Quote from: stockastic on September 13, 2009, 20:21

Quote from: hiddenstock on September 02, 2009, 03:07

I just wonder why unique and rare images should be in front of good stock photos on a stock site. 

That would be my question too.  Looking at many of the Vetta images I think - nice, clever, but why would anyone buy it? Maybe this just shows I know nothing about the people buying stock images.

I think IStock wants an artsy image, because many stock buyers are artsy types, even if the images they actually buy are pretty mundance.

Simple answer is brand marketing, and like any other storefront they put the interesting stock 'which is often not thier best sellers' on show, look around at other marketing methods, the main dealer car showrooms do not put the small affordable run-around or family car in prime spot but the top of the range fully loaded vehicle, why is this, because you already know they sells the staple products you see every day so they do not need them displayed as you walk in, but they will put a promotion or limited edition vehicle on display to catch the buyers eye, and once they are attracted into the store to have a look, hope to sell them the display vehicle or other more affordable products from the range and within thier budget, and once the prospect or customer knows that the showroom has different and interesting products on display they might pop back to have a look at what is new.

You may walk past hundreds of shop windows every day without a second glance, but there will be one or two that you may pause at becase you know they often have a fresh display of interesting products.

David     

^  I don't agree - it depends - they may be searching for regular stock or they may be looking for something special, but the "rare and unique" stuff tends to be less popular and gets lost in the regular stuff.

So it makes sense to show off the special stuff at the top, so they can at least get a taste of it without having to wade through pages of more standard images.

I do think though that Vetta images should be more obviously seen as "different" (and hence warn the buyer that they cost more) by, say, putting a different border on them and reserving the top row or something.  Sort of like iStock have done at the stock.xchng site.