By: Bradford Rowley

Recently, I have noticed a trend in many circles regarding the need for businesses to create a brand that weaves a story in all their communications that makes the client a hero of the story.

As the theory goes, the client becomes the hero of your brand. To do that, you start by figuring out the client’s pain points and so on, and then fulfill their needs and problems in a very cohesive story that neatly ties into what your brand is all about. That’s the current popular conventional wisdom, and it seems that everyone is trying to do this, including photography studios.

Many portrait studios make the client the hero by offering an array of choices and customizations, such as wall groupings, albums, folio boxes, and so on, to meet the client’s personal needs. To do this, pre-portrait consultations and planning sessions that include going to the client’s home before the portrait are often encouraged. Of course, the problem of following what everyone else does is that you get the results of everyone else, which in the photography industry isn’t always pretty. To truly succeed at the highest levels, however, you must turn this theory on its head; and instead of making your client the hero, you and your studio must be the hero . . .

But wait a minute . . . Shouldn’t the client always be the hero? Why should your business be the hero and not the client? Isn’t that why we are in business, to make a product that is all about the client? Answer—yes and no. Let me explain…

While I think that making the customer the hero and catering to their needs works great in most businesses, it does not work the same if you are creating a power luxury brand. This is where I go contrary and believe that your company, not the customer, needs to be the hero.

With the brand Chanel®, is the customer or the brand the hero? With the luxury car Ferrari®, is the customer or the brand the hero? I would argue that in both these cases, as well as in most high-end luxury brands, the brand is the hero. The customer becomes the hero by latching on to the heroism and pedigree of the brand.

When I bought my Mercedes-Benz® and my former Maserati®, the main story in the brochures was not about me, the customer, or how the car could fulfill my needs. Instead, the story was about the rich pedigree of the brand. It was full of vanity and history. The significance came from attaching oneself to the brand, not the brand fulfilling my needs, although it does fulfill a need . . .

A Timex® tells time, but a Rolex® is a status symbol of success. The first one will tell a story to fulfill my need for telling time; the latter is all about the brand and subtly invites me to fulfill my need for showing myself and others that I am successful by attaching myself to the brand if I am fortunate enough to do so. The first brand fulfills the need of the customer and makes the customer the hero. The second brand makes the brand the hero and lets me become the hero by association and ownership.

Three Ways to Make Your Studio the Hero

1. Become the celebrity photographer in your community. If you go to our home page, you will instantly see a long list of high-profile clients. Having high-end, well-known clients helps your brand have a hero status that makes others want to go to your studio by reason of association. A member of my Platinum Coaching Group has a long list of prominent clients, including Wolfgang Puck, Sir Elton John, Dr. Phil, Christina Aguilera, Fergie, Vanessa Williams, and so on, which makes others want to associate themselves with him, too.

But then how do you get people in high social circles as clients so you can develop a pedigree of famous clients? Although all my clients came to me, one strategy that you could use is to seek out the most prominent people in your community and offer a free portrait of significant size in exchange for a testimonial.

2. Show portraits in their most exquisite/expensive state. It’s almost impossible to attain hero status by trying to be all things to all people and showing less than your absolute best. Instead, take a stand and be the best at one thing. For us, that’s wall portraits. And we only showcase our portraits in the grandest way possible—life-size, exquisitely framed, and properly lit. When people come in, there is a certain awe factor. There is a feeling that we aren’t the average studio. This causes clients to listen to us and follow our advice much more. We become the hero in their eyes.

3. Let clients see you as the expert. Too many photographers today are desperately trying to please their clients by doing whatever their clients want instead of coming off as the expert. That’s why most photographers do pre-portrait consultations, and I don’t. Instead, we give a detailed dress code and instructions on how to best prepare for our client’s portrait. Ask yourself, if you went to a celebrity stylist that charged, say $900, for a haircut, would you give him all kinds of detailed instructions on how to do your hair? Or would you acquiesce that he is the expert, and you would let him do what he sees as his vision for you? For your company to obtain hero status, you must come off the same way.

One more example of the above principle is this: I recently bought an artist’s proof painting for our home from Wyland. An artist’s proof means that the artist will enhance the art piece with some unique painting so that each piece is different. Before making the purchase, I asked the salesperson exactly how unique of a painting would Wyland be doing on my piece. The salesperson simply responded, “That is entirely up to the artist and what he feels is right when he does it.” And I perfectly accepted that answer. Of course, he is the expert! He is the hero artist. Yet most studios do the opposite by turning over all control to the client by taking endless notes of artistry and so on. Yes, you want to please the client, but you must position yourself as the true expert whom your clients will completely trust because they see you as the hero in your field.

In summary, there are two schools of thought. Both eventually make the customer the hero, but in different ways.

Method 1 – Weave a story with your customer as the hero and their requirements being met by you as the central theme and a call to action based on solving their pain points.

Method 2 – Weave a story where the brand, not the customer, is the hero. The customer becomes the hero by attaching themselves to the exclusivity of the brand and entering their circle, where access seems almost restricted but somehow attainable. Instead of access through a call to action, it seems almost out of reach and, through the prestige of the brand, makes you want to reach for it, nonetheless, instead of the other way around, where the company tries to reach you to fulfill your needs.

When creating a luxury brand, it is the latter, not the former, that I feel will most give you success.

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Learn more about Bradford by visiting his website and by clicking on the following links:

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