Your Brand Is Valuable. Do Your Photos Show it?
You see it every day. It has a strong impact on your life—how you buy, what you buy. But have you ever thought about how important photography is to your company or product brand? It’s part of brand development and brand strategy—sometime subtle, sometime bold—and all other things equal, it’s what gets your company attention over your competitors.
Take a lesson from auto companies, especially the high-end autos like BMW and Mercedes. Ever seen a bad photo of a BMW? Most of their advertising online and offline includes a simple, but beautiful, photograph or video of the car. Sure, BMW designs a beautiful car, but to get you to go to a showroom or even search online, the company needs to get your attention with a photo or video to move you to the consideration to buy. High-quality photography helps deliver the brand message.
Make-or-Break Branding
There are other instances where photography enhances the brand. An article in the Boston Globe describes how architectural firms use renderings that can make or break mega-developments. Boston developer, Don Chiofaro, used renderings to illustrate the two towers he plans to build along the Boston waterfront. In order to illustrate the placement of the buildings, he hired aerial photographer, Wayne Dion, to photograph the waterfront area from a helicopter.
Photography in Branding
Professional photography and video production provide highly effective visual messaging, building successful brand development, for all size and level of business. Small manufacturing companies, such as Larson Tool and Stamping in Attleboro, Massachusetts, use Wayne Dion’s photography to bring attention and interest to the company’s new website, and a corporate video to demonstrate the company’s re-branding initiative.
Do My Images Support My Brand?
When using photography to boost brand development for your products and services, ask yourself:
- Does it represent the quality of your product or service?
- Does it match your brand message that you express in written copy?
- Does the image catch your eye, regardless of subject matter?
- Does your video express the features and benefits of your product or service?
- Does your video have a convincing offer at the end (otherwise known as a call-to-action, or CTA) that makes the viewer contact you?
- Does it tell a story—your story—without a caption? (This may be the most important factor on this list!)
We live busy lives, are constantly bombarded with visual content (and options), and have shorter attention tolerances for it all. Your visual message, its impact and influence, can speak loudly to reinforce your brand—and does, if done well. The visual appeal and prospect allure of your brand is as essential to your brand’s success as is your brand’s promise. It is, after all, the symbol of what stands behind it. For other brand considerations and to explore how your company’s brand is performing, take our Brand Report Card.
