Successfully marketing building products requires investment in great photography.

Over the years, LarsonO’Brien has built a small but highly effective stable of reliable, high-quality, yet surprisingly affordable photographers who have a knack for capturing a building product, in the field, installed in its finished application, just right. For an exterior product – a wall panel, a roof, a window, a railing - they wait patiently for favorable weather conditions, for the magic hours at dawn and dusk, then deftly apply their talent to squeeze every last ounce of beauty and imagination from their subject. Countless times it’s happened to me that, when I view a building through the vision of a professional architectural photographer for the first time, I’m stunned at how little it resembles a snap shot, seen earlier, taken by the amateur photographer (usually a salesperson) of the same building in the same relative position. A real pro makes good-looking building products, great looking. And in this business, aesthetics matter, and sell.

That’s why I’m baffled when I flip through Arch Record, Architect, or Arch Products and see ads featuring subpar photography. Doesn’t the ad manager know he or she is wasting a golden opportunity? They were given a budget to run full-page ads in expensive magazines that reach their most important target, and what do they put there for all to see? Another flat, grainy (or pixelated) and uninspiring photo, taken by an amateur or someone who should pursue another career path. In these cases the advertiser may, in fact, be further ahead by running no ads at all. Google David Ogilvy on bad advertising and the phenomenon of unselling a product.

Fortunately, LO clients “get it” with photography. And if they don’t get it completely at first, they catch on soon with gentle coaxing. Yesterday I received Architectural Products’ 2010 Media & Advertising Guide. I was pleasantly surprised to see several of our clients’ photographs gracing the cover and insides of this publication. Tim Shea, the magazine’s managing partner, obviously gets it too. Great photography sells.

Here are a few of my favorite client photos: