Overpriced?

[Vince Lucena]

I must have went through 4 price strategies before I landed on one I was comfortable with and comparable to my surrounding peers.

I think what really threw me for a loop, was charging a set rate per event i.e., the ceremony and assuming that it would only last 2-3hrs. Until I read in another thread of how some ceremonies can be 3-6 hrs in length.

How was I to protect myself, if I only made the contract read "Ceremony = $x.xx). Since I could not really estimate how long the ceremony would be, I use a "Base Service Rate" of 3 hrs at a $750, and if it goes over I would charge $100 per hour there after. I think my price structure still needs some work though...
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[Glen Elliott]

Quality of product and price don't necessarily go hand in hand. Of course the product has to be good. However I've seen 10k videography and felt there are a dozen 2-3k guys/gals that produce better work IMO.

The difference is the videographer charging 10k 1) Has the initiative to actually ASK that much 2) Has done his/her marketing and attract clientel that can afford it and...3) Is confident in the value of the produce he/she produces.

It's very much NOT a sliding scale. In short price is not an indication of superior talent- rather an indication of success.

[Allen Williams]

Originally Posted by Patrick Moreau

Maybe I'm missing something, but to me that sounds like a pretty silly question.

"Why would you give away 10 copies of the wedding. What are they going to do with them, use them for frisbies?"

Patrick, that may sound like a silly question to some and it was a bit harsh. I apologize to any one who felt offended but you legitimized it with the statement "...Granted, in those situations not everybody who got one was actually interested in checking out....". That answer was self explainatory.

I don't think it would be a problem to find lots of people who would accept a free wedding video of the bride & groom even if the quality might be questionable as you suggested.. Whether it's a high quality product that is original and entertaining or a case of blank DVDs, who would turn town a freebee. I think that pretty much rules out quality as an issue.

Obviously there are differences in philosphy. Giving the bride free DVDs of her wedding so she can pass them out like business cards is a practice that I never thought of before. Maybe I'm on the wrong track. Is it effective? How many weddings have you booked in the last two years as a result of this? Should I consider this idea?

So far I'm of the mind set that since the bride or someone close to her is paying a fair amount of money for the wedding video, possibly in the thousands, this is their exclusive property. Most B&G' want their parents to share their keepsake so parent copies are common to most packages. One of my packages includes multiple copies of a mini or condensed version of the wedding, usually the recap, that the B&G give as momentos but not the full version.
I believe that for me, the videographer to promote give aways to such an exclusive item devalues that item. Adding a price, even if it is small, says this item has value.

Patrick, I am certainly not the judge of wrong or right nor good or bad but as I said before, there is a difference of philosphy. I constantly learn from others as I am learning here.
Allen W

[Steve Roark]

Originally Posted by Vince Lucena

I think what really threw me for a loop, was charging a set rate per event i.e., the ceremony and assuming that it would only last 2-3hrs. Until I read in another thread of how some ceremonies can be 3-6 hrs in length.

How was I to protect myself, if I only made the contract read "Ceremony = $x.xx). Since I could not really estimate how long the ceremony would be, I use a "Base Service Rate" of 3 hrs at a $750, and if it goes over I would charge $100 per hour there after. I think my price structure still needs some work though...
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I too switched to an hourly rate after a couple of really long wedding ceremonies. I also started charging by-the-photo after one client gave me 50 pictures to throw into a montage. Funny thing is, people resented the hourly charge. I was told only doctors could charge those rates by someone. That ticked me off because I was trying to be fair to everyone by only charging for the amount of time I spent at the ceremony, and if I told you how little I was charging for my work you'd laugh me off this board.

What I eventually got from my experience was that breaking the prices down into hourly rates gave the person something with which to compare their salary. They didn't care that I has using expensive gear to shoot and edit with or that I spent many hours color-correcting their photos for the montage. All they saw was that I was getting much more per hour than they got paid when they went to work, and that didn't seem fair to them. So I switched to packages which were slightly less flexible and slightly more expensive and everybody was happy again. Go figure.

[Vincent Croce]

Greg-
I agree that you would be better off having your starting ceremony only package at a higher price and then charge a smaller increment for the extras, such as the photo montage, etc. Other than that, you would be in the ballpark in my neck of the woods (Eastern CT).
Also, and I hate being a stickler with grammar, change 'cater FOR every budget' to 'cater TO'...
Best of luck with the business.
Vin

[Vince Lucena]

Originally Posted by Steve Roark

So I switched to packages which were slightly less flexible and slightly more expensive and everybody was happy again. Go figure.

Hmm, sound wisdom... Looking at my competitive market here, I am the only Studio with this pricing strategy.. I think I will Archive, restructure, and see how things shake up..

Thanks for the info...

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Vince Lucena

Hmm, sound wisdom... Looking at my competitive market here, I am the only Studio with this pricing strategy.. I think I will Archive, restructure, and see how things shake up..

Thanks for the info...

I have adopted a price structure based almost entirely on my editing / production time. and independent of shooting time. I figure that additional work is created for me when I have more editing to do. Since it takes about 2-4hrs of editing per minute of finished product (color correction, audio, soundtrack, titles, etc) I figure that the longer video they want, the more work. That means more money.

I have a floor to my price ($800 - which is astronomically low but I have only been in the business less than 2 years and I lack much of the heavy duty pro equipment), and includes a 30 minute finished edit. Any edit that is more than that or includes any fancy other features (photo memory package, movie credits, etc) adds to the price. I also only have one camera, so that is the only kind of a package I can do. I can somewhat fake 2 points of view by having a photographer (my wife or my partner) supply cut away stills.

That is just how I have been doing it in my market, so don't expect your mileage to match mine.

jason

[Vince Baker]

Just to add to the comments,

I give 3 copies of the film to the B&G aiming at one for them and one for each set of parents, and that is how I sell it.

I then 'suggest' that they purchase some montage dvd's (I take the montage clip of the film and use 8cm dvds fully face printed) and sell them to the couple in larger qty'ies to give to friends/guests.

(for example, 10 for £79, 25 for £150)

Easy to make and quite a good seller.....

[Greg Quinn]

thanks for everyone's comments - I've modified the packages and prices based on your feedback.
Thanks again
Greg