Photography’s Huge Impact on the Cosmetic Industry
At the root of the cosmetic industry is the desire to help people enhance their natural beauty. Photography and cosmetics go together like pancakes and syrup. Visuals showcase what the product is capable of, giving a glimpse into longer lashes, smoother skin or enhanced facial features.
According to Statista, cosmetics are a $49.2 billion industry in the United States. About 40% of the revenue comes from skincare items. When you realize these products are nearly everywhere you look, you’ll understand the role photography plays in marketing for companies. For many years, businesses featured beauty products in glossy print magazines, on billboards and on television. These visual mediums call for beautifying, eye-catching images.
Today, sites such as Instagram are the perfect promotional platforms for beauty. They lend themselves particularly well to compelling photographs, capturing attention as people scroll past. Here are six reasons cosmetics require fantastic photos:
1. Show the Possibilities
A simple product photo doesn’t do the item justice — carefully crafted design elements take it to the next level. Add in a model or take shots from different angles, and you suddenly bring your merchandise to life digitally or in print. With commercial photography, the possibilities are endless. You can show the product in use, display before and after results or reveal 360-degree images of the product and packaging.
Orly uses two of their brightest shades of summer and puts them on a beautiful model’s fingernails. She is decked out in a modern outfit with makeup to match. The photo shows the possibilities of what the fingernail polish might do for your look. It’s fresh, youthful and fun.
2. Get Customers Involved
Unless you have an unlimited marketing budget, you might not be able to afford to make every photo studio quality. Fortunately, there are many tips you can use to take snapshots of products on the fly. Get your customers involved by starting a photograph campaign. Ask them to take a photo wearing your latest release and upload it with a hashtag. You’ll gain valuable exposure and free word-of-mouth marketing.
3. Bring Senses to Life
A great photograph pulls in all the senses. Although sight is the obvious one, you can also add in scent by showing a beautiful flower, feel by showcasing steam rising from a shower or sound by showing someone laughing or screaming. Think about what message you want to convey to your target audience and which elements highlight the different senses.
18C does a stellar job of pulling in different senses on their website while keeping their images high fashion. Notice how brand uses a beautiful picture of a model with glowing skin to highlight how their skincare and cosmetics enhance natural beauty. Each photo in their hero slider draws on the reader’s senses and sends a message about natural products.
4. Convey Quality Products
Professional photographs look better than snapshots taken by an amateur. Experienced artists know how to position a product to achieve the best setup, proper lighting and perfect angles. A high-quality image sends the message that your products are of excellent quality. Most people are picky about what they put on their skin. They don’t want to feel like you’re mixing up lotion in your bathroom sink the night before. A great image shows you take quality seriously.
5. Stand Out From Competitors
The cosmetics industry is highly competitive. You’re up against big corporations with the latest research and cutting-edge science, offering that products reduce puffiness or erase fine lines. You have to find a niche and a way to stand apart from the rest of the companies. Photography is one way to show off what makes you different. Think about your unique value proposition (UVP). Why should people buy from you over another brand? Highlight those benefits in your site visuals and advertising.
Tinte Cosmetics offers vintage tin lip balms. A couple unique things make them stand apart from other lip balm companies. The first is the yesteryear tin angle. While there are other businesses offering lip care in tins, Tinte has easy sliding containers and offers nostalgia for their target audience. They also make their goods in the U.S., so they highlight the location with an overlay on their product images.
6. Show What the Product Does
Photography offers an opportunity to show the product’s capabilities. Think about a bottle of shampoo — you could take a photo of the container splashing into a pool of shampoo liquid. Likewise, commercial photographers come up with creative ways of highlighting product packaging while still showing what the item does or why it’s special.
Business owners save time and money by avoiding long hours of taking inferior pictures. Photographers get to prove their worth through their creative ways of looking at the world and capturing the right image at just the right moment.
Cosmetics and Photography Tie Together Closely
Beauty is perhaps one of the most visual industries. Great photography proves what a product can do. No matter where you advertise the item, images show all its best features. Photographs are used in print ads, on websites, on social media and at trade shows and other events. Without photography, it would be impossible to showcase an item’s benefits.
Author Bio
Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She constantly researches trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner.
