27 Aug Easier Said Than Done: Building a Brand Through Photos
I noticed something curious while I was online shopping last week. There are so many brands that look the same. They don’t just look a little similar either; they have practically identical website templates, color palettes, photo styles, and fonts. A company selling pots had the same branding as a company selling sunscreen. It was spooky and a little jarring. I toggled between tabs to see the same thing over and over again like a virtual Groundhog Day.
There could be any number of reasons why these lamps and lipsticks are marketed the same way. There may be limitations in the online platform these brands use. The website’s UX and design could be an e-commerce trend. Earthy colors and serif fonts may have tested well with each audience. These brands probably have an excellent reason behind their marketing that I’m not privy to. However, it makes me wonder something. If you want to create an easily recognizable brand, why aim to look like everyone else?
Think about Coca-Cola. This is one of the most universally recognizable brands. So much so that many off-brand colas incorporate a similar red and white color palette on their label. Coca-Cola’s ads are plastered all over the internet as examples of the industry standard. One of their ads didn’t even have a featured product; it was a red block with a curved logo. Their brand is so strong that you can picture the bottle in a sea of Coca-Cola red.
That’s the power of branding.
Your visual brand matters. It’s part of big-league storytelling that conveys your reputation, mission, and promise to your customers. Whether you’re selling a product or a service, branding helps your audience learn more about you and what they can expect from your company. How do you differentiate yourself to become an easily recognizable brand, especially with photography? You need a strategy, and it starts with a little research.
Competitive Research & Self-Audit
What does the competition look like? Make a list of your competitors and review everything you can find on them: website, social media, marketing materials, and any other relevant pieces that contain visual elements. Make a list of what their photos look like. Do they use custom or stock photography? What types of photos do they have? Is there a particular style you like or hate? Take note of the visual gaps in your industry. Add your favorite images to your swipe file or mood board. How can you use this information to stand out among your competitors and elevate your brand?
You need to do this with your own photography as well. Look at your website, social media, marketing materials, and anything else with an image. How are these photos serving you? Are you using custom or stock photography? Do these visual elements accurately and effectively tell your story? What does your audience think of the photos, and how do they use them to perceive your brand? You may consider surveying your team, coworkers, and clients to get a full picture. Once you have this data compiled, it’s time to revisit your messaging.
Your Audience & Message
Many companies have a clear mission, vision, and purpose statement. This is the heartbeat behind your business–the “why” of it all. You should use this to build your marketing story and guide your photography. You should also use your audience and their goals, pain points, etc. to help drive your imagery and create connections between your company and their needs. Some marketers like to use personas or profiles to hone in on a specific audience. This gives them someone to envision during planning sessions. You’ll need more than one persona when targeting multiple audiences (i.e. customers vs. employees).
The company mission, vision, and purpose statements paired with personas help build your marketing story, but you must have goals and methods to measure the return on investment (ROI). Are the photos part of a brand refresh, or are you starting from scratch? What does success look like to your team? Understanding this helps you develop your message and gives your visual branding purpose.
Build a Brand Kit
Most brands should have a style guide to maintain consistency and a cohesive look. This helps create a unique and easily recognizable brand. Begin by pulling the keywords from your story and figure out how that works visually. You can use those concepts to create guidelines and direct your photographer. Documenting this in a brand kit alleviates stress during photoshoots and keeps everyone focused on the same scope.
Your guide could be as rigid or as fluid as your team needs. Some marketers write a brand brief or build an in-depth style guide. If you want to create a guide, here are a few components you can include in the photography section:
- Composition and content – How should the photo be composed and what belongs in the photo?
- Color palette – Which colors need to be included in the shoot or added during post-production?
- Lighting – What is the photo’s mood (i.e. bright lighting vs. dramatic shadows)?
- Backdrops – Are you using a seamless backdrop or an environmental background?
- Candid vs. Posing – Do you want your subject to look at the camera or be frozen in action?
- Focus – Are we focused on a person, an action, a product, or a space?
- People – Do you want to use models, employees, or customers in the image?
- Photo orientation – Should the photographer shoot vertically or horizontally?
- Preferred format – Do you need .jpg, .tiff, or another photo format?
- Branded elements – Which branded elements need to be in the photo (i.e. shirts with logos or doctors in lab coats)?
Include examples in your document to help people fully understand the guidelines. Clear instructions help your marketing teams stay on track–especially if you are part of a larger company. The hardest part is getting everyone to follow the brand kit. You can make this easier by creating a brand portal with marketing-approved images, sending out a verified vendor list, or requiring marketing permissions for new photos. It all depends on how much control you need to have over your brand.
Building a Brand Through Photos: Common Mistakes
You may have read this and thought, “I don’t need a formal style guide, and I’m pretty tuned into our brand story.” That’s awesome. However, many marketers still make mistakes when it comes to building a brand through photos. Here are a few examples:
Choosing stock over custom. I’ll never forget this story: a VP of marketing at a large institution used a stock photograph on the cover of every quarterly magazine. They said they held their breath every time the publication came out because they were afraid their competitor would use the same image on one of their publications. That is no way to live. Custom photography is authentic and builds credibility. If it is important, go custom.
Doing too much too soon. Building a brand through photos takes time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Whether you’re refreshing your internal photo library or creating a visual brand from scratch, you need time to prepare for your photo shoot, test your images with your audience, and measure results. If you move too fast, you run the risk of getting beautiful images that don’t fit into your story.
Being too rigid with their brand kit. It’s important to have guidelines for a cohesive look. However, even the biggest, most recognizable brands break their rules from time to time. Those are usually the campaigns that make people stop and go, “Whoa.” Keep your eyes and minds open for memorable, rule-breaking opportunities.
Creating a visual brand guideline without consulting a photographer. I cannot stress this enough: it is important to collaborate–or at least consult–with a professional photographer when developing your brand kit. They have the expertise and experience to guide you during this process and help you understand what makes a photo exceptional. We’ve been a part of many shoots where a marketing director goes, “I love the idea of this shot, but I know it won’t look good.” It ends up being the best photo of the shoot because of the photographer. We’ve been on many shoots where someone insists on taking a photo a certain way because of branding guidelines, and the image is less than ideal. Trust the pros in your arsenal to help you.
Successful brands implement a strategy to their imagery. If you want to stand out among your competition, cookware, and makeup, this should help you develop the guidelines you need to make a visual impact.