When you are planning your brand, either for a new
company, product or just to refresh an existing business, imagery is one of the
key components to think about to really bring the brand to life and resonate
with potential customers.
Once you have your logo, messaging and colour
palette chosen, it’s time to look for visuals which will take all of those
elements and bring the brand together and create an engaging and attractive
approach.
However, choosing the right images can be tricky
and if you get it wrong your brand could end up looking tacky, unprofessional,
or just a copy of all the other companies working in the same space as you,
which is the last thing you want.
So here are a few tips to help you make sure you
choose the right brand imagery for your business:
Make sure the images
reflect the messaging
It can be so easy to pick an image because it looks
nice or is unusual but you need to make sure that the imagery reflects your
marketing messaging. It needs to resonate with your potential customers and be
relevant to your business and your products.
Make sure any imagery reflects your brand values
and how you want to be seen by your customers. Think about the impression the
images will create – what kind of reaction are you hoping to get when people
see them?
It’s worth doing some market testing before
settling on the final versions – try running the imagery and messaging past a
focus group of potential customers to assess their reactions and see if they
come up with the perceptions of your business that you were looking for.
Engage with emotions
Your brand imagery needs to engage your customers
on an emotional level so the pictures you choose need to tell a story. Do they
make your audience laugh, reminisce, feel nostalgic? There needs to be a
reaction beyond just admiring the image chosen.
If you find an image you like but it doesn’t stir
any kind of emotional response then it’s not the right image for your business.
You need to be memorable and stand out from the crowd and the way to do that is
to engage emotionally and create a connection.
Avoid stock
photographs
One of the key facets when choosing imagery is that
you want to stand out from the crowd and for this reason we would recommend
avoiding stock photographs. You can guarantee that someone else in a business
similar to yours will also be using them.
It is also easy to spot a stock photograph a mile
away and they often appear incredibly staged, with little real imagination, so
are highly unlikely to engage your customers in any kind of meaningful way. We
would always recommend holding your own photo shoot so you have unique imagery
for your business, which also belongs to you.
Avoid posed
photographs
While we recommend holding your own photoshoot it’s
also important to avoid clichés so don’t use pictures of fake posed people in
an office situation. The more natural the photographs can be the better.
Make sure you include lots of active photos of
people engaged in tasks and looking happy. It’s important to include people in
the pictures if you want to engage the emotions of your customers so showing
your team in action will work.
By all means opt for concept photography to display
a product, but for a business brand you need to be people focussed to engage.
Hopefully these key tips will help you when it
comes to choosing brand imagery which helps your business stand out from the
crowd. It needs to be authentic, emotional and match with your messaging.
How can
LCM help?
If you’d
like help with selecting imagery or any aspect of building your brand, please
get in touch with us at LCM and we will be happy to talk through what you are
trying to achieve. We will ask you guided questions to find out if you need our
kind of input, or if another route is best for you.
Telephone 01489 891870 or
email info@lcm.co.uk
