Bella Pictures at work
Update 6-12-11: This item about Bella Pictures was first posted over five months ago. In the last week or so, it has received a significant number of page views. From WordPress statistics, it shows me that many people are currently searching for information about Bella Pictures. I don’t know why (I haven’t tried to figure it out), but I know people are searching.
It confirms a few things for me:
- Older content still has value to people who did not read it, when it first published.
- WordPress-based websites and blogs are loved by search engines.
- People who find your site for one reason, often explore other content.
- Great content, to a large degree, can be timeless.
Readers of The Wedding Marketing Blog know that I’ve been no fan of Bella Pictures and its business model. Research of customer satisfaction via wedding message boards and services such as Yelp! proves that customer satisfaction with Bella Pictures is an inverted bell curve. Lots of lows and highs. Not much in the middle.
In reading customer evaluations, one must realize that any praise and dissatisfaction are pointed in several directions. The sales process, the company sales representative, the photographer, and the finished product. Sometimes, the comments name specific people. Mostly, the comments (good or bad) reference the company, Bella Pictures.
For those unaware of Bella Pictures, their business model is this: Bella Pictures is, essentially, a polished internet marketing store front that services as a sales service to the bride, and booking agent to independent photographers. Assignments are bid out to photographers as the wedding day approaches. Reality is that the bride may get a highly skilled photographer or a rookie. Hence, the wild swing in customer satisfaction.
This blog has railed against Bella’s misrepresentations in the media (TV) and on their website (awards), and fuzzy math… among others. The latter, continues to misrepresent, as of this posting.
About the sale:
You may hear that Bella Pictures was purchased by Wal-Mart and Sears. That representation is not quite accurate. In fact, the assets of Bella Pictures were sold to CPI, a photography service in Wal-Mart and Sears stores. CPI offers boilerplate portrait photography at Wal-Mart and Sears at over 3000 locations.
Here is the official statement:
We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Bella Pictures assets by a subsidiary of CPI Corp, the nation’s leading provider of studio and portrait photography with over 3,000 studios across North America. CPI is excited to work with the photography and video communities to grow the superb base of talent established by Bella Pictures.
The digital capabilities and infrastructure of CPI combined with Bella’s talented network of photographers and filmmakers will help us achieve our shared mission of providing high quality, high value photography and video services to thousands of additional couples in a vastly expanded number of markets across the country.
What does this mean for you?
· Future growth of the business leading to more assignments
· Planning and assignment of the 2011 season will continue without disruption through the Assignment Desk
· There will be no disruption in the pay cycle
We look forward to sharing more details about the future opportunity that this acquisition will provide, and to growing the Bella business with you.
News Analysis and Opinion:
Bella Picture’s Assets: What does that mean, exactly? High-tech equipment, the business name and reputation, existing marketing, company procedures, past client list, existing photography contracts, roster of freelance photographers?????
First off, existing photography contracts are not an asset; they are a liability.
My sense is that CPI sees value in the marketing and outreach of Bella Pictures. CPI appears, currently, to offer on-premise portraiture. The acquisition would appear to be an attempt to widen their scope to off-premise photography at weddings and perhaps other events.
Ruthless Opinion:
What this means for the bride, other photographers, and the wedding industry
From my personal experience, working as a DJ Entertainer at close to 1000 weddings, I assert that there is no other bride-vendor relationship that requires more positive personal chemistry than the bride-photographer. I’m certain that a polling day-of wedding professionals would mostly suggest the same conclusion.
From that premise, the business model of having a photographer, assigned to the bride and groom, without a face-to-face meeting, was/is a flawed proposition. If CPI, for whatever reason, believes they can leverage this clunky model via Wal-Mart and Sears, they are employing wishful thinking.
This is not a shot at ALL big businesses. I’m a huge fan of some big businesses and a detractor of others. However, some business-customer relationships work better when the service is supplied by a small business. We would like to believe that all our sales become relationships, but most wedding sales are transactional, one-time propositions. A photographer, more than most, should have a connection, and chemistry, with the client, that is more than transactional.
For photographers: (Andy’s snarky response to the bride) “You’re thinking of having your photography service from Wal-Mart? Are you looking to them for their reputation of fabulous personal service? I’m sure they’ll be worth every nickel.”
For Bella Pictures business partners: Shame on Marriott, Renaissance Hotels, Maggiano’s Little Italy, and Kimpton Hotels for being ‘partnered’ with Bella Pictures. These are, otherwise, excellent companies that have, in my view, put a financial relationship with Bella Pictures above the best interests of the bride. It occurs to me that these companies may think twice about being partnered with CPI, a photography service, based in Sears and Wal-Mart.
Final Analysis:
I think this acquisition may find some audience; however, in the main, I predict it will be a dismal failure.
When it comes to the documentation of a wedding, there is no greater asset than the vision and artistry of a great wedding photographer.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
Hi Andy,
Good for you for skewering, and twisting the knife, in a company whose mission is to treat as a generic commodity what ought to be a one-to-one personal relationship. I agree, the bride and groom are best served when they share a clear, detailed understanding of their wedding dreams with the main people who make those dreams come true.
Yes, when it comes to documenting the wedding, often that could be their photographer, but she (or he) isn’t working alone. How about their wedding coordinator, DJ or band, videographer, caterer, florist, etc? We’re ALL important, to varying degrees in each wedding, and all of us do our best when we take the time to establish a close relationship with the bride and groom. Agreed?
Agreed? Almost
All important to the success of the reception; however, the chemistry between bride (wedding party) and photographer exceeds all others, in my opinion.
From my observations as retired DJ entertainer, I put that relationship above that of the DJ-Bride or DJ-Band Leader. If those people carry out their work, professionally, and with a style, according to the desires of the bride and groom, they will be successful, and the client will be happy. Actual ‘personal interaction’ with the bride and groom is minor, compared to a photographer. And THAT is my point, here.
As to wedding professionals, such as a florist, decorator or baker, their staff is not present during a reception, so ‘personality compatibility’ is not so much the issue.
A videographer functions more ‘in the background’, documenting what is occurring. Their chemistry is more with the photography, and to a lesser extent the Emcee.
The caterer (off or on-premise), when it comes to the reception, succeeds primarily on the execution of their staff, and coordination with the other day-of professionals. As you know, at larger properties, the person-in-charge is often not the sales catering manager, but the banquet manager. The bride and groom may even be meeting them for the first time at their reception.
So, yes, those are the varying degrees you/I are referring to.
My point is this: Bride-Vendor relationships have different dynamics. However, from my experience, none is more critical to reach a successful result (both of the wedding reception and the finished product) than the bride-photographer relationship.
Andy
I’ve seen you speak at Wedding MBA, ADJA, NACE, and Mobile Beat. Sometimes I agree with you, Andy, and sometimes I disagree with you. In this case, I do think Robbie has a point. It’s a grey area, though.
When I started as a wedding “dj” in 1995 I would have said that, hands down, the Photographer-Bride relationship is most important. After all, that’s who is capturing the day. Even ten or just five years ago I would agree. But today’s “Master of Ceremonies” style “Entertainer” DJ has a different relationship.
Anyone that has take workshops from the industry leaders (entertainment that is) would probably agree. Many might have the ego that the relationship between the MC and the Bride is more important because we encourage/dictate the events and flow. The professional Master of Ceremonies is there to represent the bride and groom — and we do it with a loaded [live] microphone — shouldn’t that relationship be strong? We decide if the tone and timbre should be happy, sappy, humour or otherwise. After all, these moments are what the photographer capture.
If nothing else, I’d suggest the Bride-MC-Photographer is more of a love-triangle relationship.
This is why most high-end vendors prefer to refer other high-end vendors. You only look as good as the weakest link.
Robbie has a point. You have a point.
It’s not really the focus of the post.
Andy
If it is the “Final Analysis” of the post, I beg to differ.
I might be mistaken but I think what Andy is alluding to is that there is an intimacy a bride will share with her photographer (and possibly her videographer too) that is different than the way she interacts with any other professional she has hired. (A similar intimacy is perhaps shared with her hair stylist and make up artist because they are physically touching her face and hair and, like the photographer, what they do for her can ultimately make or break the way she appears in her photos. It’s a particular kind of trust that is given to the people whose job it is to make a bride look her best.)
The success of the wedding photographs rests partly on the talent and professionalism of the photographer but also on the chemistry between the photographer and bride and groom because they must trust their photographer enough to feel at ease in front of the lens so that they are able to shine in their photos. And the photos, their wedding portrait(s) are the one lasting reminder that is captured forever and hung on their wall or framed and placed in a place of honor within their home as a daily reminder of their wedding. If there is any negativity at all from the bride or groom towards their photographer this will result in pictures that, no matter how skillfully they were taken, will be less than they could have been because it will show visually, on some level, that they were unhappy, mad, resentful or distracted by their photographer, rather than happy, excited, comfortable and/or relaxed.
As for the acquisition of Bella Pictures by CPI, in every instance (not just the wedding industry) I think it is always unfortunate when a professional standard is not consistently adhered to and other reputable companies give credibility to such a venture by partnering with or recommending them. In this case, perhaps under CPI there will be a consistent standard that is met. That would be good. But imo photography comes in two forms, as a commodity and as an art with one or the other usually taking precedence.
When it comes to customer service and professionalism there is also a wide range that often begins with “I’ve got your money so it doesn’t matter how well I do my job” to “good enough” in the middle, and on the other end with absolute priority given to the complete happiness and satisfaction of the client.
I think most of us who work in the industry would agree with many of Andy’s concerns because we realize the differences. The question is: Will first time brides who have never had the need to hire and work with a wedding photographer before realize them as well? For some, I’m sure they will be perfectly happy with the product they receive back from CPI.
But what we all hate to see is a bride who realizes too late that they didn’t understand the distinctions and unknowingly hired a company whose approach didn’t mesh with the experience and end result they were seeking.
Stacie
You said it, beautifully.
Thank you for a thoughtful explanation.
Andy
My pleasure Andy. Glad you feel my opinion is helpful.
After being a bride and working closely with brides for a decade (creating their custom bridal accessories) I’ve pretty much heard it all directly from them
I liked Stacie’s analysis as much as the Andy’s article (actually a little more as she seems more objective). Robbie’s is right about how brides think they are buying a commodity instead of a personal service (he’s just too vengeful).
Carlos,
Thanks for your comment…
Check in more often!
Andy