Visual Marketing
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Visual marketing is the discipline of studying the relationship between an object, the context it is placed in and its relevant image. Representing a disciplinary link between
economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
,
visual perception Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual percept ...
laws and
cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of human mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, whi ...
, the subject mainly applies to businesses such as
fashion Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...
and
design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
. As a key component of modern
marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...
, visual marketing focuses on studying and analyzing how images can be used to make objects the center of visual communication. The intent is that the product and its visual communication therefore become strategically linked and inseparable and their fusion is what reaches out to people, engages them and defines their choices (a marketing mechanism known as
persuasion Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for influence. Persuasion can influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviours. Persuasion is studied in many disciplines. Rhetoric studies modes of persuasi ...
). Not to be confused with visual merchandising, that is one of its facets and more about retail spaces; here, Marketing gets customers in the door. Once inside, merchandising takes over—affecting the placement of products, signage, display materials, ambiance and employee staffing. Harnessing the power of images and visuals can make a marketing plan more powerful and more memorable. Images — when done deftly – can turn concepts and intangible things into something more concrete influencing the perception of the intended viewer. That helps people envision a brand and its message in their mind's eye — and remember it when it comes time to buy. Visual marketing can be a part of every aspect of the Communication Mix. Marketing persuades consumer's buying behaviour and Visual Marketing enhances that through factors of recall, memory and identity. Growing trends in the usage of picture based websites and social networking platforms like Pinterest,
Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
,
Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...
, and Timeline feature of
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
justifies the fact that people want to believe what they see, and therefore, need for Visual Marketing. Visual marketing includes all visual cues like logo, signage, sales tools, vehicles, packaging, labeling, uniforms, right to your Advertisements, Brochures, Informational DVDs, Websites, everything that meets the Public Eye and can create a direct visual reference for a brand, product or service.


History

The roots of this way of interpreting objects lie in
Susan Sontag Susan Lee Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, critic, and public intellectual. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on "Camp", Notes on 'Ca ...
's essay Notes on "Camp", written back in the 1960s; the author points out that objects are not interesting in themselves but rather in the way they are represented, being the result of a series of considerations that touch upon the object's history, its symbolism, its manifestation and realization in the eyes of the beholder. As it developed, visual marketing highlighted the masking of an object, which instead of just being a product, turns into the star of its own 'production", so it changes from itself into something ''else'', at the precise moment it enters the market. According to Paolo Schianchi,
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
and
designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...
, an Italian visual marketing academic: ''“(...) Objects are: real, as what we see; visible - what they are made from; perfect - their classic identity; communication - their bond with taste; form and function - container and content; emotion - the story they can evoke; critical operation - the language that consecrates and exposes it; industrial operation - making them active and productive; image - the ''what'' and the ''how''; anonymous - merely because it exits (...)“'' All of these components – that belong to and define an objects from the viewpoint of the market and of the consumer – are the research and planning nuances that encompass the scope of visual marketing. So, this branch ''"(...) acts on several levels of the design of an object: the idea (objects have to meet certain functions and be neutral, round, sharp-edged, eccentric shapes etc.); the communication (for a certain period in one geographic zone, then turned into a luxury item, at another time disguised as eco-friendly etc.) and in the end, the exhibition – in a trade fair, in a showroom and at other events (the object is approachable but its context drops it into atmospheres as an unusual industrial find, an emotional dispenser of functions, unapproachable art and design object, etc.). (...)"''. In the words of Umberto Galimberti, Italian
philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and
psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...
''"(...) Even when there is no lack of money, the desire – now defined by fashion – does not refer so much to objects as to the myths surrounding them, and often the only thing being consumed is the myth itself…… (...)"''. This concept is taken up again by Gillo Dorfles in his book ''"Il feticcio quotidiano"'' (The daily fetish): ''"(...) This is why I believe I can say that it is now possible to talk about a new ergonomic standard, not connected to the height of a desk or to the pneumatic quality of padding but to the creation of that “mythical image” that a design object must present if it is really right for the purpose it was designed for (...)".''. The mythology that covers objects to the point of becoming one with them, is decoded, in this branch through the study of various visual and verbal languages belonging to the groups of interest. So visual marketing draws the attention away from traditional targets to focus on ''“...interest groups that are no longer broken down by age, gender, education or any other personal records and social contexts but by type of involvement, whether it be sports (golf or football fans), personal (wine connoisseurs or collectors), cultural (art and classical music lovers), etc. All these groups contain visual, verbal, sound, gesture, olfactory and formal codes that they refer to and use to communicate... ”'' So, the expressive group behaviours lie behind the new sub-alphabets whose decoding can be used to create direct marketing methods with the group itself. One of the people inspiring this almost anthropological approach is Marc Augé, who in his book ''“Le temps en ruines”'' (Time in ruins) notes that: ''“the world where image is omnipresent requires the reality to be reflected in its image...”.'' Paolo Schianchi's research underscored how the act of putting together the image of the reality generated by each interest group is composed of language sets made of words, sounds, images, smells and shapes that give rise to various sub-alphabets when combined differently. If correctly decoded, these expressive elements become the means to get in touch with a group and direct a message inside it This aspect of visual marketing helps to create targeted marketing campaigns that go straight to the users’ emotions and representations of reality, using their own expressive language The roots of this principle lie in Vilém Flusser's ''“Into the universe of technical images”'' (originally published as Ins Universum der technischen Bilder), where he claims: ''“ ... all ethics, all ontology, all epistemology will be excluded from the pictures, and it will become meaningless to ask whether something good or bad, real or artificial, true or false, or even what it means. The only remaining question is what I can experience...”''. This is how the author introduced the concept of the expressive emotion at the origin of visual and verbal sub-alphabets, which belong to each individual at the moment they become part of an interest group. Visual marketing has taken these concepts onboard and to communicate a product to a group it decodes their emotional and individual languages, because we now know that everyone lives''“... a double life, where each person is the representation of themselves, becoming inseparable from the physical person, as objects are from their image...”'' Visual Marketing consultants plan around this, moving from the design of the object to its visual display, and in so doing creating the mythology around it. Theories on visual marketing have been developed by author and professor in Consumer Science, Michel Wedel.


Infographics

It is one of the most popular visual content format and we must use this visual marketing format. Not only do infographics communicate a ton of information in a visually appealing and easy-to-understand manner, but they are also one of the most shared pieces of visual content.


Memes and Branded Quotes

Another must-have visual content type is the meme and/or branded quote. Currently this visual format are the most shareable content type over social media platforms. In this case, we used big, bold text in combination with an impactful image to attract viewers' attention as they scroll down their feeds.


Video

Videos are the best visual marketing format on the web today. There are numerous types of videos that can enhance your business – you could consider how-to videos, animated explainer videos, demonstrations or customer testimonials.


Images

Marketer Jeff Bullas cites that articles with images get 94% more views than those without. When you put some quality images within any content, people are more inclined to finish reading what you’ve written.


Presentations

Presentations are not restricted to just the boardroom, now it is can be shared with world via sites like Slideshare. You can expand the outreach of your business utilizing presentation. A great SlideShare presentation allows you to inform and communicate to your audience, no matter what device they are using.


References


Bibliography

* Susan Sontag, ''Notes on "Camp"'', Partisan Review 1964 * Michel Wedel-Rik Peters, ''Visual marketing'', Psychology Press, September 2007 * P. Schianchi, ''Verso il bagno Camp'', Il Sole 24 Ore Business Media, 2008 * Umberto Galimberti, ''I miti del nostro tempo'', Feltrinelli 2009 * Paolo Schianchi, ''Visual marketing. L'immagine fotografica'', in CE International n. 226, Il Sole 24 Ore Business Media 2009 * R. Pieters, M. Wedel, ''Goal Control of Visual Attention to Advertising: The Yarbus Implication'', in Journal of Consumer Research no. 34, August 2007, pages 224-233 * R. Van der Lans, R. Pieters, M. Wedel, ''Competitive Brand Salience'', Marketing Science, 27(5), 2008 * M. Wedel R. Pieters, ''Eye Tracking for Visual Marketing'', Now publishers Inc, 2008 * P. Schianchi, ''Nuvole di estetica e prodotto'', ISRE Edizioni Salesiane, year XVII, no. 1, 2010 * P. Schianchi, ''Visual Marketing'', in B & A No. 247, Il Sole 24 Ore, 2011 * D.Langton and A. Campbell, ''Visual Marketing. 99 proven ways for small business to market with images and design'', WILEY * John Wiley & Sons inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, 2011 * P. Schianchi, L'immagine è un oggetto. Fondamenti di visual marketing con storytelling, libreriauniversitaria.it edizioni, Padova 2013.


External links

*{{Commonscatinline, Visual marketing Types of marketing Visual perception