Cutting spending in hard times? Do it with caution

By Reinier deSmit, The Brilliant Eye

Recession. Turndowns. Depression. Cutbacks. Gloom & Doom. Even with all these rather depressing words flying around the world these last few months, one thing has not changed: you still gotta look good to your clients and your product still has to look good to your clients. During an economic slowdown people tend to use it as an excuse to cut back on everything, and this is not always a wise business choice. Promotion is one area that many people tighten their belts around, and though it may seem counterintuitive, this is not usually a wise path to take for giving your business the best chance at surviving the Hard Times.

In the Great Depression of the early 30's there were two rival breakfast cereal companies, Kellog's and Post. At that point they were wrestling for the top of the crunchy sugary-coated victory pile. As the economic situation turned extremely dour Post pulled back on its advertising almost completely, whereas Kellog's continued to put forth their advertising as best they could and kept the public awareness in their company alive. Apparently they didn't sell more cereal during the hard years, but once the economy turned around they rocketed into the winner's seat and Post Cereals never did catch up, even closely, to their previous competitive position.

This is not about ignoring one's fiscal challenges, nor is it about "whistling as you walk by the graveyard"... but it has been proven many times over that if you grip your finances too tightly, pretty soon you'll be gripping air.

So what about photography and company imaging challenges whilst the wolves are howling somewhere nearby? Well, we photographers and digital designers are in the same boat with most everyone else (if you look at the lifesavers hung up on the wall you may note the name on them is "Titanic" - not such a good sign!). How can our clients utilize the talents of a professional photographer or image maker in a way that really supports a tighter budget? How can we "Creatives" help our clients get good value from us on a tighter budget that includes our own finances?

Good questions, for sure. There are no easy answers, but many of us will be finding them in our own ways over the next couple of years.

One thing I've noticed is that this does not seem like a time for being all Hoity Toity and Fancy Schmancy. The time of the Big Shot seems to be (thankfully) over. It is not a time of Big Catered Snacks at photoshoots, or doing 23 revisions of a layout just "to see what it would look like". I've noticed both my clients, and I, want to cut to the chase: Measure the wood twice and then cut it once. Now is not the time to play around with "obscure possibilities" for the sake of playing around - wasting time, energy and therefore budget. Rather, it is a time to get clear quickly on what you want to communicate to a market and then find the most straightforward way to do it. And yes, if you want to get something across fast, a photograph is still worth a thousand words - even with deflation worked into the equation!

Working in the Photography & Digital Image Creation business is great right now for people like myself. Folks don't really want a lot of fluff and feathers when attempting to make purchasing decisions. They want clear leadership and clear vision. "Don't confuse me with crazy packages and wild artsy dreamscapes that I have to guess what you are selling." If they want the distraction of entertainment, they will go to a see a movie!

This desire for business clarity excites me, as even though I'm a master at making a photo look totally different than reality, I also love the clarity of a simple, well thought out photograph. A simple single light on an entrepreneur sitting at her desk, soft smiling, direct at the camera. Or the clean edge of a car's headlight pulling my eye inward, while the fender line softly fades out into the darkness behind. No tricks. Just what you see through a single lens at a single moment in time. When done right, a simple photo can put across ideas that would otherwise take pages of words to do the same thing. That just hasn't changed.

So - thinking about cutting corners for your next annual report, or your next product brochure? Maybe doing some "group shots" of your product for your next catalogue? Maybe getting Nephew Russell to come by with his Pentax point--n-shoot and get a shot of you at your office desk under those lovely florescent lights? You might want to think again about how getting your best visual foot forward has never been more important.

Cheers!

Reinier
Brilliant Eye

Reinier deSmit operates The Brilliant Eye. Reach him at reinier@brilliantEYE.ca or at (604) 988-2924.