What is marketing? I mean really. Everyone thinks they know what it is but when I tell my grandma that I am in marketing her response is “Oh that means you make those ads I see in the newspaper, right?” Well, I love you grandma but not really. Marketing (REAL marketing) is much more complex but is also much more impactful.
Marketing, especially in today’s economy, is an investment. It is pretty hard to convince someone that a better looking ad or artwork is going to turn their business around and offer them ROI like they have never seen before. It is hard to convince them of this because it just isn’t the case. What will turn their business around is a marketing strategy supported by plans that are “doable” and then some artwork to translate it all to the public.
So how do you sell that?! It is hard enough to get someone to invest in “the pretty artwork” right now but in addition, your challenge is to educate them on the real reason an ad made them buy a Coke instead of a Pepsi. It isn’t easy but an example can help.
Let’s take E Trade for example. The baby commercials. Everyone knows them and most people like them because they are hilarious! The art is sketchy at best. We aren’t talking about seamless graphics here and the commercials don’t really say a lot about the details of E Trade but the point is communicated very clearly. Simply: It is easy to trade online, so easy a baby can do it. Period. That’s it!
So how do you think that firm got to the E Trade commercials we see today? That process, that’s the process we have to explain to clients. That process is what will make a difference to their company.
My guess would be that E Trade sat down with a very attentive marketing communications agency who listened closely. Listened to their challenges, the reasons that their past efforts had failed and the concerns they had about their competitors. Then the agency went and researched everything. Who was the real audience for their services, what did they have to offer that the competition didn’t, what was holding people back from choosing E Trade, etc. They found the answers. They applied their marketing smarts to create a detailed plan that included placement, target audience and all that other fun stuff. Then finally – finally, they called in the creative team and the graphics people to communicate the message.
Bottom line – the ads work because they took the time and got the right message to the right people the right way, not because Monet was on the graphics team.
But for all those graphics people out there who are ready to throw something at me, let me emphasize that this does NOT make a graphic designer any less valuable! Without the graphics to convey the message, you just have a Power Point of great ideas and that’s it. You need it all to get results.
Try explaining that to your grandma!
Photo by: stevegarfield on flickr
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