Marketers are masters at making strategic decisions. Every cause has an effect, and every choice made by a marketer delivers a particular result. 

When a marketing team selects images to implement within a marketing strategy, they don’t do so out of pure random spontaneity. They have a plan in mind with every move that they make. 

Let’s take a closer look at how marketing decisions influence your brand and why marketers make the decisions that they make. 

The Psychology of Marketing

The sole purpose of marketing is to develop satisfying relationships with customers that benefit both the customer and the organization. All relationships begin with forming a meaningful connection. 

But how we do build this connection between the business and the customer? Well, the answer is quite simple. We have to go back to our basic human instincts. 

The most successful marketing campaigns are based on a thorough understanding of the human condition. Every marketing decision is made by keeping the principles of human behavior in mind. Marketers ask questions such as:

“What does the audience want to see?” 

“How do we want the audience to feel?” 

“How can we make this more relatable?” 

The only way to figure out the right questions to these answers is to take a step back and think about what makes people tick. Also, marketing decisions revolve around the notion that people are generally indecisive.

Deciding on anything is easier said than done, which is why it’s a marketer’s job to make it easier for the consumer to decide. 

Choices are everywhere. Critical decisions may impact the entire infrastructure of a company. Conclusions that are more trivial (i.e., selecting their clothing for work or choosing what to eat for lunch) may not seem like that big of a deal.

Whatever the case may be, marketers strategize on persuading audiences to purchase products or services using images.

“Pictures are worth a thousand words.” 

Frequently, images substitute content because they provoke an emotional response that surpasses the efficacy of regular written text. This emotional response is what marketers aim to accomplish when selecting an image to showcase a brand.

They want the audience to cry, laugh, and resonate with the portrayed message in the picture. 

Building connections is what life is all about. Advertisements capitalize on those connections to relate to their audience’s on a personal note. When you reach someone on a personal note, it triggers something in their brain to stimulate their memory sensors. So when you create that connection with someone, they’re more likely always to remember you.

This is why marketers make the decisions that they make. They choose things precisely and act accordingly to make people remember your brand before anyone else’s.

Because we’re visual people, we’re inherently drawn to content that contains vibrant, appealing images. 

How Do Images Impact Your Audience?

When you look at an image, you’re looking at several components. You’re looking at what the subject is, what they’re doing, color schemes, clarity, textures, implemented content, and the list goes on and on. Images provoke a response from the viewer. 

This response is caused by stimulation in their brain that makes them think about what they’re looking at. 

Some people have a more severe response when looking at an image. Some people look at a picture of two people engaging in a loving embrace, and it strikes an empathetic chord with them that’s so significant that they begin to cry. 

Or perhaps it’s a humorous image a goofy animated character that brings out a laugh. Whatever the case may be, images are reflections of real life. They’re graphic adaptations of what we do, say, act, feel, taste, touch, hear, see, and so on. 

The main goal for any marketing project is to make people want the products and services that they’re trying to sell. It’s one thing to explain the benefits of the company, but it’s a whole other ball game to make people genuinely desire it. This is why marketers take people’s dreams and aspirations into consideration when making a marketing decision. 

What people want, what they need, and what they can afford are the most important factors to consider when marketing a business. What people want and what they need is often interchangeable, in which marketers make people think that a particular product and service is a necessity rather than a luxury. 

For instance, you’re a small business owner, and you see a commercial for a new Mercedes Benz. Then you see another ad for Hugo Boss, advertising their new suit and tie collection. These items scream “success,” which is what every small business owner wants. 

Marketers manipulate how you view these items through the use of cleverly placed images and persuasive content. They make you wholeheartedly believe that obtaining a new car and a new wardrobe is a necessity for you to become successful in your business. 

Then, you walk around all day obsessing about these items. You imagine yourself in that suit. You see yourself driving that car. You visualize your success growing and growing until you eventually cave in and whip out your wallet. 

Here, marketers are doing their job and doing it well. They’re making you think that you need something based on the simple fact that you want them. Then this brings us to the dealbreaker, which refers to what people can afford despite whether or not they need or want it. Marketers take this into account, and the business owner(s) come up with appropriate prices. 

Marketing Research 

When coming up with the right prices for products and services, research is critical. Marketers perform competitor analysis and compare prices from competing businesses so that they can come up with a price that makes sense. 

They don’t want to charge customers too much or too little for similar products or services, so competitor analysis is fundamental.   

Location is also crucial. Marketers research the nearby demographics so that they can target local audiences based on their age and income. The average net income of a group of people in a specific area is an excellent piece of information to gain for a business to establish their set prices. 

If they know that most people can afford to pay a certain amount, then it can be that much more profitable in the long run. 

If the products and services aren’t a necessity, but a luxury, then this kind of information is golden. 

Primary market research is tailored to your business’s specific needs. With observation, focus groups, interviews, surveys, and questionnaires to accompany a full competitor’s analysis, marketers will always have the upper hand. 

Information is power, and the more information gathered, the more likely a marketer can successfully persuade customers into choosing the company that they’re marketing.