Here is a sign of the Time. Sandy Puc has a groupon.

[Rson]

Check this out.

Sandy Puc' Portrait Design Deal of the Day | Groupon Denver


Hmmm, sign that Mom'togrophers are eating into her business?

[Tom]

I believe she said that last year her business was down significantly. Why do you think she is hitting the speaking tours so hard?

[Tom]

Over 1 bought
Limited quantity available

Lol.

[kenw]

definitely a quick infusion of cash...

[Rson]

Originally Posted by kenw

definitely a quick infusion of cash...

At my calculations, that is 59.00 so far.

[auddii]

I don't know of this photographer or her business practices, but the way it's worded, it sounds like someone else would be the photographer. Does she employ other people to first shoot for her? From comments of other photographers who have done groupons, seems like you'd need multiple photogs to handle the huge influx of customers.

[brad]

Yes, Sam has an entire team of people... so its very likely that's exactly what it is.. you'll get an intern doing your photos.

Also, it appears she's discounting the session fee and not much else.. but can't really tell its worded so poorly. My experience with these places (and no, not for photography, but for the haunted house) is that the group coupon people insist on writing the copy for the deal.. they run it past you for approval, but they write it.

[brad]

Just read it again... one print from each of 3 sessions... so really, its just "something" to get them in the door.. honestly, how many parents are going to settle for just one print from the session... they are planning to upsell the hell out of it.

The downside for her, though, is that its very likely she's selling 3 (at last viewing) of these packages to people who would have bought from her anyway.... the average groupon shopper is used to photographers giving away 3 hours of time and all of the images on CD for a similar price -- so for Sam to be offering just 3 prints and 3 short sessions, it seems like nothing by comparison. The only people that are likely to buy are the kinds of customers she would have had anyway - those that shop on style rather than price and/or are already familiar with her work.

[auddii]

Originally Posted by brad

Yes, Sam has an entire team of people... so its very likely that's exactly what it is.. you'll get an intern doing your photos.

Also, it appears she's discounting the session fee and not much else.. but can't really tell its worded so poorly. My experience with these places (and no, not for photography, but for the haunted house) is that the group coupon people insist on writing the copy for the deal.. they run it past you for approval, but they write it.

They seriously need to hire better people to right them, or "outsource" to the person who knows the most about the business - the person running it.

[BenE]

Originally Posted by auddii

They seriously need to hire better people to right them, or "outsource" to the person who knows the most about the business - the person running it.

I agree, using words such as "shutterbug" and "snap photos" comes across like a real coupon studio.

I received an email from a guy who is involved with Groupon, wanting me to sign up. On the email there was a link to Olan Mills studios. The text sounded much like this. It seems to me the general public will lump all the Groupon studios together as all being "coupon studios".

I also noticed that it appears the prints and folder are not given to the parents until the final session.

At the end of the series, Sandy Puc’ Portrait compiles one 4” x 5” portrait from each session into an artisan leather folio for parental reminiscing.

And I can't help but wonder if it is a leather folder or simulated leather?

[picman]

Originally Posted by Rson

At my calculations, that is 59.00 so far.

Groupon takes half, so only $29.50

[stephenpinn]

at most of these type of seminars the leader will be selling other tings like PS Actions or Filters or a DVD, etc My guess that is how they drive their revenue instead of the seminar fee. This way they have a captive audience and do not need to share with Groupon

[BenE]

Originally Posted by picman

Groupon takes half, so only $29.50

I can't even find any information on how to participate in Groupon. Not that I want to.
Maybe you have to be invited to participate.

.....edit....
Never mind. I didn't look hard enough. I found something.

But there is no mention of what they charge, that I could find.

[SandyPuc1]

Hello all,

During the CEK tour we were asked multiple times about Groupon. Students would ask if it worked, how well it worked and what the final results were. Since I had never tried it, I had no answer. I would typically ask the audience if any one had success with the marketing strategy. Sometimes someone would stand up and rave about the success. They would state all kinds of fact and statistics saying how great it was. I would also have people get up and say how bad it was and that they lost lots of time and money.

My concern with their answers is that I did not know anything about who they were, their business model or what they needed to make to be successful. I have had my share of students rave about things like social media success only to find out that they have a full time spouse that provides all of their income and that they feel 3-4 session a month is A LOT.

I told the audience at one show that I would test the concept and report exactly what happened.

Working with Groupon:
We started the process about 4 months ago. First of all, Groupon is INUNDATED with photographers. They told us they could not use our products and that it would be up to a year before they would consider us. Then out of the blue about 2 weeks ago they contacted us and said they had slated us for October 14th. We had no choice on the dates so we went with it.

Marketing:
I am not sure I am a fan of the way they write the copy for these offers. They make it very whimsical and silly but they use words like photo, picture, snapshots and other cheesy descriptions. It makes me cringe like you would not believe.


The offer:
To be honest, I picked a product that I knew we would not sell a ton of. I am not sure that this will be a totally fair assessment since most shooters are doing discounted sessions. I just did not want to sell 500 sessions and have to deal with it. The biggest frustration so far we had little notice and no choice on dates. I would have FAR rather have done this in the slow season that in the busy fall season but I was afraid if we mentioned that we would be back at the end of the line.

We decided to offer the SAME baby plan marketing strategy that we use in our studio. Keep in mind that Groupon takes 1/2 and that it had to be discounted too. So right out of the gate we lose a little money. However, I GIVE this product away sometimes to clients I feel will be good prospects. (typically friends of good clients) So I am not really worried about taking the risk.

We offered the baby plan series that includes 3, 6, and 1 year. Typically at this price an associate would shoot it. However, my goal is to split the session so that I can see the sale difference between my work and my associates. I typically have much higher sales, but I also work with the most loyal clients and the associates get the newer ones. So it is not that their work is not up to par, it is more a matter of my oldest clients will not work with anyone else and they spend well.

I think as of now we have sold 8. A client that would buy this would have to have a baby under 3 months.

We have had 4 people e-mail us with question. One had a 6 month old and wanted to do a 6,9 and 12 month.

The sale goes for 24 more hours so once it is over we will start to contact the clients and start booking. We will require a in studio consultation. (unless they refuse) and of course we plan to up-sale but I am not holding my breath.

I now wonder if I should have offered a discounted family session just to realistic sense of what this is like, but I will try this concept for now and maybe a family session in the spring.

I have had several people e-mail me some really hateful comments on how I am "ruining the industry, choosing to devaluing my work or that my studio must be hurting. I can assure you that is not the case. I am amazed at how mean people can be.

If this somehow worked, I would do it again....but I doubt it would.

So, I am sure it will take a few months but I am curious to see what is going to happen.


I also had this amazing epiphany and I am going to contact GROUPON and see if they will test it for me. (more info to come later)

[SandyPuc1]

Oh Tom, I am not sure where you are getting your figures. We are not down at all. In fact we are on our way to finishing a really great year due to some extraordinary sales this fall.

We did CUT back our sessions count because we want slower, better sessions and a higher sales approach but it certainly did not hurt us.

The economy did...but not by much. We employee 25 people and every one gets paid on time so life is good...