The Boudoir Divas were kind enough to put us up in the amazing Hard Rock Hotel, San Diego. It is the swankest hotel Shaun and I have had the chance to be in. Just check out these snaps!

Thanks, girls, you’re awesome. See you tomorrow!

Eric Koch blogged about his blissfully soft, supple, red… KISS book!

I got my KISS wedding album in today and I love it. It is everything I was hoping it would be and more. The leather cover is blissfully soft, supple and a beautiful deep red. The pages are just the right thickness and printed perfectly. The 12

The rockin’ Jason Aten blogged about his love for KISS!

Today, I received my first sample book from KISS. What is KISS? SImply the most wonderful, simple, elegant, beautiful flush mount leather wedding books. I’m so excited that I can now offer both these books along side the other album option. Check out the pictures. The leather on this thing is unreal – you have to feel it!

Zach Hodges has blogged and added some rockin’ images of his recent KISS book!

The Russler’s wedding book recently came in, and it seriously came out way better than I could have imagined. We tried out a new company called KISS Wedding books, which is for sure our last stop in the wedding book hunt, at least for a long time. The whole thing just exudes quality that is unbelievable, surprised even me. Italian hand made leather, thick, rich pages, perfect binding, just amazing. If you’re one of our future or prospective brides or grooms and you want to add one of these to your package, it’s not too late! (Not for free of course)

First off, it comes in this rad cover thing.

“The colors they can reproduce perfectly match my 23″ Apple Cinema Display, which is more than I can say for Apple’s own books, which look flat and weak in comparison. The images reach their max potential in these books. You do get what you pay for!”

Chris Harvey, of erinchris photography, in fantastic Florida, has given us a grueling review. Here’s his comments from a post on OSP: (photos at the end)

Zach sent us an email after receiving his KISS book. Check it out!

Sorry for the delayed response, but I just wanted to say… the book is AMAZING! The client freaked out and so did everyone else that saw it. It’s already getting me more work I think. Believe it or not, you guys are the first book company I’ve tried besides the cheesy order books on Apple Aperture. First time’s the charm on this one! Thanks so much.

-Zach

We look forward to bringing you more freak-outs from your clients… or like you said, anyone who checks out your KISS books You rock, Zach!

Thanks for KISSing!
Rachel : The Helpful Hottie

(from a discussion on OSP about positioning your company to stand out from other photographers…)

Before responding, I should clarify something. If you’re trying to raise your ranking on Google, going for more ubiquitous words (in the code of your website) makes sense, but if you’re trying to establish your brand, using words/phrases (in your marketing and promotional materials) that other people _aren’t_ using makes sense. So here’s a glimpse into my silly marketing mind.

It’s easiest to look at KISS, since I’ve spent more time developing it as a brand than my photography business.

KISS ||| COMPETITORS
—————————

Simplicity/Ease ||| Products/Processes
No Options ||| All options
No forms to order ||| PDFs, faxes, forms to order
10-day turnaround ||| 4-6 week turn around (average)

While KISS is selling simplicity, our competitors are selling products. So, when you see them at the next convention, they’ll all get excited about the “new line” and the “new book” and the “newest paper” and the “new cover” and the “latest options.” They have to, because if you build your business around products, you have to keep making new ones. When you see KISS at the next convention, we’ll have exactly the same, single product we have now. If we feature anything new, it will be an even more streamlined ordering process, or something that is simpler than as it exists today. That’s why KISS has succeeded so rapidly–we’re not competing on the same hill as everyone else. If someone were to try to compete with us on simplicity, they’d have a hard time wrestling that word from the consumer’s mind–because we have quickly gobbled that space up. It’s easy to do when there’s no one there; much harder (and very expensive) to do after someone has done it. As long as the first person into a space doesn’t completely mess up, they usually end up with a good percentage of the market-share.

By not being all things to all people, we stand out and are a perfect fit for some people. Consider how to do that in your photography business. We’re all selling photography. So, how do you stand out? You have to decide what you WON’T shoot if you want to become a specialist–and specialists beat generalists (with few exceptions). Like KISS, we won’t do many many many things, and in saying “no,” we’ve excited a part of the market that desperately wants a simpler system. What do you say “no” to? Does your website feature only wedding photography, or is it every kind of photography? Do you you have several “sites” from a launch page that go to different types of photography? If so, you’re a generalist (as far as you extend it by the styles you display).

Consider things like only shooting black and white (I personally believe there is a market for this and the right photographers could really pull this off and become successful very quickly). Maybe you specialize in a particular type of client (e.g., jewish weddings, young couples, destination only, etc.). Maybe you are the only photographer in your area who brings 5 photographers to an event (it’s cheap, really, and it could really impress the right market), etc.

You have to think about how to sell the same thing everyone else is selling and yet stand out. KISS sells flush-mount albums; there are literally hundreds of well-established, well-funded, national competitors doing the exact same thing, but we were able to succeed quickly and continue to grow because we camped out on a hill no one was on. By doing some hard thinking, some market research, and some risk-taking, you should be able to find a hill that is unoccupied in your own market.

I wish you the best of luck doing it!

kev