Why Generic Stock Photographs of Personnel Suck
When a business uses generic stock photography of office personnel it tells me nothing. It’s a brand-less incoherent mumble about a triviality.
OK they’re a business? That was already my expectation – do I need to tell you that I’m a human when we meet for a coffee?
Because if every element on a web page needs justification to be there, then please explain why those banners exist? What do they actually say about that business in comparison to its competitors? That they were too lazy or bored to get past page 10 at iStockPhoto?
Hundreds or even thousands of international businesses may be using that same image or something from the same photography set… which to a business is a really bad idea. We all get that, right?
To achieve an effective web design the question that needs to be asked is: “can they effectively identify their online value proposition to me as a customer within the web design?”
They need to sell me on something – they need to show me their magic… What can they do for me – Steven Clark, here, now and today? Can they convince me to give them my money?
So think about that for a second. Suppose for a minute that you walk into a clothes shop to buy a new coat and the assistant approaches you and shows you a magazine picture of three strange Americans smiling and putting coats onto hangers… does that really work? Or did that sales assistant miss a good half minute of being able to shake your hand and sell you their proposition?
However, please don’t comment here to say that’s how branding works… that we’re looking at these types of polished photographs in all of our advertising. That would be bullshit… because branding is about differentiation and it’s not about generic messages. They are the opposite. The opposite.
And when you think about it on that level it should be clear to everyone why generic stock photographs of personnel suck.
June 23rd, 2010 at 4:05 am
“That they were too lazy or bored to get past page 10 at iStockPhoto?”
It’s clear we see same photos on every website with a beautiful smiling girl…
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:41 am
With the money spent on website development its strange how even on the bigger projects a little saving on “images” sends designers to iStockPhoto or worse – Flickr and PhotoBucket.
I guess its our job to say (a) invest in a decent camera and let us compile our own quality photography repository (b) hire a professional photographer, or (c) at least pay the license for unique rights to use a photo…
… and the photo should say more than “Hey I’m a Photo” ha ha. That receptionist must get people pulling her up in the street asking “Haven’t I seen you before?”… “somewhere?”