Analysis #2--Ethnicity In Stock Images--How Many Are Used?
If you ask our clients, they will tell you they want images that show “ethnic diversity.” More than 30% of the population of the U.S. belongs to the black, hispanic, asian, or native American groups. Look at any projection of population trends, and you will see that this percentage will soon grow to more than 50%.
This seems reasonable. It makes sense that people want to use images in their ads, brochures, Web site, books, and magazine articles, that reflect this reality. The marketing departments of most large companies have finally realized that people of ethnic background have a large and rapidly rising buying power. That causes them to push their art people to give them relevant themes and designs.
OK, that is the theory. But, is it really true? Do image licensors really spend money on ethnic images? Or, is this one of those classic bait and switch deals, that are so common when people attempt to be politically correct. ("We tried to offer scholarships to people with ethnic backgrounds, but no one was qualified." "We tried to hire a more ethnically-diverse group of managers, but we couldn't find any good candidates.")
We have 15,000 images of ethnic people, in our library. That is 9% of the 165,000 people images we represent. Our marketing data goes back to 1992, and covers our sales activity with more than 130,000 U.S. customers, and more than 30,000 foreign customers. It should be possible for us to dig out the long term trends and get some solid feedback, on what is really happening.
My research revealed six main conclusions. Here are the first two:
1. People image licenses are dropping as a percent of all images licensed. Only 50% of the images we licensed last year are of people, compared to a peak 60% eight years ago. I suspect that our customers are avoiding using people in designs, when they can--it is the easy way to avoid picking what ethnicity to use, for a given situation!
2. Images of ethnically diverse people are growing steadily as a percentage of all people images licensed. From 2% or 3% of U.S. licenses in the early 90s, ethnic images have grown to more than 10% of all people-image uses. This still seems pretty meagre to me!
We can separate our foreign sales from our domestic ones. The foreign data showed a parallel trend, but a lower starting point (under 1%) and less progress (still less than 6%). If you talk to stock agencies in Europe, they will insist that they don't need images of people with ethnic backgrounds. This, despite the fact that ethnically diverse people represent 5.5% of the UK’s population, 7.4% of France’s population, and probably half of Germany’s 13.6% population of “foreigners.”
I won't make you wait until the last post in this series, to start giving you my opinions about what to do with this info. (Never let it be said that I held back on sharing my opinion!) But, I first have to share my view of what the future will bring. I see three possibilities:
A. Our customers will continue to avoid ethnicity, whenever possible. They will ask for ethnic images and then reject them as "not right" for the use at hand.
B. Ethnicity will become hot. We'll see a one-time shift to 50% images of ethnic people, rather than a "normal" balance of 30%.
C. Multi-cultural will become hot. We would see a huge demand for images that cross ethnic boundaries. This would show up through both the use of people of mixed background and via images of couples and groups that include several ethnicities, at once.
Which future will happen? Probably all three at once, in different parts of the market. The low end of the market (smaller design firms, small corporations, small businesses) will play it safe and follow path A. Some of the bigger marketing outfits will experiment with "all ethnic," path B-oriented campaigns. By getting out in front of the trends, they can find new customers and hope to build brand identities that will prosper and grow, as the world changes. Our mainstream customers may try to play safe, by using path C images.
How is that for a pessimistic attitude? If I am right (and who is ever right on things like this?), here is what Digital Image Marketers should be doing:
1. Keep making good images of "white" people. Hey, non-ethnic image licenses are 90% of the market still! Sure, SUVs are popular, but there are a lot of compact and full size cars being sold, too. Yes, light beer is hot. But, more regular beer is drunk, each day. Don't let a trend make you lose sight of where the big bucks are, now!
2. Decide if you can make a good image of people who have ethnic backgrounds. Let's face facts. Most of us don't relate well to people who are different from us. I happen to be an Asian Indian/Midwestern farmer mix. My wife is Mongolian. I could claim to be comfortable with any of these three groups. But, I'm probably an Ohioan at heart--and always will be. Midwestern attitudes, values, and culture are stamped on my soul. I'll appreciate other cultures, but always as an outsider.
But, you may not have to understand other cultures, to make images of them! That is because the folks that are using your images are just as lame and narrow-cultural, as we are. They WANT stereotypes and trite images, because that is how they think. Harry Selfridge said, "The customer is always right." Well, this may be yet another case where that bromide applies. (Here is a nice commentary on where Selfridge's ideas don't work, by Joanna Krotz.)
3. Go where most sane people would fear to tread, and create a new, mixed-ethnicity style. You'll be ahead of the crowd (probably ten years ahead, I am afraid!). But, you'll be making both art AND a statement. I just hope you can make enough money to pay the rent.
I've got a lot more to write about this, but one chunk at a time. To close, I want to give you the links that will let you see our images for each of our different ethnicities:
Take a look at these images and tell me what you notice about them. Go ahead and be critical. I'd like to know what you feel about them.
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