Market A Lifestyle Through Realistic Photography

Do you sell a product? Do you market the product? Content should not be focusing on product, it should be focusing on how customers USE the product. Content should solve problems. Customers should be able to see themselves in their life, using the product without thinking about it.

Lifestyle Marketing

In content marketing, visual images are crucial. In the crowded, noisy social media space, there is so much information and so many images that messages easily get lost. Highly engaging visuals can be the one tool to capture attention and increase engagement. Lifestyle marketing is about visualizing life being better through the use of a product. A long, relaxing drive through the mountains is a much better experience in a sporty convertible than in a clunky pickup truck, don’t you agree? The products we choose to purchase are often directly connected to how we see our lives improving as a direct result. Even things like toilet paper.

Visual Content: Keeping It Real

To better help customers visualize that improved lifestyle, engage them with visually stimulating content, showing the benefits of using a product, or the result of using a product. A few caveats, though: Caveat 1, This strategy doesn’t seem to work on Pinterest, as Pinterest users want to curate products and ideas and not photographs of people, and Caveat 2, Photographs need to be authentic, not staged. This authenticity holds especially true for millenials, who are not easily persuaded by flashy, glossy, “fake” photos. The rise in popularity of channels like Instagram and Snapchat are due to the authenticity of real people sharing real images of real experiences. Keeping it real is actually important!

Homes. Consider how realtors sell homes. The old school approach is to showcase the exterior and interior home in “staged” photographs. (They even call it staging.) Then the listing has a bunch of statistics, like facts about the neighborhood, schools, etc. There is a shift to real estate marketing that uses photographs of people within the home setting, enjoying their life. The listing now includes a narrative about what life is like in that area, and the focus is on storytelling, or trying to persuade the home buyer based on visualizing what their lifestyle will be once they move in.

Food. Food brands used to showcase their food product with highly stylized, close up photographs of the product or the food after it has been painstakingly styled (and no longer actually edible). Now, food brands are using photographs of people eating, enjoying their meals and their lives. Social media is awash with people taking photos of their food while out dining, or even (yuck!) the empty plate after they have finished. Note hashtag #foodporn.

Beauty. In the world of beauty, there has been a huge backlash against photoshopped models. Consumers want real. They want to see what that beautiful model really looks like. The idea of an ideal is fading, especially for the critical millenial market. Realistic body images are all the rage, and even traditional toys like Barbie are jumping on the bandwagon and recently launched their line of Fashionistas who resemble *gasp* REAL PEOPLE, with 4 body types, 7 skin tones, 22 eye colors, and 24 hairstyles! #TheDollEvolves I am excited that we are moving toward acceptance of diversity! That means WE are evolving. It is clear that the idea of unrealistic body images is no longer valued, and beauty magazines, models and beauty products are working to transition to more realistic marketing by cutting out the Photoshop, airbrush and retouch techniques they’ve used in the past.

A Photographic Paradigm Shift

Lifestyle content marketing is the idea of moving from product to people. It is about making human connections, and storytelling through visual and textual narratives. That shift requires a change in the visuals being used to tell product stories.

This shift takes moving from perfectly staged photography to a more photojournalistic style of photography. It’s the artistic perspective of capturing real life, photographing life as it happens, sharing moments. The millenials (again, with the millenials) have already keyed in to this. They organically, naturally want realistic photos of their life. This photojournalistic narrative makes connections with people culturally. I feel there is a revival in personal photojournalism, fueled by the rise in social media, where individuals narrate their own lifestyles and share that with the world online. Digital photography, smart phones and other technologies are impacting this as well. There is even a movement called “iphoneography”, though I personally still prefer my chunky digital SLR any day.

If you are a content marketer, selling a product and you have recognized that you need to develop your lifestyle content to engage more customers: get creative. Pull out your camera, or your smartphone and start creating content. Take photographs everywhere, of everything, of people, of communities, of lifestyles. (Make sure you ask people for permission to take their photo, and their contact information in case you want to use that photo for promotional purposes.) Take photographs of products, too. No worries if you don’t use them in your content marketing strategy. They are there for you to use, if needed. Be creative in your photography. Try to get the best lighting, but don’t worry about staging or perfection. Strive for realistic depictions of life. Try to use common photographic principles to go for the pretty factor: rule of thirds, composition, backgrounds, viewpoint, depth, framing, cropping, etc.  Be creative about your narrative. Use the visuals to tell a story, but be sure to back it up with a textual narrative.

I am starting to feel like a cheerleader. 

Be Creative, Be Be Creative! C-R-E-A-T-I-V-E

"Washington Redskins Cheerleader" by Keith Allison

People want to make human connections. That connection begins with visual imagery that engages, and that relationship continues through interaction. We adore cheerleaders because they have enthusiasm, positivity and giant smiles. They encourage us to participate and build our own enthusiasm. And, I cringe to say this, they are visually appealing. The truth is, though, human nature is to seek pretty, to seek interaction, and to seek good feelings. It is these driving motivators that encourages marketers and advertisers to leverage attractive, realistic, narrative based content.

Start to use realistic photography in content marketing. Consumers can better connect with engaging, visually appealing, realistic lifestyle photos.