EventDV.net: The Event Videographer's Resource

I always find it fascinating when a company appears out of nowhere and turns an industry on its head. Take Southwest Airlines, for example. From the day it hit the scene it began filling planes with low-fare passengers. It took the customers that the major airlines didn’t want. When Wal-Mart went after the customers no longer wanted by the higher-end department stores, it was able to sustain itself at a lower per-unit profit level. But can the wedding video industry support a low-priced business model? I believe it can.

Many established studios have tried to discount the "lowballer" as someone inexperienced—a new entrant to the market. On the forums seasoned videographers advise lowballers to raise their prices for the good of the industry: "We must first place a high value on our product before the client will perceive it that way." They’re quick to say you can’t sustain a wedding video business at sub-$1,000 price levels. They’re doing what good businesses do: catering to the most profitable customer with the highest-quality product. Their clients see the true value in wedding video and are willing to pay for it. The industry is constantly searching for ways to educate more couples to value wedding video in this way. But is this the only valid approach?

In his book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen introduced a theory he calls "Disruptive Innovation." Christensen argues that there are two types of innovations: sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation. In our industry, sustaining innovation could describe the established studio that seeks to maximize profit by continually improving the existing product in line with the demands of its customers. Examples of this approach include same-day edits, glidecam moves, "New Doc" styles, Blu-ray delivery, and so on.

According to Christensen, "Disruptive innovations trade off pure performance in favor of simplicity, convenience, or affordability. Disrupters target customers who find existing solutions too expensive or too complicated. They offer ‘good enough’ solutions at a lower price." In our industry, the disruptive innovator is not the videographer who simply lowers his or her price just to get a booking; it’s someone who follows a carefully thought-out business model that recognizes a huge potential customer base at a given price level. The disruptive innovator creates a whole new market of customers that otherwise may not have contracted for wedding video.

Henry Ford was a disruptive innovator. He knew he could sell a lot of cars at a price point of $500—much less than what other manufacturers were charging at the time—and figured out how to do so profitably. He looked hard at the production processes and found a way to build mass-produced cars, all black, all exactly the same. But a new market of car buyers was born in the process.

Over the last couple of years I’ve learned of a few established studios, known for their cinematic product, that are attempting to create a separate company that caters to the customer who typically walks away due to price. Their approach is to document the wedding day as it unfolds with an in-camera edit requiring minimal editing. By and large, these companies don’t talk openly on forums or at conventions about their lower-end side businesses; perhaps they don’t want to be seen as "bottom feeders."

Should you consider the disruptive innovator business model? If you’re struggling to turn a profit with your current offering, the answer may be yes. Consider the most common complaints voiced by videographers:

I can’t command a higher price in my market.
I haven’t reached the quality levels of the top studios.
I can’t seem to reduce my monster edit backlog.
Couples love my work but say they can’t afford it.

All these complaints boil down to the same problem: The studio is catering to a market that does not value video to the extent it wants to price it. This studio could very well benefit by becoming a disruptive innovator, introducing a more bare-bones product at slightly less than $1,000. The shooters would do the in-camera edit with one camera and maybe even have a second for backup and audio capture. Their equipment would be prosumer level at best, maybe even used, and they would never use the latest gadgets such as steadicams, auxiliary lighting, etc. They could acquire solid footage by locking down with a decent tripod and minimize their editing by shooting economically for the edit. The model should evolve as the business grows to include "teams" of shooters/editors all doing the exact same thing—adding multiple weddings each week. While they must stick to the business model and say "no" to additional services—refusing to offer more value than their price justifies—they also must stay tuned to what the market is demanding.

For many of us, the disruptive innovator model just goes against the grain. That’s understandable. But be aware that there are couples in your area that are hungry for simplicity, convenience, and affordability, and someone in your market—not a bottom feeder, but a canny marketer with solid production skills—is going to recognize the potential in the low-price range and find a way to profitably attack it. While you won’t necessarily go head-to-head with them, you shouldn’t ignore their presence either. They represent a credible marketing model that will ultimately affect the way you conduct your business.

Dan Lewis (dan_lewis at verizon.net) brings 25 years in sales management for Fortune 1000 companies to the field of event video. He is a former vice president of his local PVA.