For Customers

Corporate Photography for First-time Customers

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When a company decides to dip its business toes into corporate photography, the first photo project is usually either business portraits or pictures of the office. This is all well and good but it may help to have an overall plan for the photography well before a camera shutter button is clicked. Corporate photography should do more than just fill empty spaces on a page.

Sure, the easy marketing plan is, “we want more customers to buy more stuff.” But that’s too vague to be of any help. If you work things backward and break it down to specific steps, you can get it to work:

How do you get more customers to buy more stuff?
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Photo Editing Skills

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Customers know which pictures they like to look at but they may not understand why. Very few people understand the art and craft of photo editing.

Few publications today have a real photo editor. It would be surprising if any non-media business has a photo editor. Instead, photographers are left to edit their own work and then someone at the client-end selects the pictures they like to look at.
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Close Enough

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If you made products for digital cameras, what kind of camera would you show on your web site to help market your products?

If you’re Eye-Fi, which makes WiFi-enabled memory cards, you would use an old film camera from last century. [Sorry, the link has gone dead. Screengrab below]. And to make it worse, you would state “The power of WiFi for the camera you love.”


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Types of business headshots

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When a company needs a number of business portraits, is it better for those headshots to have a uniform look or a uniform style?

Uniform Look

A uniform look means all the portraits have the same, or very similar, lighting, background and pose. This shows consistency and a strong brand.

Having a uniform look in business headshots is common at law firms, insurance companies, banks and any other company that wants, or needs, to create a feeling of stability, consistency and comfort.

A business that has many locations may want a uniform look to imply that the company is the same no matter which location you visit.

A consistent appearance creates a consistent message which helps build customer trust.
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The Most Dangerous Phrase

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According to former US Navy Rear Admiral and computer scientist Grace Hopper, the most dangerous phrase in the English language is: “We’ve always done it this way.”

Hmmm…

We’ve always used stock pictures.

We’ve always done a big group photo.

We’ve always done our business headshots against that wall over there.

We’ve always had our president photographed at his desk.

We’ve always done a cheque presentation ceremony.

We’ve always done our product shots on white.

We’ve always used only small pictures on our web site.

We’ve always had little media interest in our press releases.

We’ve always thought business portraits were like passport pictures.

We’ve always chosen the cheapest photographer.

 

More is not always better

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Some photographers offer their customers a disc with all the pictures they shot on that particular job. Similarly, some customers want a disc containing all the photos taken. Why?

To me, this suggests that the photographer can’t edit, the customer can’t make a decision, or the customer doesn’t trust the photographer to do the job properly.

Certainly there may be times when having all the photos might be a good thing, for example, when the pictures are used as evidence in a trial. But quantity is not quality.
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Imagining a better image

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When searching for a supplier or vendor, many companies automatically seek the lowest bidder or the cheapest price. But imagine what might happen if these companies instead searched for the best supplier, the one who could do a great job rather than just good enough.

Imagine what might happen if a company chose the best they could afford rather than the least they can get away with.

Imagine what might happen when the best they can afford helps enhance their corporate image.

Imagine what might happen when this enhanced image earns more attention.

Imagine what might happen when more attention means more business.

Imagine hiring a professional photographer next time.

 

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