The Importance Of Every Catalogue Photo (or How Not To Get Eaten By Wolves)

How do you think a catalogue photo ranks in comparison with issues such as the actual quality of the product, it's function, use, price or description? In fact research has clearly shown that for most people it is the catalogue photo which is seen first, and the photo which is looked at longest. In the majority of those cases people admitted that it was the image of the product which was most responsible for them deciding whether or not to buy it.

The truth is that for all our cleverness with words, numbers and language, we are image driven. It's in our genes. From our hunter gatherer days on the plains, making sure we survived another day and found enough to eat, we have developed a tendency to be drawn towards visual images and clues, analyse them rapidly and make decisions based largely on them.

Our ancestors didn't read the latest headlines in order to find out where the nearest herd of wildebeest was, or write out complex mathematical formulas in order to work out whether the pack of wolves was heading their way or would pass by their cave.

Visual clues are even more important today as we are all bombarded every single day with dozens, scores or even hundreds of advertising and marketing messages. From web pages to email, television adverts to radio adverts, trailers to banners, flyers to junk mail, billboards to shop window posters, adverts are everywhere, and the only truly effective way of not only grabbing people's attention, but holding it and communicating the right things to the right people is to use visual images which sell.

This is why every single catalogue photo is critical, because no matter how good the prices, how fantastic the products or how cleverly written the description, if the catalogue photo is of a poor or mediocre quality then the reader is more likely to turn over to the next page, or pick up someone else's catalogue.

The trouble is that although this is a reasonably established fact, too many small and medium sized businesses think that an effective and appropriate way of cutting costs in today's admittedly difficult economic climate is to cut the cost of each catalogue photo. The only real way of achieving this is to move from having a professional photography studio carry out the marketing photography and do the whole thing in house.

With good quality digital cameras, cheap computers and accessible graphics software it all seems laughably easy to do, and companies find themselves rubbing their hands in joyful glee at the money they're saving. Unfortunately whilst they're doing that they're simultaneously blissfully unaware that whilst they may be saving money on each catalogue photo, they're losing considerably more in lost sales, not to mention the battering their brand reputation will be getting.

Our ancestors would not have considered that a good way of avoiding being eaten by a wolf was to close their eyes, so that the wolf wouldn't see them, or that a good way of saving energy hunting food was to sit by the cave entrance and hope that some sick animal would wander by and conveniently drop dead in front of the cooking fire.

If you want something worth having, then you have to go about getting it the right way, and if you want to attract the interest (and wallets) of customers in an increasingly competitive market then the only way of doing this realistically is to make sure that every catalogue photo is created the right way, using the right tools, the right tricks of the trade and the benefit of the professional and creative experience and understanding of a professional catalogue photographer.