Double Dutch

On January 14th, 2008, a team a of scientists from the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University, published a paper called:

“Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness.”

It was the result of research I would have loved to be part of. The hypothesis was that the price of a wine affects the way a person experiences it in their pleasure circuits in the brain. It should answer the age-old question: does an expensive bottle of Bordeaux taste better because of the price tag?

The theory was put to the test using functional MRI scans of people while they tasted wine samples they thought were from different wines at different prices, when in reality they were the same. What a mean thing to do! Lead author Antonio Rangel, associate professor of economics at the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences at Caltech, said he was “shocked” when he saw the results.

What determines the price of wine? Here are a few factors:

• Profit the wine maker & distributor & seller wish to make
• Resources used
• Expenses such as production cost, labor, transportation, promotion, overhead, taxes
• Skill level of the wine maker
• Uniqueness and positioning of the product
• Market demand and market value
• Experience: the older the wine, the more expensive

SHAKESPEARE
Since this is a blog about the art of voice-overs and not about vinification, here’s my question: “Shall I compare thee to a Chardonnay?” Well… that’s a rather risky idea and I’ll tell you why: a nice bottle of Chardonnay is probably richer and more expensive!

Let me give you a taste from the bottom of the barrel:

Craigslist: “You have an awesome British accent that Americans go crazy for. I want to have an awesome British accent as the voice of the message on my voice mail. It’s really simple and shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes (at most!). Compensation: $20.”

Virtual Vocations: “Voice talent – 60 second recording. You need to be British or sound British. You need to be able to record this at your home with your computer. P.S. I’ll happily pay you for this. I was thinking $5 to $15 by PayPal, since it’s pretty simple.”

Odesk: “Voice over is for a 20 page presentation naration. If your bilingual that will be the best if you able to do only on just mark it in your letter and make you price in concideration. $50 fixed”

LOW AND BEHOLD
Mind you: I did not make these examples up (I use my spelling chekker… well, most times). Is it just me, or is there a serious disconnect between what you and I need to earn to make a decent living, and what these voice-seekers are prepared to pay? Of course you can always argue that these examples are extreme. But are they, really? Here’s my challenge:

Sign up for Odesk; go on Craigslist, VirtualVocations and similar sites, and report back to me in a few weeks. And please, don’t limit your search to voice-over jobs. Ask your friends in IT, copy writing, translation and graphic design to join you in your quest for fair compensation. You might be as surprised as Antonio Rangel. We’re not talking about incidents. We are dealing with a serious trend.

But if you want another example, here it is: the project I mentioned in my last blog, the 304-page book by a former Goldman Sachs partner. The client was offering between $500 and $750 for a recording that would take at least ten hours, if not more. Not one single reader of this blog got back to me and said: “Wow, that’s a phenomenal payday!” Nevertheless, how likely do you think it is that this producer found his narrator for even less? Four letters sum it all up: V E R Y.

GAME TIME
Did the rules of  the game change, and nobody bothered to tell us? Go back a few years. How did we put a price on our services in the past? Remember the days we actually had direct contact with the voice-seeker? A personal connection has always been a pivotal part of any business relationship. It’s the grease that makes things go smoothly. Doesn’t it all begin with building trust? How do you do that, if your client is purposely hiding his identity? It’s impossible to do your own background check to find out if this company is even legit. These days, you can’t even be sure your demo is nothing but a time-wasting test balloon for a campaign you’ll never be part of.  

But let’s continue our flashback. With the rapport going, we could start talking about the requirements of the job. We could ask simple questions such as: “What sort of a read do you need? Who’s the audience? What kind of person is the narrator?” It was an opportunity to go beyond the vague descriptions we’ve gotten accustomed to. Descriptions such as: “Male voice. North-American. Middle-aged. Non-Union.” How much help is that?

In the old scenario, we wouldn’t have to second-guess the word count, what market our commercial would play in and details about a possible buy-out… things that anyone needs to know before putting in a serious and realistic bid.

And finally, with all the blanks filled in, we could talk money. We could educate the voice-seeker about the going rates; the value we’re adding and why we’re worth it. We could discuss a reasonable time-frame for the project and counter objections about our fee, and do the back-and-forth that’s part and parcel of the sales process. It was give-and-take. Negotiate. Communicate. And now? Now, you and I just type a few numbers into the “Your Fee” box and send our hopes and dreams into cyberspace. Someone once said: “Change is inevitable. Progress isn’t.”

NOT ALONE
Social Media Consultant and freelance writer Deb Ng believes that independent contractors have dropped the ball when it comes to setting rates. Deb writes:

“Did you know many freelance writers won’t give a rate quote to a client and would rather the client set the rate? There are many reasons for this:

• The freelance writer doesn’t know what to charge

• The freelance writer is afraid of bidding too low

• The freelance writer is afraid of bidding too high

• The freelance writer is unsure of the “going rate”

• The freelancer lacks the confidence to request what he deserves”

and she continues:

“Do you know why so many web masters pay $1, $3 or $5 for an article? It’s because they can. They believe it to be a going rate. Since so many freelancers accept the client’s terms and price, the client is able to dictate the payment. If less writers accepted these rates, employers would be forced to pay more money. If you want to break out of the low paying rut, you have no choice but to set higher standards.

By letting someone else set your rate, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. Writers should have an idea of what to charge before embarking on a freelance career. If you enter into it with the mindset that you have to take what is offered, you’ll never be paid what your worth. Remember, you’re freelancing because you want to take charge of your career and your life. How can you do this without knowing how much to charge?”

IN VINO VERITAS
Antonio Rangel and his team discovered that people who were given two identical red wines to drink, said they got much more pleasure from the one they were told had cost more. Brain scans confirmed that their pleasure centers were activated far more by the higher-priced wine.  

One of my favorite BBC programs is “Dragon’s Den”, where “cash-hungry entrepreneurs pitch for investment from some of Britain’s top business brains.” A young business woman made an excellent presentation, and the multi-millionaire investors we visibly impressed with the product and her poise. However, she walked away empty handed.

What was her mistake? She had low balled the amount of money needed. Peter Jones, one of the investors, summed it up like this:

“What a shame. If you had asked for more, I would have taken you seriously.”

Paul Strikwerda © 2009

www.nethervoice.com

PPS Do you know how much you’d need to make to break even? Read the next installment for the Double Dutch recommended freelance rate calculator.