Are you with us or with them? It’s a defining question for every one of us and the mechanism that drives much of our decision-making, both micro and macro for all of humanity. What that means to the individual, is that we are either trying to find, or maintain our place within our community and with our peers. For some, this can be an extreme display, and for others, it’s to make no discernible display at all but we are all defined by the choices we make for ourselves.

Consider that many of the basic choices we make as consumers, constitute our own personal brand. This is evident in the things we wear, eat and drink, the activities we engage in and the places we go. There will be a line at which most people will refuse to wear a specific article of clothing, enter a type of shop or establishment, listen to a type of music or participate in watching a type of event. If really pushed, you’ll find we all have rigorous boundaries in regard to what we will and won't be seen to be doing in public. What is within those boundaries could be considered our style, or for the sake of this thought experiment, our brand. This directly translates into the ways that we spend our money, as a portion of our expenditure will go towards maintaining “our brand”. 

A prim businessman in his late fifties is more likely to buy a golf jacket, scarf and hat rather than a branded hoody pitched at rebellious teens. Even though the hoody is a way more practical, efficient and refined method to keep his head and neck warm, the hoody is incongruous with how he chooses to present himself. If he arrived at the golf club in a hoody, the personal brands of his peers would be brought into question and he would almost certainly be peer-pressured back into their uniform of jacket, hat and scarf. In this example, his branding affects the status of his peers equally as it disrupts their invest meant in their brand.

What does this have to do with commercial photography? 

Everything!

Effective, well-produced commercial photography should work like a flower that attracts the species of bird that will pollinate the fruit tree, and repels the bird that will want to eat the flower. Commercial photography is a device for targeting very specific groups of people and showing them that your business activity fits within their big-picture view of themselves. It’s showing that your branding message, will benefit their personal branding message.

You could think of a well-made commercial photograph as a two-dimensional short story that speaks to the hearts of your core customer base. A well-written short story is compelling. Relatable characters, an interesting setting, mood and drama. Every word of a short story should be in service to the idea and mood of the piece. Similarly, every component of a commercial photograph should be in service of showing your prospective customers why your product or service fits in with their aspirations. It's everything around the main subject that creates the story. The location, the lighting, the background objects, the demographic of the people engaging with it, everything should serve the narrative.

Showing a well-taken photograph of your product illustrates what it is but it doesn’t leverage on what motivates people to want to invest in your brand. If they can see people who are like them benefiting from an affiliation with your product then you have an extremely powerful marketing device. 

So not only do people want to spend money on things that make them feel a particular way, but they also want to be seen by their peers as choosing particular objects or experiences. Tribalism is alive and well in our culture so if people believe that having a particular object will increase their status, they will invest years of toil to have said object. 

The sports car is a prime example. A modern high-performance car requires a racing car driver on a race track to get the suggested performance figures from it. The vast majority of sports car owners don't have that skill-set, nor the intent to drive them in anger. Because they were designed to go fast, a sports car is largely impractical for daily transport and they can cost a literal fortune. These objects are lusted after and coveted by people, based on their projection of what their lives would be if only they could own that car. It’s brand bolstering to be seen to be in a position to own the sports car. It serves no need or practical benefit.

If people feel a deep resonance that your brand will enhance their brand, they will go to great lengths to express their affiliation with your business. People have the Nike tick and Apple logos tattooed on their bodies. This is because those brands have created an emotive narrative to go with their product. They have offered an image that people want to be a part of and are motivated to display their involvement with. You can bet that a significant part of developing the narrative for those brands was done through targeted, commercial photography.