This is going to be one of those lazy blog posts where I suggest you go read someone else’s blog, but it is Sunday afternoon and Rebecca Grinnals at Weddex blog has a great post about what I think will become the new wedding zietgeist, or cultural climate, which values meaning above luxury.
Just an article from CNN on weddings from hell and how to survive them.
Some astounding disasters are described, but I liked best the closing paragraph’s argument for simplicity -
Future brides and grooms may also want to remember that the more bells and whistles they dream up for their wedding, the more chance there is for trouble, says Samantha Schoech. “Weddings have gotten bigger and grander these days and I think that leaves you open for more disasters,” she says. “If you want white doves to fly over you right as they’re saying ‘I now pronounce you husband and wife,’ you’re asking to get pooped on.”
Simplicity can be foundation for both elegance and economy. Perhaps Samantha Schoech has offered an Occam’s Razor ( “All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best.”) for weddings and receptions?
As professionals are we aiding brides-to-be in being able to consider that “less is more”?
If Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, walks into a crowded bar … everyone in the bar is instantly a multimillionaire. On average, that is.
Most of us are aware of the constantly quoted and increasing average wedding cost number. I wonder how many of us really understand what the number means, I didn’t. But in trying to develop a new branding strategy for our current economy I thought I should real
ly see what the average wedding was costing. To the left is a graph projecting per wedding spending over the next few years. The graph informs us that total projected per wedding spending for 2008 is $28,704. I think this is just simple mean average of total US wedding spending divided by the approximately 2.2 million weddings projected. But does the average wedding really cost anything close to $28,700? If you mean do half the wedding cost less and half cost more? No. In fact over 80% cost less!
To the left is another graph which divides the number of weddings into four spending ranges using the same data source. You can see that 50% of the weddings cost less than half the 28K+ “average”. And another 32% cost less than the average. Meaning that 4 out of 5 weddings will cost less than “average”. And only 18% of the weddings will spend more than the $28,704 average.
So why is this important? Because I was trying to find a way to position a wedding professional to appeal to brides with less money to spend than the “average” while retaining a desirable high quality and high value image. What I found is that the vast majority of brides have less money to spend than the average. They are already there! No wonder today’s bride seems difficult to communicate with. And when they do mention a budget they are almost timid. Much of our positioning and branding is overshooting about 80% of the market. I think we need to stop it.
Establishing an average so much higher than what the majority of brides have to spend is amplifying their fears, uncertainties and convincing them that their desires are unattainable. Are we helping to create some of the bridezillas? As an “industry” we have helped setup expectations that fewer than 20% of the brides can comfortably be part of. As wedding professionals we need knock that down. I think this issue is lowering our self esteem, and divorcing ourselves from reality and each other. Both brides and professionals. We need to show the typical bride she belongs, is valued and can expect high value, high quality service.
As a beginning, I suggest a way do this is to share with her what your typical client spends with you. Don’t quote your price, quote your client’s typical purchase. Don’t say what you think, share what your typical client thinks. Let your new prospect see you as a place where she can feel comfortable.
