In a world where we are exposed to as many as 10,000 marketing messages a day, fit-for-purpose imagery has never been more important.

Brands are now not only competing to be seen, they are competing for attention. The human brain is getting better at filtering out irrelevant information and our attention spans are around eight seconds. So how do we cut through the noise and produce valuable content that makes our customers stop and take notice?

The short answer is imagery. But not just any old picture. The picture must be informative, action-oriented and easily digestible. “An image is worth more than a thousand words”, explains Franchise Buyer Founder, Glenn Walford. “It can mean the success and sale of a business."

Presenting franchise businesses to the market

Since day one, Franchise Buyer’s vision has been to play an integral role in presenting franchise businesses to the market in a way that does justice to the investment owners make. “We care about the way brands and businesses for sale are presented” explains Glenn. “It’s always baffled me and really defies logic, why the business and franchise sales market has not lifted its game and properly invested in professional photography to present such enormous assets for sale. We spend hundreds or thousands of dollars staging houses for sale, yet for a business that can be valued anything between around $50,000 to five million, we do nothing”.

Brand messaging

To address the issue, Franchise Buyer and Top Snap have formed a strategic alliance. This new partnership has come at the perfect time, allowing Franchise Buyer to continue to build on and implement its broader national vision: To most effectively and efficiently connect buyers to sellers, and vice versa.“I was seeking an alliance that could help address the problem we knew brands were having: brand storytelling; the ability to convey their brand messaging correctly”, explains Glenn. “I searched for the right partner until I found the franchise group Top Snap. I knew straight away they were a natural fit, having been in the professional photography business for more than10 years. Top Snap understands the importance of visual content impact and has a network of professional media service providers across most major metropolitan areas”.

Top Snap owner and CEO, Ralf Barschow, says, “We are excited about our new partnership with Franchise Buyer as we are naturally passionate about franchising, especially on a Franchise-to-Franchise (F2F) basis”. Unlike other professional photography agencies, Top Snap’s highly trained and experienced team provides a personalised and tailored service. Ralf explains: “Top Snap photographers are specifically trained to shoot property (be it commercial or residential), and are experts in capturing your people working in your space. Our photographers come directly to offices, stores or shopfronts and within a very short time frame you can have visually appealing photos that bring your brand and business to life”.

Imagery

After more than 15 years in the industry, Glenn has found that many brands are trying to use consumer-related marketing imagery and messaging at both the consumer and business opportunity(recruitment) marketplace, but they aren’t the same market. “There is a distinct difference in the type of imagery you would use for consumer and then business related opportunities”, shares Glenn. “For example, for a pizza business, if you were trying to sell a franchise opportunity you wouldn’t put a picture of a slice of pizza that might be amongst the imagery but the store front and foot traffic walking past the business are the types of images you want to use”.

“Business-in-action and presentation shots”, as Glenn describes them, shouldn’t be undervalued. “Many franchises haven’t given enough thought to the types of imagery they are using. They go and get stock images that don’t match their brand or messaging. The impact a fit-for purpose image has as opposed to a generic image is huge”.