These sites, and so many more like them, are obviously professionally laid-out by skilled web designers, people with a keen eye for type, and color and page balance. User Interface is very well thought out. And these sites, and so many more like them, use a liberal dose of stock photos (high quality, rather generic images that typically include models posed and photographed by people who know what they are doing) to make their points.
Which leads me to an article I read today. The headline of this post is in quotation marks because it is a direct quote. It is attributed to Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, the managing director of MECLABS. I don't know much about him or MECLABS but his statement was used to help make a point that websites can be much more effective if they stop using stock photography and start showcasing real people. Real employees. Real experts. Real customers.
The article is really based on a study conducted by IBM Software. They used to have a very relaxed, handsome, happily generic guy pictured on their homepage whom everyone connected with the site called "Happy Man." Here he is.
The study found that visitors of the website didn't like Happy Man. He lacked "authenticity." And a lack of authenticity could clearly lead to lost sales. Here's who they replaced Happy Man with, their team of experts.
Not as pretty. But certainly authentic. And it tested much better.
There is a lot of great stuff in the article I'm referring to and I'm not going to repeat it. Here's the link if you want to read it all:
http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/website-and-landing-page-design/lpo-photo-social-media/
I just want to leave you today by making a connection between this post and one of my posts from last week. Itdiscussed honesty in marketing.
Honesty... As important as I think it is in all marketing I think that it is probably more important in online marketing. This is due to expectations arising from social media. We all use it. We all know what to expect from it. It's real. Real life. Real people. That's why we love it and you work against all that if you are bringing in the easy, traditional solutions to your marketing. Like stock photography.
So keep it real folks!
— Pete Nikiel combines 20 years of marketing experience with clear, forward thinking. He is available to help out companies and agencies in a number of different ways. Think of him as your utility player on call. If you need any sort of help in marketing, branding and advertising contact Pete. Freelance. Project work. Part time. Full time.
Matt Tillotson - Pete, I think you nailed it. This slow change away from stock photography simply reflects the overall evolution of the web to one where the emphasis is on real people (via social media) -- not corporations with big marketing budgets.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the old-school Internet geeks (think Cluetrain Manifesto) would simply say the web is reverting back to its roots -- actual human beings -- but with a new technological layer on top.