Brands need images
Frank Reger, proprietor and managing director of Reger, Munich, on the power of images and establishing brands.
Mr. Reger, your company claims "images make brands". How do you and your customers actually set about doing this?
This claim illustrates the importance of images and large-format images for building up a brand in a way that our customers can immediately grasp. Customers recognise that they have found a partner who thinks on their level, who has the know-how to connect with their market strategy. This then forms the basis for advice with the choice of materials, staging and presentation. Our joint aim is optimum technical and economic implementation of the market strategy.
Do big images make big brands, or how do you explain the powerful impact of large-format pictures?
It's not just that big images make big brands, all images support large and small brands. The important thing is that they are part of a holistic concept - which covers not only print media but also displays, catalogues or web pages. For example, we have customers like BOSS where the powerful presence and logic of the images really is impressive. The large-format image is a major part of the campaign, especially for staging the brand at the POS.
Staging is important for leaving a lasting impression of a brand in the viewer's memory. What contribution can large-format pictures make?
Large-format pictures have a special emotional impact. Emotions have the power to convey messages even in a busy environment. Today, companies and brands set themselves apart through uniqueness and quality. So we have very many more exciting and demanding themes to work with than just five years ago. Reger always offers the latest implementation and presentation options. In the fashion world, we are currently observing a trend for changing large-format pictures at frequent intervals. The image may be changed several times in one season. We have to respond at shorter notice and faster than in the past. We can do this easily with systems like the "fabric_frame".
You break out of two dimensions with your images - for example, with the take-off project for BMW at Munich Airport. Does that heighten the impact of the images?
In the BMW project, we even added a fourth dimension: time. As observers walk past, their viewing angle changes and they get to see a second motif. This innovation, coupled with physical movement, is an additional way of leaving a last impression of the brand with people. Three dimensionality alone is not value added - it has to be linked to some idea to have meaning and stick in the mind.
In your opinion, do large-format prints have good prospects given the rise of multimedia large-format screens?
Both complement each other ideally - we even integrate on-screen presentations into pictures. Due to our achievements for well-known museums, galleries and photographic artists, we have noticed an increase in demand for contemporary photography. In today's fast-living world, there seems to be a craving for the values of a picture, for calm and permanence.
Interview: Anja Wagner
m+a report Nr.8 / 2005 vom 08.12.2005
m+a report vom 8. Dezember 2005