. Now let’s relate that back to the photography industry. With the Blue Bell, you’re delivering all of the good stuff. You’re delivering all of the best images. You’re not weeding out the ingredients. You’re not curating that experience or the collection of images that you’re delivering. You’re probably an all-inclusive photographer as a Blue Bell photographer. If you want to be a Ben and Jerry’s photographer, you’re delivering only the very best images you’re delivering only the ingredients that the client wants and needs and deserves. And you’re delivering it for even a little bit more money than that Blue Bell photographer, because you’re curating the experience more. I would compare this to a photographer who sells individual images or collections of images, or even an in-person sales photographer. These are more curated experiences and they provide a higher level of image for the client. Here’s the really special part though. You can be a Ben And Jerry’s photographer and spend less time then that Blue Bell photographer. You can deliver the very best images, the ones that the client wants, the ones that they know they want to buy. And. Still spend less time per client and make more money for client. You do this with soft proofing, With soft proofing, you’re showing your clients the images before they’ve been fully edited. You’re showing them the ingredients and you’re letting them decide which ingredients they want in their final collection. You’re then only editing and curating those final ingredients and perfecting them. So you can deliver that collection at that higher price with less work for you. My new course, Soft Proofing Made Simple: how to cut your editing time in half while making more money, is launching now. In this course, I’m going to be teaching you the benefits of soft proofing and how I use this method to make more money in my photography business while editing less and spending less time on the computer. This method is all about the I’d rather be shooting philosophy and helps you hone in your processes, systems and workflows to create a more profitable and efficient business. Get more details at the link in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening to How You Pictured It. I’d love for you to leave a rating and review on whatever podcast player you’re listening on. It really helps me to grow the podcast and continue to share with you here, this free training and education. Have a great week and i will talk to you next week