Creating a marketing piece I’ve been known to tell the client
“Who cares what you think?! Not Me!”
Of course it’s a shocker. For a second, it’s seems as though I’ve got a bad attitude, terrible customer service…
Here’s how the conversation might go…
Discussing the design of a product/service advert
- Client: Hmm, I don’t really like it
- Max: So what?
- Client: Sorry?
- Max: So what if you don’t ‘like it’?
- Client: I don’t like this navy blue and grey, Yellow is my favorite color!
- Max: Navy Blue & Grey communicates seriousness, integrity & professionalism. Yellow doesn’t.
- Client: Well can’t we make the logo bigger and put it at the top?
- Max: That might look nicer, but a captivating headline at the top is more effective. No one cares about your logo except you.
- Client: What about using this (pointing) really cool picture to make the advert look more impressive?
- Max: Naaa…that picture is too funny and might distract readers from the primary point of the advert. Our goal isn’t to impress readers with our creativity.
- Client: But it just doesn’t look as ‘pretty’ as I imagined in my head because you only used 3 colors and a small picture.
- Max: Who cares? It’s more profitable than the one you imagined in your head because it’s not based on what you like, it’s based on what your market has been tested and proven to respond to.
- Client: Okay, but still…
See, the reason i don’t (and neither should you) care about my or your personal tastes when it comes to advertising is that your prospect doesn’t care either. No one responds to adverts because they care about you and the bills you have to pay. No one switches their brand of coffee because you used your favorite color.
Ugly or pretty adverts alike, prospects respond if and only if you communicate effectively enough to persuade them of the value of your offer. 100% of your focus should go on producing that result – everything else…who cares?
One of the BIGGEST problems with the advertising industry is that it’s a lot easier to create a funny, entertaining or really creative advert than it is to create one that fills your bank account – and NO, it’s not the same thing.
How many impressive, big budget ads have you seen on DSTV or your Wiztech that are great to watch, but didn’t turn you into a customer?
You know the kind – Ads that are so funny that you couldn’t stop laughing. Next day, you even told your best friend about the advert and laughed some more. Problem is, you can’t even remember what the product/ brand was – just the joke.
This is much more common than you think. Loads of studies show how many adverts, mad extremely popular because of the great humour, amazing design, visual effects, hot babe, clever slogans etc do nothing or very little to increase advertising results.
Maybe it’s time to re-think the focus of your marketing assets and efforts – then ask yourself…will this idea, sentence, picture, color, offer make my advert more profitable or simply satisfy my personal tastes?
The two are almost certainly in different directions.
That’s why, if it isn’t contributing to the most vital objectives of the advert, I just don’t care. Blue or pink, it’s all the same to me – whichever get better bottom line results.
Max Soutter 
Say something!