Without a suitable imagery and coherent photographs, a media appearance is unthinkable today. Fortunately, there is a remedy in the form of image databases on the Internet! But what is the legal situation with the use of their images?
Copyright
First of all, you should know that pictures and photographs are always subject to copyright. Thus, the author owns the license to the image and is able to prohibit any individual from commercial use.
Free image databases
All images from free databases such as Pixabay or Wikipedia Commons are exempt from copyright. In this case, the authors assign their licenses and give their rights to the public. But be careful! It is always advisable to read the terms and conditions, because “free” is a flexible term in this case. Authors have the option of assigning their licenses under conditions such as references and links. In addition, the material from free image databases, in contrast to fee-based databases, has the disadvantage that the quality is lower and the selection is much more scarce.
Fee-based image databases
As the name suggests, you will be asked to pay here. But that sounds much more negative than it is! Buying images always ensures a certain level of quality and service. Image databases such as gettyimages, fotolia, corbisimages, stockphoto or shutterstock have various price levels in which you can browse and often find what you are looking for in the low price segment. In general, however, the following applies: you get what you interpret.
Gettyimages, for example, has a premium section in which the images are rather more expensive in terms of price, but promise immense quality. The purchase requires a customer account where you can store bank details and pay online. Fotolia also rewards its customers with discounts and leaves invested money that is converted into fotolia credits well invested in the long term.
Commercial use
A corporate identity is indispensable for an appearance in blogs, print media, on websites or social media channels. This can be imagined as a set of design rules for dealing with images, fonts, arrangements and colours that represents a company.
This set of rules enables a personal presence, an identity. It is precisely this identity that sets guidelines for the selection of images, what the company wants to reflect, what imagery it wants to live in, and what should be presented to the customer. Every company has different ideas about what it wants to represent. Coca Cola, for example, relaunched its identity a few years ago. The Coca Cola Company is a guarantee of success, as it is almost unrivaled in the market and defines almost every lemonade with this brand.
However, a company like this also has to keep its finger on the pulse of the times in order to maximize sales figures. Coca Cola did this with a new selection of images that combines a liberal and life-loving aesthetic with cool RockstarTouch and leaves the purchase decision non-binding.
Only the new slogan “Taste the Feeling” invites surprises and experiences. The brand has always managed to position itself correctly. Whether it’s family get-togethers or the Christmas season, the best way to eat is always with a cold Coca Cola. The face has remained the same with the white lettering on a red background in the base. The only thing that is new in 2016 is that they move with the times and portray multicultural models in hipster garb. Society is becoming more and more homogeneous and adapted.
Coca Cola positions itself exactly in this middle and thus generates a large global family.
What other companies would simply lack the budget to supply every country, the cola finally makes with the cool touch top exclusive. Somehow, towards the end, you are still the star in the big family.