Out of the Bach's

Hey, it was the writer's pun.

Article at Seth's about a symphony orchestra doing things way differently than most other orchestras is timely. I have been launching my consulting business quietly for the last couple of months and have a few clients that are very challenging. One of the photographers I am working with is very resistant to the changes I am proposing. He wants to continue down the same path that he defined for himself nearly 30 years ago. And right now his business is down nearly 60% from 2000. That sound like good strategy to you?

Can you imagine how few companies there are out there that are doing the same thing, in the same way, as they did 30 years ago? Ice cream trucks and hot dog vendors come to mind, but it goes more difficult after that. Even the folks framing houses and pouring cement are doing things - and running their businesses - differently.

For some reason many commercial and portrait photographers have the worldview that things and people haven't changed. That their industry is the same as it was 20 years ago - 10 years ago. Hauling your portfolio around to show AD's and waiting for the phone to ring off your last Annual page - well - aint workin' no more. Get it.

Much has changed. Much more is required. Education, technology, engagement and moxie... You need to understand the new role you must play. You must understand the new people that you must work with. You absolutely must 'embrace change' (cliche... yeah, but truer now than ever).

I must admit a great affinity to classical music and symphony orchestras. I wrote an award winning string quartet back in the 70's and was interviewed on a local radio station. They asked me why I thought more young people weren't going to the orchestra concerts. I still remember my answer (cause my girlfriend taped it on my old reel-to-reel and I still have that audio).

"Because the orchestras aren't talking to them. They preach a kind of 'elitist snobbishness' that kids turn a deaf ear to. The orchestra's have to get out of tuxedos now and then, play venues that aren't huge and stuffy halls full of bluehairs, try music that is out of the mainstream, make some sort of effort that would say to the young folks - 'Hey, we really WANT you to come to our shows, so we will program stuff that you are into.

The orchestra's need to loosen up and realize that the community that they have to reach for survival isn't just old people, or people that traditionally support them cause that changes with successive generations. They have to create new audiences so they can grow."
- Don Giannatti in an interview with Steve Compton, KDKB Radio, 1973

Now I am challenging photographers, especially the established ones who haven't embraced some of the newer opportunities to step up and get involved. Marketing is not a passive undertaking anymore. Used to be, but not now. Marketing is active, engaged, living, changing, dynamic. frustrating, exhilarating, lively, drudgery, fun and a hell of a lot of work. A yellow page ad and two pages in a directory isn't any of the above. And it wont work all by itself anymore. Ever.

Whether you live in Manhattan, Dallas, Tucson, Tulsa, Herford, or Oro Junction... getting customers and clients for your photography takes marketing, a great story and lots of engaged effort. there are many, many ways to get involved. See my list on those who "get it" and those who don't for just a few suggestions. Oh, and read all of the articles at Seth's this morning.

Seth's Blog: "Having read several studies on why orchestras are failing, I have learned (which came as no surprise), that people these days don't want to hear one type of music (which is what orchestras usually offer-only classical) and that audiences get bored without a visual element in a concert (merely watching the musicians isn't enough)."