Marketing, Advertising, and Product Photography Essentials

Posted on Mar 7, 2025 in Marketing

Gestalt Theory

Gestalt theory explains how humans react to different visual stimuli. Key principles include:

  • Similarity
  • Proximity
  • Symmetry
  • Closure
  • Figure-Ground

Marketing Fundamentals

Marketing is a communication field focused on presenting the value of a product or service to customers, with the goal of selling that product or service.

Advertising

Advertising is a form of marketing communication used to persuade an audience to take or continue a specific action. An advertisement is a specific advertising product.

Public Relations

Public relations is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public.

The 4 P’s of Marketing

The 4 P’s are: Price, Product, Promotion, and Place.

Place refers to the geographical location where the product will be sold.

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a population toward a specific cause or position.

Promotion

Promotion is a key element of the marketing mix, frequently used in marketing campaigns.

Product Life Cycle

  1. Introduction
  2. Growth
  3. Maturity
  4. Decline

Pricing

Price decisions are crucial for a marketing campaign.

Factors influencing pricing decisions:

  • Production Costs
  • Competitive market conditions
  • Competitors’ prices
  • Marketing objectives

Pricing Strategies:

  • Cost-based pricing
  • Competition-based pricing
  • Market-based pricing

Key Objectives of a Promotional Campaign

  • Inform: Alert the market to a firm’s products.
  • Persuade: Encourage customers to purchase, switch from rival brands, and build brand loyalty.
  • Remind: Retain customer awareness and interest in an established product.

Types of Promotion

  1. Above-the-line promotion: Uses paid mass media sources (internet, TV, magazines, etc.).
  2. Below-the-line promotion: Uses non-mass media promotional activities (free samples, discount coupons, etc.).

Promotional Mix (AIDA)

  • Awareness: Inform customers that your product exists.
  • Interest: Generate curiosity about the product.
  • Desire: Make customers want the product.
  • Action: Encourage customers to purchase the product.

Advertising Spiral

  • Pioneering: Introduce new ways of conveying a marketing message.
    • Show the product.
    • Establish a need.
    • Illustrate how the product satisfies that need.
  • Competitive: Demonstrate how your product is superior.
  • Retentive: Used when consumers are already familiar with the product.

Market and Brand

Market

A market is a group of people sharing characteristics, interests, and problems.

Market Segmentation

  • Demographic (age, sex)
  • Geographic
  • Product Usage
  • Lifestyle (education, income, residence, marital status)

Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is the process of identifying a market problem or opportunity and developing solutions based on market research, segmentation, and supporting data to achieve a business goal.

Top of Mind

TOP OF MIND: The first brand that comes to mind.

Product Photography

Basic Photography

1. Exposure Settings

  • ISO: Sensitivity of the digital sensor to light.
  • Aperture: The opening through which light travels.
  • Shutter Speed: The length of time the shutter is open.

2. White Balance

White balance neutralizes strong colors and adjusts the color temperature of light in a scene.

3. Composition Techniques

  • Rule of Thirds
  • Leading Lines
  • Pattern
  • Framing
  • Color
  • Texture