The brand identity

Peter Fenech visits Rosie Parsons to learn about her unique VIP photoshoot experiences tailored towards high-flying women in business

- Peter Fenech

After an early start, I find myself wandering around Exeter city centre, with a few hours to kill before I'm due to meet Rosie Parsons at her studio. As I admire the city's charming cathedral, I'm contemplating how the concept of brand identity has changed over the decades.

If you were to travel back to the 1960s, although business marketing was still vital, a photographer working at a regional level could almost guarantee some degree of success catering for their community, depending on their skill level, of course. Today, the internet has opened up previously unimaginable global business potential, yet with this has come serious challenges.

Being good at what you do is no longer the only factor in steering your success. An ability to define your unique qualities is now the best way to cut across the chatter and get a client's attention. In other words, you need to define your brand.

Branding is something Rosie Parsons does extremely well. Not only is her entire business model based around capturing the brand identity of successful businesspeople, but her own photographic services are tightly focused on conveying her own personality.

"If I'm going to be shooting someone else's branding, it's important that my own is clear," she says. Stepping into her cosy home studio, her branding is impossible to miss. It's almost like walking into one of the pages on her website.

Rosie's business has a unique aspect. Many photographers shoot headshots of people for commercial and self-promotional use, but Rosie offers more than the standard experience. Instead of travelling to her subject's office and capturing a slightly forced mugshot in drab surroundings, many of Rosie's clients come to her. At the studio, the shoot feels more like a get-together with friends, or even a house party.