Ouch....

[SusanH1970]

I was reading the local paper and there was a huge article about how my biggest competitor is doing a charity photoshoot - she's charging $30 for a 15 minute session and giving a free 8x10 to people that sign up, and all proceeds are being donated to a local charity. Of course, the article mentions that people can buy additional prints from her....

Methinks I need to do something like this...

[teedlepeep]

Interesting ... a friend and I are doing "glam" shots for just about the same price with the 8 x 10 included.

I think you should do something. Cash is always good

[SusanH1970]

I was thinking about contacting my son's school principal and doing something like my competitor is, and donate the proceeds to whatever the school needs most.

Oh, and make sure the school contacts the newspaper, too!

[LoveDSLR]

Have you read Jay Conrad Levinson's 1984 book 'Guerrilla Marketing'? Highly recommended!

[Trader]

I once knew someone who did something similiar to that. They claimed the same thing. Next thing I find out is that they actually made and kept like ten bucks per shot. So doing four an hour is fourty bucks. Do that for ten hours and you just made four hundred dollars and got a whole lot of publicity and good will in return. That isn't even counting any of the additional prints that are purchased.

[private]

That's my pixie party idea....I did $20, 20 minutes, free 5x7... I made a lot of contacts and money...cuz people always bought more. Its the Picture People mentality.

I also did a Spring shoot with my sons preschool. $15 for each photo session booked and you got a 5x7 (multiple sessions were booked (siblings and all). and now I have the contract for the fall photos...

[Grumby]

'Guerrilla Marketing'? What like Nike and the Atlanta Olympics, or Nike and the Beijing Olympics, or Nike and..? LOL

So, just set yourself up a stand just outside the venue where your competitor is doing the 'charity' shoot - hijack their clients, and take bookings for your own charity event Buy up all the billboard spaces and advertising on the sides of buses that run close to the venue too - oh, and perhaps change your business name to Nike Photographic

All's fair in love and marketing... as long as you can sleep nights, and don't mind some healthy retaliation coming your way? Nike can afford some pretty hefty legal advice - can you?

OK - So I'm taking it to the extreme with my tongue firmly in my cheek... (If anyone here works for Nike - I'M JOKING, right?)
I think something a little less contentious may be in order, but I'm no marketing expert, so I don't have an answer I'm afraid.

Grumby

[SusanH1970]

Thanks for everyone's responses. My husband and I were talking about this last night and I came up with an idea...my daughter is going to start attending the preschool that my son went to in the Fall. The preschool is part of our church, which happens to be the largest and most-attended in the town. Since they already know me there (and I've already done some non-photography related charity stuff for them), I've decided that when I enroll her, I'm going to ask if I can do something similar for them, and have the proceeds go to the preschool. It may not make the paper, but it'll make the church bulletin, which is probably read by more people than the local paper, anyway!

[Jim Bryant]

Good idea!

[cdgaskin]

never under estimate the church bullitins and parish magazines, my father advertises his business in the parish mags and the yellow pages and 80% of his revinue comes from the parish mags (its alot cheaper too).