Hitting the Sweet Spot

Sorry for not posting. I really did mean to post more often since I found the urge a few weeks ago (man, has it been that long?!). To give you an idea of how busy I've been and how tired I've become.....we went to watch the Wallace and Gromit movie yesterday and about 2/3 of the way through I actually dozed off! During a Wallace & Gromit film! Since I've loved every short film of their's, it's a real surprise to find myself so tired that I can't stay awake. In any case, it's a good movie, you should go see it. I'm also going to try and stay awake :)

So anyways, to the topic at hand...

I mentioned the photography business in an earlier post and one of the things we wanted to do is target the Indian market with something unique and (we hope) much needed. We have a photo-journalist type of approach to our work and we think it shows in our samples. We've received comment to that effect from friends, clients, and some others who've seen our work in detail.

However, yesterday was the first day that we got tons of comments from person after person. We attended a bridal fair yesterday targeting the Indian market and we seemed to be one of the few vendors meshing two worlds and hitting that sweet spot.

What's the sweet spot you ask? Well, in this case, it's something which is really unique and high quality for the people you're interested in. The photojournalist approach which we have is actually not at all unique in the world of wedding photography, but it's very new to the Indian community (at least on the West Coast). We've had that feeling all along, but that was really validated yesterday by many former brides and even more brides-to-be.

So for us, it's nice to know that we've got many potential customers who've seen our work and want to talk to us. More importantly, for them, they've now got a resource where they can have the style of photography which can make their events all the more special. And just important is that they can get that style without having to explain every last detail about Indian ceremonies and traditions. Many of the prospective brides mentioned that they it would be wonderful if they didn't have to worry whether their photographer knew about the important moments during their wedding ceremonies or worry about explaining how a garba works, etc. Granted, most good photographers can figure such things out pretty quickly, but sometimes, in the time it takes to figure things out, the special moments have already passed.

So for us, I feel like we're hitting a sweet spot where our clients really want what we have to offer not just from a quality perspective, but from an overall experience perspective.

That being said, what I was even happier to see yesterday was that there were other vendors at this fair who seemed to be taking the same approach as we are. I'll call out one vendor specifically: a wedding coordinator. Now the idea of a wedding coordinator is obviously nothing new, but it's an idea which is still catching on amongst Indians on the West Coast. We talked to this woman who was just getting started in her business targetting the Indian market along with her sister. In speaking to her, I really realized how the trend in Indian marketing is shifting focus onto a new generation of clientele. Makes sense since there's a huge number of 2nd generation Desis coming of age now.

I feel like we're on the leading edge of this trend here in the Bay Area Indian community. And that's the sweet spot. If we changed our location to New York, we'd be middle of the pack since the trend has been moving in that direction for years. If we changed our market to the general wedding community, we'd again, be middlers since wedding photojournalists have been around few years and years.

But we're focusing on the Indian market in California. And we'll stick to this market until we own it...then we'll move onto the rest of the world :)