Chapter 13
A marketing business pain point
Read Time:
Fast Reader: 2 Minutes 15 Seconds
Deep Reader: 3 Minutes 45 Seconds
Excitement, positivity, momentum, everyone pulling or pushing in the same direction.
How do you keep that going with everyday realities and time constraints chipping away at everyone involved?
How do you make that “all in it together” / “the future’s bright…” feeling, bloom in everyone?
IN AN IDEAL WORLD
The vision is described once. All on board, everyone motivated and motivating those around them in a virtuous circle of confidence, charging shoulder to shoulder till the whole project reaches a volcanic climax and launch!
IN THE REAL WORLD
We have heard what you want, we research what is needed, we show you the vision we sell you what we have been working on.
If that vision is rebranding, a marketing or ad campaign, a new website project, an exhibition 12 months down the line… the initial excitement doesn’t spread that far.
The collaboration may be kept within a small group (see silos) maybe for good reasons, but you – even if “you” are a one person band – or “you” are a small group in a larger organisation, (needing sign off from higher up) – it is difficult to keep everyone on the same track.
Especially on projects that have long deadlines or roll outs.
WE HAVE ENOUGH TO DO
Planning for the outcome you need (not always RoI) takes a lot of work, and it’s often not that straightforward to explain
Throughout this process the one thing agencies and their client contacts forget, is that the vision you sold to the purse-string-holding decision makers, immediate contacts and Directors, ALSO needs “selling” to wider stakeholders, staff, and “deliverers” of the vision
THEN everyone also needs to be sold on the idea not once, at the new and exciting vision bit at the beginning – but every step along the way through pre-launch, launch and post launch.
Without that kettle being kept on the boil, without that enthusiasm and support it will take longer, cost more, and may go off half cocked through deadlines being squeezed.
Client frustration will annihilate the time needed for appropriate research at one end and the testing at the other.
It is almost a campaign within a campaign.
You can find yourself constantly selling and reselling to the client and their crew, what they need to do for the project.
Using budget that is meant to be used for selling to the client’s customers.
(In old sales terminology: “Tell em what you’re going to tell em, tell em, then tell em what you told em.”)
Get the picture?
THE JOB: Creative Marketing Project to grow the client’s business.
JOB #2: Creatively, constantly and consistently selling to the client and their crew what they have already bought into.
There’s a brilliant scene in the 1993 Kevin Kline film “Dave”.
The look alike POTUS is trying to find money in the budget to fund social projects for the First Lady.
Pointing to a line item running into Millions of Dollars for The Department of Commerce he asks what it is for.
The reply proudly stated by the bureaucrat responsible came as:
“It’s an advertising campaign designed to make people who have already bought an American car feel good about their purchase.”
Dave blinks, puts a line through the item and says “If they already bought the car, they probably already feel good about it. Let’s use the money for homeless shelters instead.”
DO WE NEED TO SELL THE FEEL GOOD TWICE?
While we need to keep you happy – it helps a lot if you could maintain the “in house” excitement yourself.
Allowing us to spend all your budget on making your customers EVEN MORE excited than they’re going to be regardless.
If you can’t do the necessary continual motivations in house, if you can’t bring folk along with you, if you have haters, spoilers and begrudgers – people who are pushing and pulling in the opposite direction…
…we will still get the job done – but you may have to dial down your own excitement.
Think about it.
