The Marketing Mix: Place

The Marketing Mix: Place

Being a photographer’s customer can be anyone from businesses to individuals, online or offline, one off or regular business. The decision you face with place is defining your best route to your customer and which resources you need to put behind that effort to reach them.

• Where do your customers look for services like your’s? Magazines, local papers, online, newsagent’s window, venue recommendations, etc. You need to be where they are looking.
• How do you choose a distribution network for your prints? Can you create your own bespoke service or is it more cost-effective to go with an established supplier.
• Should you go to trade shows or cold call? Knocking on doors in your local area is certainly one way to drum up business, as is doing this at trade shows.
• What are your potential customers’ shopping habits? Being where they are, when they are most likely to be open to such a product, is part of the research.

Online is probably the most obvious, quickest and potentially cheapest way of reaching your customer.

Online is probably the most obvious, quickest and potentially cheapest way of reaching your customer. No physical shop is required, no floor staff, no signage and opening and closing time. You can be open 24/7 and your investment is how slick to make your website, production, distribution and how to get your customer to find you in the online maze. But is online really the first port of call?

The answer has to be a resounding YES! Unfortunately, unless you operate a franchise operation on every high street offering a fast, by-the-numbers service, the onus to maintain a store in the hope that passing trade will secure your studio portrait and wedding bookings is too heavy. Having an online store keeps things simple, a website is an absolute must, one with capabilities of selling online highly recommended, vital for long term success.

Overall, place covers all aspects of getting your product into the hands of your customer. Figuring out where the customer is, where to show them your product, how you will get the product to them once they order and where, if necessary, those products are stored in the meantime. The cost of all these aspects inform the price, and therefore profit, and how you go about promoting.