good photography and the art of marketing expensive cars.

Ricky91t

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

also i'm in the market for a car, and was messing about on some dealers websites and one dealer - who i won't mention - that is selling cars worth in excess of 300,000 euro (probably narrows down who i'm talking about lol) has shots of their aston martins or their ferrari's taken with a off the shelf P&S which does nothing to sell the car. i'd love to go and offer my services, even though i've never photographed a car in my life unless it got into the frame inadvertingly, but i'm sure i could do a better job than some salesman that was asked to bring in his camera to put some pictures up online.

Most people who are in the market for a car of that value probably know it inside out anyway,the photo is probably just proff of colour etc

challengemaster

Still though, it sometimes can be the attractive looks of the car in a decent picture that will make or break it.

If you take a picture of a lambo after being dragged through a muddly field, covered in muck and dirt, and some farmer lad sitting on the bonnet scratching his nards...do you really think someone would want to buy it?

Compare that to a nice rig shot of the car or something like this or something similar...

Creamy Goodness

Ricky91t wrote: »

Most people who are in the market for a car of that value probably know it inside out anyway,the photo is probably just proff of colour etc

that could be said for any product that's at the pinnacle of their product market.

a photo of a expensive product to me is icing on the cake, i want something to look good before i buy it, a good photo does this for me but seeing noisy, pixelated photos and poorly framed photos selling a car makes me a sad panda :pac:

Ricky91t

lol i can't belive this i'd picture it as you've just won a couple of million in the lottery you want a sports car,Search the dealer nearest to you,and you're looking forward to showing it off to your friends,But then you see the photo it's terrible you don't buy it..Instead you see a nissan micra advert on TV it's got a rig camera on it motion blur etc..You buy it cause it looks great and the detail of the car was perfect...If that was the case the Tv would be riddled with adverts of lambogini's,Ferrari's and Bugatti's but instead they sell themselves.

That's just my opinion sorry for the OT'ness

challengemaster

It's not really that you'd go and buy a micra, jeez, I don't think anyone should ever...

It's just i'd consider it as something that might draw me more towards buying that car instead of a different one of the same cost. You're weighing both up in your mind, but in the end whichever one looks best to you, you buy. Hence why a decent pic of it could factor in..

Calina

mod note: split off from the Dream Assignment thread.

_________________________

I think you'll find it's a question of detail. If you're going to want to spend a quarter of a million on a sports car (and actually the one I want cost 630,000 pounds sterling on release in 1994), you're going to want to know your money is not going to a fly by night who does not know how to do anything properly, including producing marketing material for the car. Crappy photographs of a Lamborghini Diablo (which was my second favourite sports car after the McLaren F1) will not sell the Lamborghini when there's a brooding looking glossy picture of a Maserati on the website of the dealer two doors down. Also, if there are two Lambo dealers within helicopter distance of each other, who's going to get the sale, the guy with the properly produced marketing stuff and high class photos, or the guy who pulled out his Cybershot and has a website of design ca 1994 on it? There's a reason product photographers can charge a fortune. Companies are willing to pay for it because they see a return. Otherwise, everything would still be black and white mimeographed.

If I were going to photograph a luxury car, it'd still be the McLaren F1. Yes, there are a couple of nice Lambos out since, and there's always a Ferrari there or there about but no car has ever floated my boat, ever, like the McLaren. I saw one once, saw the engine, saw the details. It was the most beautiful are going as far as I'm concerned. I would love to get a chance to photograph one.

Ricky91t

I think photographs of the car should be done by the manufactor but don't see the point in the dealer going to the trouble..As i really do believe it sell's it's self..I'm sure the first thing a rich business man/woman see's when he/she looks at the car on the site is "wow that photo is stunning" i'm sure it more along the lines of look at alloys,body shape etc and the next thing to do is go and look at it in the skin...

The same could be said about a house the most expensive thing most of us will buy how many of you noticed the crappy photo first and then thought "no i'm not going to even look at that" even if you knew it was perfect for you..

Borderfox

I think the dealer should go to the trouble and even more so in the current climate, they should be giving their marketing a local feel using local landmarks instead of the generic shots that come from the manufacturer

DeVore

<business consultant hat on>

If it doesnt make you money, or save you money, in the short medium or long term, its a vanity you should be excising from your P&L sheet.


That said, if it makes even a couple of buyers even a few percent more likely to buy a Lambo from you then a Ferrari from the other guy, then its more then done its job.

DeV.

Tactical

Been lurking in the background watching this thread with much interest.

I have two points of view.

One is that as a photographer, businesses should present their product / service in the best possible way. So if a shoddy photograph represents that product or service it reflects badly on the vendor. As a photographer I see an opportunity where ever I see a bad "business" photograph.

The second point of view I have is not dis-similar to my first. In that if a business represents itself with a poor photograph it makes me wonder if the service or produt they provide is equally unimportant to them.

Ok, yes I agree that a car can pretty much sell itself especially if the buyer knows what they are looking for. But speaking as a person who has looked at vehicles on-line before travelling, I sometimes find that the shots can be poor enough for me not to bother making the journey. A better more detailed shot may entice me to investigate further.

So in conclusion, photography of any item or service no matter how well known by the public is very important (even more important in the case of a second hand item and I won't even go into what estate agents are posting on their advertising sites...:mad:). After all, a photographer wouldn't advertise with poor work so why should any other business be different? A professional approach can help business.