The start of a new year is a good time for a company to re-evaluate its existing business photography and consider updating the pictures. Just as every school has a “picture day” at the beginning of each new school year, a business would be smart to do the same at the start of each new year.
Like a loaf of bread, business headshots go stale after their “best before” date. While we may like to use a 12-year-old portrait from when we had fewer wrinkles and less grey hairs, the shelf life of a business portrait is, perhaps, about two years. There’s a reason why most annual reports require new executive portraits each and every year. Maybe it’s time to show your customers that your president now has a tie made this century?
Having current business photography shows your customers that you’re, well, staying current. Not stuck in the past. Not stagnant. Moving forward.
It’s not just business portraits. A company should also look at its archive of public relations pictures and any other marketing photos. Are the pictures of your manufacturing plant current enough to show all the new equipment? Hasn’t your office changed in the past few years? Has your product packing been refreshed?
The bonus of doing new business photography is that the new pictures will encourage a company to use them. Old pictures do not inspire. Pictures that have been used and reused for many years are no longer interesting. New photography will inspire new public relations ideas, new media handout opportunities and new marketing confidence.
An old shirt may be safe, familiar and comfortable, but it’s also faded and wearing thin. We all know that great feeling when we put on a crisp, new, in-fashion shirt. We look better and feel better.
Now is a good time for a company to look into its closet of business photography and decide what needs to be refreshed and updated.
