PART2 / VISIONA few years back, Volkswagen wanted to reposition its
brand (value message), and after market research the
decision was made to target buyers who were connected to
the driving experience. The youth market (and those older
folks clinging onto their youth, your writer included) were
the target audience for Volkswagen as they created the
“Drivers wanted” campaign.
The focus was on the experience of driving: the fun, the
adventure. The images were full of energy, had a young
lifestyle feel, were a bit quirky, and contained a bit of dry
humor.
In the art buyers’ world, the photographers chosen to
shoot Volvo’s “safety” campaign images were most likely not
going to be the same folks that shot the “Drivers wanted”
images for the Volkswagen campaign. These campaigns had
completely different agendas. When a buyer is looking for a
photographer to create images that contain warm family,
connected moments (ones that represent keeping your
family safe), the books they call in and the Web sites they
cruise are not the same as those they would look for when
searching for talent that exhibits images that are fun, quirky,
and energetic.
While Volvo and Volkswagen produce the same type of
product, the look, feel, and value (branding message) to the
consumer of each product was vastly different. Consequently,
each car line developed a different audience and a different
sales message. The visuals that represented the sales communi-
cation also needed to speak the product message and thus
were very different from one another. The photographers
chosen for each campaign obviously needed to have different
visions as well.
This example is repeated many times a week. Companies
have specific messages to communicate to consumers. The
messages have a look and feel that calls for a specific type of pho-
tography. Art buyers are looking for the type of imagery that
speaks to the assignment in front of them. It is not unusual for
an art buyer at a mid-sized or large firm to need ten to fifteen
different photographers (each with a different vision) per week
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