Studio Profile
Studio of the Month
Viral Marketing. Accessibility. Vendor Relations. These three elements have proved to be vitally important to the success and popularity of Timothy Whaley and Associates according to blushing brides, proud employees and industry vendors.
Timothy Whaley and Associates are professional photographers who specialize in Wedding Photography in the Chicago and Lisle, Illinois areas. For owner Timothy Whaley, wedding photography is both a fine art and a chance to tell a beautiful, one-of-a-kind story. Both artists and photojournalists, his photographers on staff use a combination of contemporary portraits and photojournalism to tell a couple’s story as it unfolds, portraying personalities and capturing emotions that will make their wedding unique and special.
According to their Marketing Director Chris Mader, “97%” of their brides come through referrals. “It’s all referral based, which makes marketing pretty simple for us. Our customers do it for us.” They also do some advertising in Wedding Magazines and attend Wedding Expos, which does gardener new clients. They’ve also received additional publicity and recognition on WGN, TLC’s A Wedding Story, and a Dateline NBC Special. The studio has also been featured in Redbook, Woman’s Day, the Daily Herald, the Wedding Guide and Chicago Wedding Pages. And, they had a feature segment on Lifetime TV’s national series “Get Married” as the photography expert!
Despite the state of the economy, Timothy Whaley and Associates is growing and doing wonderfully. They’re even looking into new opportunities that would enable them to reach new markets in the southern suburbs of Chicago. “Tim is very smart and cautious. Our 1st priority is to stay in business. We don’t want to over extend but, we’d like to become even more accessible then we are now,” said Chris.
The studio hasn’t been with Simply Canvas very long, but was one of our highest volume customers of 2008. “We greatly enjoy your product. We’re always running canvas sales and promotions,” said Chris. She went on to explain that Canvas prints are displayed throughout their studio, so prospective and current clients can’t miss them. “We display large prints, 40x60’s I believe. We even place them in our customer service rooms. We want our customers to take quality back to their homes, exactly what your product defines.”
Not only do they offer canvas prints to their clients, they also give them to local vendors they’ve worked with on different occasions, for example… reception sites, country clubs, florists, and cake decorators. Chris explained, “We give them gallery-wrapped canvas prints of their services. So, if they are a florist, we’ll put one of our images of a bride’s bouquet on canvas and give to them to display in their shop. It promotes their artistry as well as ours…and of course a canvas print at the same time!”
Despite the large quantity of photographers Timothy Whaley and Associates employs, they still are able to provide personalization to each customer, who return the favor by leaving TWA without an empty consultation room. Their clients enjoy the accessibility of their services and the canvas products they continue to offer, making quality one of their best selling points. And, they’ve established themselves as one of the most respectable businesses in the Greater Chicago area according to industry vendors.