Marketing by Design

Managing the Creative Process - Part 2

2007-04-22T23:38:00.000-05:00

KEEPING THE PROJECT ON TRACK

With all of the technology today aimed at accelerating our lives, how is it that marketing projects seem to take longer than ever to complete? We can communicate in an instant and production processes have reduced timelines from weeks to days. Yet still, it’s difficult to prevent projects from stalling somewhere along the line.

Here are a few tips to help you keep projects moving?

1. Run your project like a cruise ship.
To arrive at the final destination on time, it must leave each port on time, whether every team member is on board or not. If the deadline is real, then the schedule must be kept.

2. Complete a creative brief.
This document will outline the objectives of the project for all to agree. This is not only helpful to the firm, it's sometimes the only thing that prevents a project from spinning off course when a committee member suddenly introduces a new thought long after the project is on its way to completion. Simply restating the objectives or referring to the creative brief can head off these sudden U turns.

3. Establish the ground rules.
Clearly communicate with the person who initiated the project. Let them know what you need from them to fulfill their request, and let them know the consequences if they don't hold up their end of the bargain.

4. Educate the review team.
Explain to your team that creativity is a process which can be short circuited by long delays. It’s important to maintain momentum once the project has begun since long delays in an approval stage can sometimes mean restarting the creative process from the beginning.

5. Remember inertia.
A project in motion tends to stay in motion and a project at rest will stay at rest. This point may be the most simplistic, but it's also the most important.

Hopefully something here is helpful to you as you try to complete the work you are assigned. I certainly understand the difficult challenges marketing professionals face and will continue to do what I can to help.

I touched a bit on the topic here but my next article will delve more deeply into the challenges of managing internal resources.

Managing the Creative Process - Part 1

2007-03-30T07:37:00.000-05:00

In a perfect world, my clients would be completely empowered by their company to make all of the creative decisions on their projects. They would be held accountable only to the final results. They would be self-confident and decisive because they've been entrusted with this responsibility. They would take advantage of my expertise and consider my counsel. Together, we would do exciting work. Projects would fly by due to the streamlined approval process and the two of us would bask in the praise that resulted from our collaborations.

Don't laugh, this does happen once in a while.

But it isn't a perfect world, it's business in the 21st century. Nearly every client has a committee to report to. Every concept, every headline, every image needs to be reviewed by the committee. We all know the joke about the camel — a horse designed by committee. Well, we can complain about it all we want, it isn't going away. The question is, how can we possibly do great work when this is the business world we live in?

I have worked on thousands of branding and marketing projects in my life, and have seen the best and the worst of approval processes. This article is the first in a series on how to effectively manage the creative process. I hope to provide some useful information for many of you who are faced with the challenge of being the intermediary between the creative firm and the committee. I will share many do's and don'ts that can make your work easier and more gratifying.

Topics will include:

• Keeping the Project on Track
• Managing the Internal Team
• How to Evaluate Creative
• Getting the Most from Your Creative Firm

So come back next week for Part 2 of this series. Who knows, one day you might find that your workplace has become the one that I described at the beginning of this article.

Marketing Technology

2007-03-22T22:12:00.000-05:00

You've seen the commercials.

A stark white background and a simple piano ditty. They start the same. "Hello, I'm a Mac." says the cool young guy. And the nerdy one replies, "And I'm a PC." And they all end the same - with PC humiliated and Mac looking oh, so smug. It's a great series of commercials that simply and cleverly drive home the advantages of Macs over PCs. And as a Mac guy myself, of course I think they're brilliant.

But here's the rub. These two could just as easily have started the commercial by saying, "Hello, I'm a designer." with the instant reply "And I'm the client."

Who's laughing now?

For the majority of my career as a designer, I've worked for engineers. I've developed ads targeted at engineers selling products developed by engineers who work for companies run by engineers. In fact, if I could attribute the success I've had to one thing, it's an ability to communicate effectively with engineers and translate their messages into something that's accessible to the rest of us mere mortals. In fact, it's such an important aspect of what I do that a recent self-promotion we created for our firm is built upon the simple phrase, "We speak Geek."

So, what are my secrets to working successfully with technology companies?

1. Do your homework and ask smart questions.

2. Get excited about what they're excited about. If you can't get worked up over parallel processing and interoperability, then you shouldn't be working with technology companies.

3. Show them their world as they've never seen it before.

4. Pay attention to details and have a good reason for every decision you make.

5. Keep one foot grounded in their world. Designers like to work with analogies and metaphors, but if we push it too far, the message loses all relevance to the engineering audience.

6. Know who the intended audience is. The subject may be technical but who are you talking to? We may recoil at all of the acronyms and technical terms but if that's the language of the intended audience, you better learn the language and use it. If the message is aimed at the layperson, it's our job to serve as the translator.

Do these things and before you know it, some of your best friends will be PCs.

A Better Mousetrap? Who knew?

2007-03-21T09:34:00.000-05:00

MouseTrap V.6 is about to be released. The product development team is so proud of what they've created that they've even designed a logo for it. They just need someone to clean it up. Press releases have already been issued focusing on the newest bells and whistles. The sales force is using the product's code name which was never intended to see the light of day. Operations is ramping up to keep up with the expected flood of orders. Then someone asks, "Does anyone out there need this product?"

Many of the small and emerging companies I meet with continue to be product-focused rather than market-focused. They develop products because they must rather than as a result of a demonstrated need. From an outside perspective, this is clear to see during our very first meeting. The discussion starts and ends with the product's exciting new features and often in the form of clever acronyms. They can always explain how their product is superior to the competitors' products, but often there is not a clear understanding of why anyone would need it. Most companies cannot devote precious marketing dollars to a serious research study so branding and marketing decisions must be made on available data, anecdotal information and personal opinion.

It's better than it used to be. Today, there is a greater appreciation of the need for branding and marketing. Most now understand that the best mousetrap in the world will never sell unless people know about it, understand that they have a need for it and believe that purchasing their mousetrap is going to improve their life.

This is one of the values that we offer as designers and communicators. We bring objectivity and critical thinking to the table. We have not been tainted by the internal dialog that has taken place. We are not burdened with the history or the politics involved. We are the customer. We listen to the sales pitch and we, like the customer, wait to be convinced.

In these situations, it's the job of the designer to take what has been developed and make it relevant for the customer. It's not the optimal approach to product marketing, but it can work. We do it all the time.

The Strategic Designer

2007-03-20T10:42:00.000-05:00

(Originally published in The Boston Business Journal, May 24, 2002)

For both buyer and seller, the business of communication gets more complicated by the day.

Businesses have an increasingly complex story to tell. With mergers and acquisitions, competition around every corner, and products that are difficult to describe, the temptation is to explain everything to everyone at every opportunity.

Customers are bombarded from every direction with advertising, free offers and can't-miss opportunities. Where once there were one or two companies in a particular niche, there are now dozens, all competing for the buyer's shrinking attention span.

With the need to communicate ever more complex messages to their audience, businesses have begun to seek out graphic designers for everything from brand development and product naming to the development of the company's mission-critical Website. More and more, designers are being invited to participate in branding and strategy discussions. As a result, a new breed of designer has emerged - the Strategic Designer.

What qualifies the Strategic Designer to sit at the table with senior management, discussing brand loyalty, launch plans and marketing strategies? Very few designers are trained in business or marketing, and I've yet to see a graphic designer with an MBA. What can these creative individuals offer to the process of developing a company's brand strategy?

The answer is easy to understand if you look at the attributes that are required to be a successful designer.

• Designers are organizers. They have the ability to create order from chaos. They've refined the skill and spend their workdays breaking down complex business stories into bite-size chunks. Difficult concepts are reduced to a simple graphic. Complex organizations are captured in a single logo. A box full of research and background information is assimilated and converted to a simple visual solution.

• Designers are problem-solvers. To do their work, the designer must first identify the parameters of a project (the goals, messages, production limitations, budgets, schedules, etc.). They must then provide creative, distinctive and practical solutions that will accomplish the objectives within this narrowly defined playing field.

• Designers are mediators. The nature of the design process requires the ability to receive a multitude of diverging opinions and mold them into a single solution. The best designers have the ability to consider all input, identify the best ideas and incorporate their own into the ultimate solution. They leave everyone feeling that they've had their say, but do not allow the solution to become a design-by-committee.

• Designers are idea generators. Who hasn't sat through a meeting where the expected brainstorm was more like a light drizzle - one person with ideas and a whole lot of heads nodding up and down? Designers love to brainstorm. They aren't afraid to throw ideas against a wall to see where they lead.

• Designers are risk takers. Designers aren't afraid of unconventional approaches and they don't hold back ideas for fear of rejection.

• Designers are communicators. They have the ability to translate business objectives into concise messages that the customer can relate to. In fact, the designer's greatest asset may be his or her objectivity, looking at every solution through the eyes of the customer.

More than anything today, business needs people with new ideas and the courage to express them. We need problem solvers who know how to get things done. We need clear thinking individuals who understand what customers want and know how to reach them.

Graphic designers have been dismissed by many as a luxury, tolerated in the good times, expendable in the bad. But perceptions are changing. The best of these designers have evolved and there's a new appreciation for the role that they can play in business. Sure, they still make things look good, but that's only a side benefit of their true value.