Using Your Own Photographs

Using your own photographs of staff, events, products, and other dimensions of your organization can be a great way to personalize your marketing materials and strengthen your brand. Rather than stock photography or illustrations, there is a feeling of authenticity and "realness" when the imagery is of actual employees, customers, or even the office.

There are, however, may pitfalls to this practice. Use some of the tips below as guidelines to using your own photography in your marketing:

• The resolution of your photos is of critical importance to their respective uses. Make sure your photos are a minimum of 300 DPI (dots per inch) for printed pieces and a minimum of 72 DPI for the Web. Nothing ruins a good marketing piece like a pixelated, poor quality photo.
• Just because you are using your own photos, doesn't mean that they can't be shot professionally. It never hurts to hire a professional photographer to ensure that your shots are in-focus, properly lighted, and look great.
• Photoshop is your best friend. Make sure someone on your team can work the program and touch up, adjust, and otherwise alter your photos for the best results.
• Always get model releases from anyone in the photos that you plan to use. This includes employees, customers, bystanders, etc. No one wants a lawsuit on their hands because of a brochure.
• Make sure the content of your photos is appropriate for your use. Your library will be filled with great images, but careful use with respect to the piece with which they are associated is important.
• Art direction still has a place in your marketing materials, even if you are using your own photos. Careful selection for theme, color palette, style, and other factors will help keep the look of each piece consistent as you use proprietary photos.

Me-Too Brands: Vacuums

Vacuum cleaners: did anyone think this was an industry that could be radically reinvented into product lines where people would willingly pay over $500 for a unit?

We can probably thank Dyson for these recent innovations. They finally created a vastly superior product and charge a handsome premium for it. The best part is that people are happy to pay for it and continue to sing the product's praises. Enter the copycat branding.

Walking through the vacuum section of any store, you will notice an interesting phenomenon. Many of the units on display have copied the body style and characteristic yellow highlights of the Dyson models (and also some of their premium pricing). This isn't all that uncommon: mimic the style, but not the functionality, of your premium competitors. Buyers aren't necessarily tricked into thinking this is the same product, but they are comforted by the fact that this less expensive alternative bears a superficial resemblance to the high-status version. Perhaps there is a little status-seeking in this as well.

Riding on the coattails of a successful competitor is, obviously, not uncommon. We see it with cars, clothing, accessories (think women's purses), electronics, and many other consumer products. The problem with this is that the copycats, almost always of inferior quality, end up eroding the first-mover's brand. Next time you shop, keep your eye out for who is the leader and who is the follower and note some of the product trends. You might want to turn that eye onto your organization's brand as well--are you the leader or are you the follower?