Product Photography: Is it worth it?
A picture is worth a…you know the saying but what do your product images say about your brand? Do they tell a consistent story about what is inside of that bag of coffee or is it more of a mystery? We think about this often and it’s a very easy and relatively affordable way to increase trust between your roaster and your buyers as well as to increase overall sales.
Product images as priming
Something we talk a good bit about here at TLC is the concept of priming. If you aren’t familiar with the concept of priming it's quite simple. Think of your favorite band. Now, let's imagine that your favorite band was coming to town tonight and you had tickets! To get excited you might listen to their records all day while you work or go about your day. That feeling you get when you’re listening to those special tracks got something moving in your heart and probably got you excited to see them right? Then, when the lights went down and the crowd started to cheer as the band came out to the stage, you had so much excitement to see them and maybe a bit of warmth in your heart too. Well my friend, that…is priming. You primed yourself to see that band by listening to their songs in anticipation all day for the show tonight!
When we think of product images, this is the goal. They should get the buyer excited for what they are about to receive in the mail. This is done through having a high quality image paired with a well written description and all the technical information that specialty coffee buyers want and need.
Website Product Images
A few months back, I (Luke) was going through an engagement with a client for our sister company Pomelo Coffee Consulting. When we work with clients, part of our process is to order a few bags of coffee from the clients we work with. This does 3 things for us:
It gives us a sense for what the buying process & experience is.
It allows us to taste the clients coffee…our favorite part!
We can literally touch, feel and evaluate their physical packaging and branding.
In one of our recent engagements, we went through this process. The buying and receiving process was great, the coffee was super tasty, but the packaging…well, let's just say it didn’t look anything like what was on the website. Not to mention the labels weren’t accurate to the coffees that I had purchased.
Now, the above example is an extreme of this issue but it does highlight how important accurate product images are. You can understand why a consumer could have some distrust of a company who sent a product that didn’t look like what they ordered. Let's be honest, we’ve all been through the experience of buying something online that looked PERFECT in the photos but when it arrived, it was very much not what the images represented. You probably returned it or just threw that thing away. But what happens when this is your coffee? Will that buyer give you another chance? Or will they move on to another roaster that they trust more? More than likely it’s the latter.
Wholesale Product Images: Grocery and Alternative Channels
Most roasters have some amount of wholesale program that includes groceries and alternative channels like subscription services or even Amazon. This is where high quality product photos become very important! These channels have strict guidelines around what kind of images, in what style, and formats that they require. Typically, large groceries and channels like Amazon require product images to be high resolution, images that are crisp and clear even when zoomed in. No surprise here, but the images must accurately represent the product itself, the product must fill a minimum of 85% of the entire image and the background needs to be a neutral or white background. We recommend a white background for these channels.
How Product Images Help You
So how does this help you as a roaster? The reality is that folks connect with high quality images at a higher percentage than blurry, small, or low quality images. High quality images increase engagement as well as conversions. Data shows that buyers have a 67% higher likelihood of purchasing a product that has a high quality image associated with the product. 63% of online shoppers believe that the quality of an image is more important than the quality of the description itself. The point is, your photos are either driving sales or their driving buyers away.
One Request
The year 2001 called and wants their photography style back, so for the love of all things good, PLEASE stop putting spilled beans in ALL coffee photography. Friends don’t let friends use photos with spilled beans in them any more.
No matter what your wholesale, retail or DTC program looks like, good quality product images are crucial to representing your brand, the coffee and producers well. It also helps out in the sales department. So, if you aren’t sure where to start, we’re happy to point you in the right direction. If you’re thinking you might need product images for your company, this is a not so subtle plug for us to do them for you. Reach out at hi@thelevco.com or you can tap that button below and fill out the contact form.
Cheers folks!