Which is Best for Your Brand? Lifestyle Photography vs. Product Focused Photography

Elevating your craft spirits brand to the next level on Instagram means building a balanced brand narrative with a thoughtful approach. It’s about more than just getting content in front of people daily. Social media is the most efficient, direct, and cost-effective way to promote your brand and reach your potential customers authentically. One of the best ways to achieve this is through an engaging social plan that is a blend of product-focused content and lifestyle themes. So what does that mean exactly? 

Displaying your spirit in the forefront and showcasing the product with product-focused photography on Instagram expands your brand awareness. At the same time, posting content that showcases the moments and moods your product evokes helps to weave a story around the spirit and define the “why” and “who” your craft spirit is targeting. 

Product Forward

• Turning the spotlight onto the product itself in your social media posts helps consumers identify your bottle among the competitors. While that may seem like a pretty basic notion, you’d be surprised how many posts don’t have the product in it. Letting your craft spirit be front and center means generating content where the product is the star, not the moment or the experience the post revolves around. 
• Examples
  • Two James Distillery
    • If you check out the Two James Distillery Instagram feed, the first thing you’ll notice is that in nearly every post you’ll find the Two James Distillery logo or label. From the classic industrial brick building to the scrolling words across the bottle the artistic logo is almost always present. 

• • Manifest Distilling
    • Florida’s organic craft distillery makes sure you know what you should be drinking on its Instagram by ensuring the is label prominent in posts. Visual repetition trains the consumer’s eye to look for the distinctive font or recognizable logo, which Manifest Distilling does well on social media. 

Lifestyle Forward

• Creating an experience where your brand lives in the moment rather than at the center of it, offers another avenue to expanding your brand narrative. Showcasing the mood, theme, and tone your craft spirit elevates the story of your brand and how your product brings an experience to life.
• Examples
  • Tin Cup Whiskey 
    • One of the best examples of experience-focused content comes from the adrenaline junkies at Tin Cup Whiskey. Choosing to put the consumer and viewer in the moment, shows the possibilities of the product. Showcasing hiking, exploring and nature, Tin Cup Whiskey highlights the experience the whiskey is designed for, generating a drive within the target audience to join the adventure.
  • Hangar 1 Distillery 
    • Fusing moments of craft distilling, picture-worthy cocktails, and an enchanting aviation theme, Hangar 1 Distilling creates a brilliantly sculpted brand. Showcasing some behind-the-scenes shots as well as cocktails in the nature, Hangar 1 Distilling promotes a product that can be enjoyed both in a high-end bar or on the trail. 

Takeaway

• Finding a balance between focusing on the product and the brand name along with the stories it evokes brings together a solid foundation for the brand. Consumers respond to the mood a brand creates with how their product can be enjoyed, but at the same time forming a solid brand awareness through placement and content-focused photography is a necessity for expanding market reach.