Howard Moo Young, ContributorThis is a continuation of last week's article on how photography can be used as a tool to benefit business, industry, government, education, science, and medicine. We now continue the list:
International selling. The international marketer has to accept the fact of language differences. By using photographs wherever possible, and by careful layout and type planning, it is possible to prepare international materials with a minimum of cost. For example: Costly four-colour printing can be done for your full needs in one economical printing run. By leaving out the words during the colour printing, it then becomes a simple and economical matter to print in whatever language you wish with a separate one-colour printing run for each language. The hotel and tourism sector is an ideal candidate.
Be remembered. At large gatherings, distribute small photos of the guests on lists or name tags to all participants. They make remembering names and faces easier, and lead to freer, and more relaxed discussion on all sides.
The photographic calling card. If your
calling cards include a colour photo, it is easier for the customer to remember you.
WHY THE EXECUTIVE PORTRAIT?
Executive portraiture provides the company with a known satisfactory photograph to fill requests from newspapers and other publications.
Editorial coverage. Your news stories and articles stand a better chance of being used when you include captioned photographs with your text.
Client relations. If your client agrees, you can use news photos to publicise his visit to your factory, a trade agreement, celebration of a joint sales achievement, or a 'first'. This builds goodwill and favourable notice with the public as well as the client. The digital camera has now speeded up the entire process getting back the pictures in a much shorter time.
Souvenirs are good public relations. Photographs are a good souvenir of almost any special occasion. They often find their way into scrapbooks to be pleasantly remembered long after the event.
WHY HAVE A STOCK PHOTO FILE?
A stockpile of prints, slides, and video footage can sometimes yield many benefits:
Company use: For internal and external
use, it allows quick preparation of publications, programmes, advertisements, and other communications. These become available immediately without he delays of setup and shooting time. As an added benefit, production costs are lowered on these projects.
Editorial use: The same file is also a 'bank' that outside editorial writers can draw on with appropriate credit to you for preparing articles.
Customer use: Let your customers use these materials for their own needs. You profit from goodwill.
Carry this type of customer relations one step further by offering to shoot photographs or videos 'to order', to meet client needs for training and sales aids.
The special business gift. Photo items make ideal gift items. Age, sex, personal interests, or appropriateness are seldom complications. Give them to favoured customers or prospects, as service awards to employees, or as sales and point-of-purchase incentives. They also make ideal retirement gifts.
TRAINING AND COMMUNICATION
Communicating information without distortion
is always difficult. Everyone approaches a new subject with a different and very personal frame of reference. The special virtue of photography is that it eliminates ambiguity, allowing your message to be received with maximum impact.
Why add photographs? Words limit meaning to what the writer or speaker thinks is important - or what he can remember. Add photography to words and fewer words can be used to convey more and better information.
Training and education. Most subjects benefit from the use of visual techniques. The benefits are:
a) Clear - therefore efficient - communication.
b) The ability to give every student or trainee a "front row" seat.
c) The opportunity for slow learners to review at his own pace without slowing the class as a whole.
d) The ability to make demonstrations on CD's or video that would be too costly or time-consuming to repeat for every class.
e) The ability to expose students realistically to operations, acts, or situations before they actually experience them, thus teaching them what to anticipate.
f) Material learned visually is learned faster and remembered longer.
The photographic print. Black-and-white or colour prints can be made in practically any size you might need. They can be handled, marked upon, mailed, and measured from. They present your subject in whatever manner best reinforces your communication's objective.
The instruction manual. Even a small picture with labels or captioning is understood faster than words alone. Sequential photographs showing assembly or disassembly procedures eliminate uncertainty. Just take a look at your camera manual.
Pack it right. Send photographs to branch distribution centers to show the best packing and shipping methods. Include photographs with the package to show how to open it without damage to the product.
New ideas from retail outlets. Good ideas for serving customers? Selling layouts and displays? Hard-working floor plans and equipment arrangements? Better ways to do things? Show them to others with the same needs, locally and internationally, through photography. A simple snapshot is often sufficient. Learn from the Japanese, they can show us a thing or two, on how to get it done quickly.
Give the man or woman a camera. If your sales personnel and field reps do not put enough detail into their reports, give them pocket-sized cameras that they can carry all the time. The information content will go up - with less effort on their part.
Internal communications. Make your internal presentations more memorable with audiovisuals. They help you present proposals more effectively. They are a good way to give safety instruction, boost morale, or explain complex subjects.
Save the handouts. Save the handouts until after the meeting. Use the computer power-point to put the information in a large, easy-to-read fashion in front of everyone. In that way you control when they see the information, and the sequence they see it in. You retain the interest and attention of the audience.
Tongue-tied. If you have difficulty putting on a formal talk, turn it into a slide show or power point presentation. Such a show provides an easy structure to talk to. It also adds impact that you might find difficult to put into words.
Presenting to sell. There are times when the manner of presentation is crucial to the success of your efforts. The directors' annual meeting, a final recommendation to management, the annual presentation to the sales force. Photography and audiovisual tools provide you with an ascending scale of drama and impact that you can tailor to every need.
Howard Moo Young is an Advertising / Graphic Design / Photography Consultant with over 40 years experience. We welcome your comments. Email: mooimages@yahoo.com
