Advertising Pictures

Visual imagery is the most important aspect of sales in the modern world. Every company needs to use pictures and photographs in one form or another to promote their products. You only have to visit your local newsagent to find dozens of magazines full of pictures and images of products for sale. In the UK there are over 8,000 weekly or monthly magazines published and every one of them is packed with photographs images relating either to the main subject of the magazine or to the advertising contained within it.

Let's look at the photoimage as a tool to sell a particular product. There are different ways in which a photograph is used. It can be used as an informative tool, for example, 'Smarties', what are 'Smarties'. I could tell you they are pieces of chocolate covered in a coloured coating. You could place a small ad in a magazine advertising them with this description and see what the response was but I think it would be minuscule. However, place an ad with a picture of all those multicoloured chocolate buttons and it will have far more impact.

The 'Smarties' example is an example of simply letting the public know what the items you are selling look like. The very act of doing that will increase sales because the visual image is far better than a text description.

Other advertising campaigns use pictures to imply their products offer something they really don't. For example, if you saw an advertising poster on a billboard showing a picture of a nice new car parked next to others inside a car sales showroom, it wouldn't really make you want to rush to the showroom to buy one. However, using a bit of psychology the salesmen use a picture of the same car driving along a winding road completely free of traffic with a beautiful scenic background bathed in sunshine. They are using an image to put over the misconception that if you buy their car it will improve your life and make everything sunny. Well it may be a lie but it will certainly make a lot nicer picture!

The other old favourite is to add some glamour photography to sell your wares. What better way to attract male buyers to a product than to have scantily dressed women draped over them. Sex has always been a driving force with advertising agencies and you will see pictures of semi naked women advertising everything from cars to tools.

All of these are examples of the way in which the photograph, picture and image are used and manipulated thousands of times and by thousands of companies each day.