Q: I think many people are curious what steps you took to rebrand you company, specifically did you hire a graphic designer?
My background is in graphic design and visual arts so I was able to make my logo without outside help. Generally speaking, I think it’s a big mistake to rely on ourselves for all areas of our business – especially areas at which we are not trained experts. It’s a little more difficult for videographers to admit they can’t do graphic design or branding because many of us have built successful businesses without being “formally trained” in cinematography. So we think to ourselves, “hey, if I can make movies without a degree in making movies, why can’t I make my own business cards too?”
I think this thought process is a mistake. For example, I outsource the DVD printing and duplicating aspect of my business to an expert because not only is it something I don’t enjoy doing and is time-consuming for me, I know that an outside expert can do it more efficiently, faster, and better than I could do it internally.
If you’re not a designer, don’t try to design. Would you trust a video amateur of hobbyist to do good video?
Q: What tips can you give those thinking of rebranding?
A brand is more than a logo. It is an identity. Apple Inc has a company identity that goes beyond the iconic Apple-with-a-bite-taken-out-of-it. The company sells itself as a hip, modern, simple-yet-smart, company that makes products that are sleek and ubiquitous to modern life. (It also goes out of its way to create a discipleship of arrogant know-it-alls that irritate the hell out of everyone that isn’t one of them**.) Consider what message you want to convey when people see your logo or company name. Is it customer service? Is it, “cinematic experience”? Is it “Glidecams are awesome”? Or is it – as my friend, Bill Mitchell, once described his style – “meat and potatoes”? Whatever your message is, preach it.
{**This statement does not reflect the views of 3/4ths of The Collective, who believe that once you go Mac…. you don’t go back.}
Again: Hire a professional. Unless you are a trained professional – when it comes to logo and web design – hire a professional. You might know, conceptually, how the internal combustion engine in your car works, but don’t pretend to be a mechanic. If you pretend to be a mechanic when you haven’t been trained to be one, your car will suck. The same is true for your logo design and brand. Hot Tip: Don’t have the budget? Try bartering or working in trade!
Be scalable. While one can argue the benefits of being called “Mister Man Videography” (because there’s no confusion about what you do as a company) I think it’s better to be called “Mercedes Benz” than “Mercedes Benz Luxury Cars”. Your brand shouldn’t need a label. McDonald’s is “McDonald’s” without “hamburgers” or “fast-food” attached to the name. Additionally, when you don’t lock yourself down to a specific market (by denoting “videography” or “photography”) in your company name, it allows you to grow laterally without too much redefinition.
Andrew’s Cliff Claven Moment: Did you know Mitsubishi makes cars, rice cookers and fighter jets? Imagine trying to convince a sultan to buy a fleet of your fighter jets when your company is called “Mitsubishi Rice Cookers”.
Say Hello! to RF Alumni Andrew Hsu of Studio MSV. But don’t take my word for it, check out this 30 second video he created for RF Austin introducing his studio to the crowd.
Now let’s get real : With brides tightening their purse strings this year, many of us are really taking a hard look at our brand presence and finding creative ways to bring in more profits. Having personally watched Andrew’s brand image grow from average to extraordinary {Morning Star Videography = Studio MSV} I thought I’d ask this former video game artist how he was able to evolve and become one of the top studios in the San Francisco Bay Area… the answers may surprise you!
I’m proud to present the first feature on RF Alumni – Kenneth Stillman. An unlikely choice but he has some great things to share …(then you realize it’s not so unlikely)
I started watching the show Lost on ABC not too long ago. It’s a show about the survivors of a plane crash who end up on this mysterious island in the south Pacific Ocean. They eagerly await their rescue but soon find out that the pilot tried to turn around and in doing so took them thousands of miles off course, so the search parties are looking on the wrong place.
When asked to write for the ReFrame blog I thought that this scenario is a perfect metaphor for what I see happening with wedding videographers and their websites.
Kenneth Stillman has 109 weddings so far for 2009. Not bad for a studio which just started in 2005. If it were any other studio, raves and praises would abound, calling it nothing short of phenomenal.
But he’s Kenneth Stillman – so we don’t.
“I think the biggest reason why I don’t get a lot of respect from some videographers is because of the prices I charge. Some see this as undercutting their prices, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. The prospects that come to me tell me most of the time that they weren’t going to consider getting a video until they saw our work. I’m not taking away work from more expensive videographers. Couples who appreciate the art of video know that they get a better product with a more expensive videographer. Statistics show that 70% of couples don’t get a wedding video. Those are the couple that are coming to me. This is why I don’t see the wedding video market as competitive. There are plenty of weddings that could use a videographer, but we need to be able to produce a product that will fit into the budgets of the people who didn’t originally budget for it.”
Respect be damned, I still think we can still learn a thing or two from the man.
Search Engine Optimization is extremely important to my business. If you were to type into Google “philadelphia wedding video” my company would be #1. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and try it and click on my site. Thanks you just helped me get more traffic to my site which will help me stay #1. For decades the wedding industry has been a referral based business. You shoot a wedding and deliver the video a few months later. When the bride likes it she tells a few people and your company gets a little bigger each year. But now that everyone has a computer the phone book is obsolete, and there are always going to be couples who don’t have anybody to refer wedding vendors. I would say about 1/3 of all my clients tell me that they just found me online. Many more than that have to be turned away because we are already booked. And SEO doesn’t cost a lot of money. In fact it’s free if you make sure you hire a good web designer in the first place. Like the saying goes, “It’s not who you know, but who knows you.” And how will anybody know you if they can’t find you?
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