by: David Wigder
Images are powerful marketing tools. For marketers, they provide powerful stimuli that can augment messaging and influence consumer behavior and beliefs. Here are a few suggestions for marketers using visual images in the green space:
Chose the right image. Images can affect change by amplify existing or associating new attributes with a brand or marketing messages. In the green category specifically, imagery has the potential to evoke strong emotional responses from individuals with a vested interest in or passion for the category.
Today, consumers have preconceived notions about what colors and images are aligned with green. Research prepared through a partnership between the Yankelovich Group and Getty Images (“Going Green”, Yankelovich Group webinar, June 27, 2007) yielded powerful insights regarding green imagery: consumers believe that the color “forest” green and images of actual forests, (followed by images of water including oceans, rivers and streams), are the most representative of the environment (based on a palate of green color and image stimuli that consumers were exposed to during research). As such, marketers should carefully consider color palate and image selection in order to align with existing consumer perceptions associated with the environment. (Getty hosts a gallery of powerful green images on its site).
Track how visual language is evolving. How consumers interpret and understand “visual language” is continually evolving. Understanding this evolution can provide marketers with valuable insights to drive successful campaigns. Here is one example: As part of its research with Yankelovich, Getty identified “key concepts that will influence the future of visual language” in green. The key concepts include the following:
- The Future
- Goodness
- Simplicity
- Legacy
- Inheritance
- Purity
- Care
- Trust
- Sustainability
- Fresh & Clean
For marketers, such concepts provide relevant ways to connect consumers with green and should be considered when crafting a marketing campaign.
Moreover, green marketers should take note of emerging patterns across these concepts. For example, four concepts – “the future”, “legacy”, “inheritance” and “sustainability” relate to what we leave for our children. Additionally, words like “goodness”, “purity” and “fresh and clean” may perhaps evoke a sense of natural goodness. (“Going Green,” June 27, 2007).
Pick images that allude to ideas beyond the stated message. Unlike the written word, images “elude empirical verification”. This enables marketers to leverage the suggestive potential of an image without being held accountable to the degree that you would be if making written or verbal “product claims or political promises”. (Schroeder, Jonathan, “Introduction to the Special Issue on Aesthetics, Images and Vision”, Marketing Theory, 2006; 6; 5)
Let visual imagery influence new product development and design. Today, marketers typically choose images as part of the overall strategic branding or marketing campaign tactics. However, given the strong association by consumers of certain images with green, marketers (and product managers) may want to turn this approach on its head. Instead, companies should consider perhaps developing products that more closely “fit the image” of green already held by consumers, rather than the other way around. To do so, product designers and green marketers should leverage this imagery to inspire new designs and shape marketing initiatives. (Schroeder, 2006).
