"I knew from the start that great photography would help increase sales but thought we couldn't afford it,” says Cindy Devore owner of Valley Green Naturals a manufacturer of personal care products in the Piedmont region of Virginia. 

After moving from Washington DC to the hills of Northern Virginia Cindy, and her husband Art, wanted to become more self-reliant. They started making soap for their family and selling it locally. The soaps were a huge hit. In 2009, with a budget of $250, Cindy founded the company with the idea of producing natural personal care products. Today the company has grown to offer 30 different products that are carried by large organic retailers such as Whole Foods and sold internationally.

“When I started to get excellent feedback on the quality of my products, I was motivated to take the company to a higher level of sales”. With a background in marketing and communications Cindy knew how important was to use quality images to show her products. “I needed to upgrade our photography, but we had very little cash flow. Also being in a rural location, I didn't know where to begin to look for a photographer with the skills to make our products look great”.

Via U! collaborated with Cindy to create new photography for Valley Green Naturals. “Our clients know best how to talk to their customers. We listen and then make some suggestions on what images we think can help make their argument more convincing. Mariano Pastor, founder of Via U!, says “ Cindy was taking her own pictures and had a clear idea of what she wanted us to help accomplish. The photography we created for her brand is similar to the pictures she was taking by herself - we just did it a lot better”.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, to Valley Green Naturals it has been thousands of clicks. According to Cindy traffic to her website went up by 450%, with about 15,000 per month. over the first seven months after she upgraded her photography. Sales increased substantially too. “We found that by year's end, our sales, compared to the previous year, had gone up by over 400%. In our second year, our revenues had increased by over 1,000%.”

Ask your hairstylist what brand clipper he uses and chances are good that it will be a Wahl. Leo J. Wahl invented the hair clipper in 1919 and ever since the company he founded has carried forward a tradition of innovation and quality. “It is very special to work for a family business that has been around for such a long time.“ says director of marketing, Lance Wahl. “We want to make the best hair clipper we can and for that reason we keep all manufacturing in the US and Germany” Facing higher labor costs the company stays competitive by finding efficiency in everything else they do.

Lance Wahl believes that their long tradition can be a double edge sword. “As a company with a long history, one of the biggest challenges we have is that our products can be perceived as old. We are continuously updating products with new technologies and marketing our products with new messages. Photography is an important part of how Wahl shows its products. “I like working with Via U! - great photography at a great price”. 

“When Wahl become our client I thought here is a company that really gets it.” says Via U! founder Mariano Pastor. “The truth is that quality photography does not have to cost that much. We created Via U! with the idea of making advertising photography available to the small business budget. Here is a company that gives employment to thousands and sells products in 165 countries, we are delighted to have been chosen to help in their worldwide marketing efforts too”.