On my way to a meeting the other day I passed through Vauxhall station in London and saw a sight which first made me think of a great idea for a marketing campaign but also of an old customer service video I watched years ago while working as a boil in a bag chef (I’m no Gordon Ramsey put it that way).
Firstly I should share the source of my inspiration. Towards the exit of Vauxhall station are a number of different convenience stands from coffee shops to news stands but there is also a stand selling fresh fruit. Nothing unusual about that as we’re all told to eat our five a day, unless you’re Japanese then it’s 17 a day!
What was unusual was the back wall display, it is covered with about 50 4×6 photos of the stand owner showcasing his fishing catches.
Yep, 50 pictures of the same man holding different size fish at a fruit a veg stall.
At first glance I thought it was quite bizarre, but then I thought it was quite brilliant. The owner of the stand obviously has a passion for fishing and a shop on a place where although there is a tremendous amount of footfall many people are passing through at the typical Londoner ‘head down’ fast pace.
But people stop when they see his display and conversations begin. As someone somewhere I’m sure once said, starting a conversation is the beginnings of a sale. (If I have just made that up then feel free to quote me).
How this technique can transfer to your photography business is up to you. If you have something that you are particularly passionate about other than photography then don’t be afraid to share it with the general public. You could be a photographer that loves to paint or perhaps you have a passion for in-line skating. Whatever it is, it can be the starting point for a conversation.
As for the video I watched, it was of the World Famous Pike Place fish market in San Francisco where the fish mongers provide what is almost a form of theatre. It basically involves a lot of shouting and throwing of fish but it is a perfect example of what we talked about in one of my previous articles Have a Thing.
I had the chance to visit the market a couple of years ago. Unsurprisingly it has become more of a tourist show than a fish market but business seemed to be going well. After all, if you want to see them throw a fish then someone has to buy one.
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Michael has been working as a photographer for the last ten years. In that time he has shot over 100,000 peoples’ portraits and worked in four different continents. In 2001 Michael graduated with a degree in photography from Manchester Metropolitan University.
I stumbled, so to speak, onto this site from your site on Twitter. Great piece of advise on marketing. I can really see how that could be a great benefit. On another note, and maybe this is a marketing technique as well (I will assume that it is), Pike Place Market is in Seattle not San Francisco. – Doug Smith