For ProMark, a Danish software company, the transition from product sales to cloud-based solutions required a fresh approach to branding.
In an era dominated by social media and online interactions, establishing trust and forging connections have become crucial for businesses. Negative reviews and feedback can significantly impact a company’s reputation, making it essential to showcase professionalism and reliability. Employee portraits provide a unique opportunity to humanise a brand and create a sense of authenticity. While traditional branding methods often revolve around products, ProMark understood that their new brand could serve as a powerful tool to involve all stakeholders.
An overlooked opportunity
While product-based companies have a tangible object to serve as a branding focal point, software companies face unique challenges. As software sales shifted from physical boxes to downloads and cloud-based solutions, a new approach to creating a cohesive brand identity became necessary.
One often overlooked opportunity for branding lies in the portrayal of employees. Employee portraits offer a chance to showcase a company’s culture, values, and professionalism to customers, partners, and remote colleagues. Through standardised photography techniques, effective communication, and respect for privacy, ProMark recognised the potential of employee portraits in strengthening their identity and brand.
“Getting streamlined, professional and uniform corporate portraits required an equally professional approach. Eikonice provided that – and saved time and resources in the process.”
Torkel Olrik,
CEO ProMark
Key takeaways from ProMark
Successfully building and implementing a portrait guide as part of the rebranding tought a few valuable lessons
Involve a professional photographer from the get go
Bold and strong? Calm and soothing? Corporate or wild? The valuable sparing and insights from a professional photographer, will form the important basis for the style and design choices that will eventually shape the portrait guide.
The guide starts before the first portrait is taken
To ensure uniformity, the guide should not only describe the final result, but also the way to achieve it. Distances, positions of lights and information about lenses, such as aperture and focal length, are all part of building a setup that can be replicated again and again, as new people join the organisation.
Automation and process is key
After the portrait is taken and approved by the person, a number of different images has to be created to meet the different needs of the organisation. This means different adjustments, crops, colour looks, backgrounds and much more depending on the usecase. Without proper automation, this can be a daunting task. A tool handling and automating the process, such as eikonice, is an absolute necessity.
“The Eikonice platform has given us a much faster, smoother and uniform handling of employee portraits — and greater employee satisfaction in the process”
Kirsten Malmborg Rønne,
Marketing Coordinator
Organisational commitment is a must
To achieve success, the decision to implement a portrait guide as part of the brand, must be rooted in top level management. It is a strategic decision and should be an integral part of the whole branding process. After all, why not include the organisation’s most important assets in the brand?
The people are the brand
As ProMark expanded its operations globally, corporate portraits played an important role in fostering a sense of unity among employees. By treating all employees equally and including them in the process, ProMark build a brand which included a shared identity, thus transcending geographical boundaries. Through standardised photography techniques, effective communication, and respect for privacy, ProMark ensured that every employee portrait reflected the company’s values and message.
Long-term benefits
ProMark successfully integrated employee photography into their onboarding process. By capturing professional portraits of all new hires from day one, ProMark emphasised their commitment to building a strong corporate identity and made employees feel valued as active team members. This strategic approach not only fostered a sense of belonging but also set the tone for a consistent and compelling representation of the team in the future. As ProMark embarked on its journey to become an international player, corporate portraits were an element in their success.
From local to global
Through consistent imagery, efficient processes, and a focus on their values, ProMark showcased their professionalism, reliability, and commitment to excellence. As a result, ProMark’s transition from a local Danish software company to a global workforce management leader was bolstered by including corporate portraits in their rebranding.