And you didn’t fly a flag that didn’t fit you. No guy would be caught dead with a pink Barbie flag. You knew, if he was on a bike with one of those flags – it was his sister’s bike! The flags were more than decoration. They were a declaration. “This is what I’m about.”
Although we didn’t know it, we were learning some very important lessons about branding as we selected and flew our bike flags.
Your brand is your flag. No matter what kind of a storm your organization endures or how quickly you are changing directions – your flag is visible to everyone. Your employees, your customers, your potential customers. And they’re going to keep an eye on that flag.
Your potential customers will be able to spot your brand and decide if they want to come to where you are. There’s no reason for them to engage with you if you’re flag is neon orange and they’re really more of a beige buyer.
For your customers and employees, your brand flag reassures them that you’re honoring your brand. They can come to you with confidence, knowing that they’re going to get that consistent experience they’ve come to expect.
When the wind is whipping around, you, I promise — everyone is watching that flag. Will you take it down? Will you change it in the face of controversy? Is the rod strong enough to keep your flag flying?
We also notice when a company is constantly changing their flag — as though they aren’t quite sure what you’re all about or stand for. Are you guilty of the revolving door method of branding?
During battles, troops flew their flag proudly, letting it remind them (and the world) why the fight is worth fighting. Your brand flag serves the same function for your internal team. Give them something to be proud of. Give them something to believe in. Give them a flag that they’ll fight to protect.
So as you think about your brand, remember that it is going to wave high over your organization for all to see. Choose your flag carefully.

Whether you are trying to increase sales or retain the sales you have — marketing to current customers is a better bet than chasing after a prospect. Sure…you want new customers. But can you afford to lose the ones you’ve already got?
Here’s a startling statistic. Nearly 70% of business lost in America is lost due to post-sales apathy.
Amazing isn’t it? We spend all this time and effort luring them to our business. We seduce them on the sales floor. We listen attentively to their problem and help them find a solution. We gave them a fair price. We smile and wave as they leave.
And then, we ignore them.
There is no hotter prospect than your current client. They know you. They liked you enough to try you once. Hopefully, they had a reasonable or even good experience the first go around. So why aren’t you talking to them? Why aren’t you telling them more about you? Why aren’t you trying to learn more about them?
The answer — the hunt is more fun than the maintenance. Most salespeople and entrepreneurs love the thrill of the chase. The win is sweeter. But, let’s be practical. The win is also more expensive and longer in coming.
If you don’t have a customer retention program …. one that turns your clients into raving fans–you need one. Make it simple, easy to implement and something you will actually do. Consistently. Start on it today. It’s that important.
This post was jogged by the discussion we’re having in the comments section of Monday’s post. Some very smart thoughts from James Hipkin nudged me to bring the topic back around.
By the way — this isn’t a recession post. This is smart business, regardless of the economic conditions. I’m just hoping that the realities of the times will make the tactic appear a little sexier than it normally does!
So — how do you continue to court your current customers? What are you doing that’s worthy of their loyalty?

But with the pressures of tougher times, I worry that the impatience factor will get even worse. And there are a lot of businesses who can’t afford too many missteps.
So before you invest in a marketing effort, be sure you are willing to hang in there and take into account these factors:
How often do people need/want it? If you run a restaurant or sell ice cream …. you’re in luck. Mail a coupon on Tuesday and you might see the family, coupon in hand, by Saturday. But on average, someone buys a car every 3-5 years. Own a car dealership and you might wait 18+ months after your first ad to see that person in your door.
Who the heck are you? Does the prospect recognize your brand? Do they know what you are all about? What makes you different from your competitors?
Who else is talking? Just like at a party, if you are the only voice talking, it’s a lot easier to be heard. But, if you are one of many and others are talking louder and faster …. you can easily get lost in the din.
Where are you talking? What would happen if you stood up right in the middle of a church service and started talking? You’d get noticed, wouldn’t you? That’s because you are doing something unexpected in an unexpected place.
What are you saying? The most important factor of all. Are you talking about what the consumer cares about or are you talking about you?
If you’re on the agency side, how do you help clients have the patience to let a campaign take root? If you’re a business owner/marketer — how do manage expectations within your organization so that your efforts are given enough time to have impact?

Sanders, who previously authored Love is the Killer App, believes that any individual can be an agent of change in the workplace and any workplace can be an agent of change in the world. His new book, Saving the World at Work is filled with memorable anecdotes and tangible steps for taking action.
Make no mistake — this is a business book. Sanders makes a case for why environmental sustainability is a do-or-die cause businesses must take part in to retain and attract both employees and consumers.
Sanders believes a revolution is underway that will redefine how companies do business, how consumers choose who they buy from and how new college graduates choose who they will work for. He calls it the Responsibility Revolution.
Huffington Post’s John Tepper Marlin interviewed Sanders about his book and the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) moving beyond an occasional occurrence to a more mainstream commodity. Sanders also shares his thoughts on how to make such a revolution sustainable, what defines pioneers in the space of corporate responsibility and why companies embracing CSR as yet another way to make a buck won’t survive.
The book is an inspiring and fast read. Sanders is an excellent storyteller but the book goes beyond just stories. It also outlines actionable steps that can be implemented quickly and easily.
Want your workplace to make a difference? Saving the World at Work would be a pretty good place to start.

She runs a small organic clothing store, Oko Box, and writes a blog that focuses on eco-friendly products and lifestyle choices. She was approached by a production company called Vision Media Television. They told her they wanted to make a TV documentary that included her business. So far, so good. But not for long.
After a few conversations, the production company told Richards that they needed $25K up front to proceed. She thought it sounded a bit shady so she did quite a bit of homework and then posted the entire saga (including e-mails back and forth between herself and the company) on her blog.
Her headline…”Scam Taking Advantage of Green Businesses” not only drew her readers’ attention, but it also garnered her a $20 million lawsuit.
In a post on BlogHer.com Virginia Debolt raises some important questions. What are a blogger’s right? What protections are there? How does the first Amendment play into all of this?
Debolt’s post goes on to suggest protecting yourself by forming an LLC to give you some arm’s length protection and adding disclaimers to your site to give yourself a little cushion. But frankly, she doesn’t sound that convinced.
I have to admit, this hasn’t really been on my radar screen. Maybe it should be. How about you? Have you ever considered the potential danger of of a specific blog post? Have you ever decided not to publish something because it felt too risky?
Is this something you think you (or all of us who blog) should protect yourself from? If so, how are you going to do that?

“In addition to funding a group of leading bee researchers and beekeepers at the University of California at Davis and Pennsylvania State University. Learn more at helpthehoneybees.com.”

I also learned from the e-mail that when bees return to their hive after scoring some nectar, they do a unique dance to communicate the whereabouts of the new nectar source.
Now remember….I have learned all of this via the pitch e-mail. Then, I’m told that they’ve produced a video to bring awareness to the problem and give us an inside look at the unique hive dance. The pitch ends with “this is our hip-hop interpretation of the dance.”
Okay, cue the YouTube video. I watched the video and I have to say….I was confused. If I hadn’t read all of the pitch set-up, I wouldn’t have understood anything about the dance or what it meant. And, if they found nectar — why did the bees die at the end? Or did I miss something and they didn’t die?

So, I decide to check out the website. Surely, it will tell the rest of the story. It was chock full of information, but it had absolutely no tie (in words or visuals) to the video. It looked like two completely different companies produced the two pieces to the campaign, without ever seeing what the other side was doing.
Had I not read the pitch e-mail, I would have been completely lost by now. The pieces didn’t fit together to make a whole. So here are my questions for you.

• Had I not told you the bee story upfront, would you have gleaned any/all of that from the video alone?
• Would the video alone compelled you to visit the site?
• If you viewed the video and the website, would they have supported each other?
• Did the attitude of the video feel appropriate to the problem?
• Did the website feel appropriate to the problem?
• What would you have advised Haagen-Daz if they’d come to you with this “we want to help the bees” challenge?

It’s easy to access, easy to upload, easy to search and easy to organize. It’s ability to capture just about any medium has turned it into my brain…but it is far better than my 45-year-old forget-just-about-everything brain.
If you haven’t already seen the demo video, here you go!





If it looks like something you’d like to try, head over their site to sign up! They have a free and premium version.
Wondering how you might use it? Check out Lifehack.com’s list.

I love social media and all the conversations. I love how empowered the consumer has become and how that is forcing us to be more transparent so everyone can see and trust our authenticity. The new ROI for me is Relationship over Investment. I know that I need to engage my audience and make them a part of my community. Content is king, Baby!
Anyone else rubbing their temples? Tiptoe through that last paragraph and pick out the words that we have overused to the point of wearing them down to their nubs. Go ahead, admit your guilt. You know you’ve exceeded your quota on more than a few.
Is it possible that linguaocide is a side effect of a few million people creating content on a daily basis?
Words are juicy and filled with nuance and richness. But, when we use and use and use a word – we squeeze the juice out of it until it becomes limp and lifeless. They either become an almost generic term (like Kleenex) that no longer has any pinpointed meaning or they become so empty that we stop using them all together. I suppose it’s inevitable for most words. Really, when was the last time you said “rain bonnet?”
But I’m worried that we’re accelerating the process and pretty soon, we’re not going to have any words left. Am I being an alarmist?
Maybe it’s time to shift my blog from words to sketches. Where’s that matchbook with the art school ad in it…..

The mission statement. Why do you exist? Should be pretty straightforward, right? So why it is that most companies’ mission statements look like they came straight out of the Dilbert mission statement generator?
Most are absolutely ambiguous and vague – any company could swap out the logo and voila, the mission statement could be theirs too.
Why?
I wonder if it is the two fisted punch of “we’re afraid” and “we don’t really know how/why we’re different.”
Mission statements should be bold. They should clearly acknowledge “we are about THIS and therefore, we aren’t about THAT.” But most companies are afraid to exclude anything or to suggest they can’t be everything to everyone.
So they get into their committees and wordsmith a statement that no one can argue with because no one can actually define what it means.
As Seth Godin commented, “Mission statements used to have a purpose. The purpose was to force management to make hard decisions about what the company stood for. A hard decision means giving up one thing to get another.”
So I’m curious…for those of you on the consulting/agency side: Do you help your clients create/refine mission statements? If so, how do you help them avoid the Dilbert version?
If you are on the client/organization side: Do you have a mission statement that actually defines your organization’s reason for existing? If so, how did you push past the pabulum language to something that actually had teeth?

I’ve been in the business for 20+ years. Owned my own agency for almost 13. I know better. But I still give away too much milk. And then I get frustrated when no one wants to buy the cow. I know I am not the only marketing professional out there who struggles with knowing when a simple conversation turns into a billable opportunity. Am I?
I’m not suggesting that I carry a time clock in my pocket and start punching in every time someone asks me a question over a cocktail or at a networking event. But when someone asks you to have coffee or if you “have 10 minutes” at what point do you know this has turned into a business transaction?
And, how do you gracefully let them know it has turned into a business transaction? I don’t want to even think about how much money I have left on the table over the years because I didn’t have the answer to those two questions.
Don’t get me wrong. I want to be helpful. I want to be generous. I’m even okay with being an absolute fool now and then. But, I also want to be a smart business owner.
As Steve Lovelace said in a post on this topic: “Nobody expects their architect to work free… so why would you?”
Have you figured this one out? I really would love to hear how you handle these kinds of situations.

* * * * * * * * * *
We marketing types tend to be a bit myopic at times. We look at every new offering and application, dissecting its usefulness, its ability to penetrate a market or sustainability.
There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s our job. But sometimes, we get the rare opportunity to broaden our view. What a wonderful time of year to be given that opportunity.
Twitter is often lambasted as a frivolous application that is jam-packed with useless information like what I had for dinner. Toby Bloomberg recently described Twitter as a party line – and that’s exactly what it’s like.
Just like any conversation between friends, the many overflowing micro-conversations contain both the mundane and the truly profound. The mundane is entertaining, but the profound has the capacity to change lives.
Such is the story of the Frozen Pea Fund.

Relationship media blogger Susan Reynolds has been sharing her life’s musings on Twitter for a while. In early December she found a lump in her breast and was very quickly diagnosed with invasive cancer. Just like she had shared so many other things, she shared her diagnosis with her Twitter friends.
Susan, with her usual style, also decided to create a blog to share her story. One of the first tales she told was that she used a bag of frozen peas to ease the pain after her biopsy. Suddenly, in an act of support and solidarity at the suggestion of Connie Reece, people started changing their Facebook and Twitter avatars to what is now known as a pea-tavar.
Wonder about the reach of a story like this? Keep in mind, this all happened in the past week. Google has over 2,400 results for “Susan Reynolds” peas. TechCrunch, Robert Scoble and other heavy hitters helped spread the word.
Most important – Susan knew that she was most definitely not alone.
Last Friday, Susan went into surgery knowing that an entire worldwide, packed pea pod of people were there with her in spirit. But not just in spirit. The Frozen Pea Fund to benefit cancer research raised over $3,500 in less than a day. (Donations are still being taken.)
What started from a woman, out of pain and perhaps a bit of frustration, shoving a bag of frozen peas down her shirt and finding it funny enough to share with a few hundred of her closes Twitter friends has blossomed into a full out crusade of love, support and solidarity.
There are certainly some marketing lessons we can take from the Pea Brigade and we’ll get to those later this week. We can go back to dissecting social media, marketing tactics and debating the question of Twitter has any redeeming business functions.
But I have to tell you…today when I think about social media, I’m not thinking about business or clients at all. I’m thinking about a woman who had the courage to share her very personal journey and how a community of support has swelled up to surround her.
Tonight, social media humbles me with its compassion, ability to connect and the depths of human kindness it can share.

By about December 20th, as I gaze at the layout table overflowing with tokens of affection, I find myself wondering who gave what. Which begs the question …. does that mean it wasn’t a very smart investment on their part?
Isn’t the holiday gift an opportunity to reinforce our brand? Isn’t it a chance to remind clients why they chose us in the first place? Or am is that placing too much pressure on the simple gesture of holiday goodwill?
Should your holiday gifts be an extension of your brand? Should they be a reflection of you? Or should we jump on the WIIFM notion and get every client a gift that is reflective of them? (i.e. wine for Bob, golf something for Jane, etc.)
What does your company do about holiday gifts? What’s the best gift you’ve ever gotten from a client or vendor?
P.S. Anyone want a piece of fruitcake?

Here’s a paraphrased version of what he asked.

AM I GETTING TOO OLD?
As a 43-year-old marketing director, how do I stay in touch with a target market of 18-30 year olds? As we get older, how we practice marketing and stay current?
Here are some things that triggered this email:
1) I started a local Marketing Group about 4 months ago. Attendance at our meetings has really grown. However, as I look around the room, I might be the oldest one in the room. I’m starting to feel like a dinosaur.
2) I had suggested that we get an outsider’s perspective on some ideas we’re kicking around at work, so we invited 4 members from this marketing group to our place of business to act as a focus group. Our executive staff pitched some ideas to them and asked for reactions.
After the meeting the several of the staff in our company were commenting on the good questions that were being asked and the insightful comments that had been made from the marketing panel. Now I’m starting to feel insecure. And then they started commenting on how young they all looked.
3) Then my boss makes the comment that he realizes our staff is getting older and what we think is cool might not necessarily be so in the real world.
Am I freaking out unnecessarily?

What do you think? Can we age out? Be honest – do you worry about becoming obsolete? After all, our world is changing faster than the speed of light. Are we sure we can keep up?
I’ll share my answer to my reader’s e-mail but first, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Do not vary from the format or you may lose the opportunity. Do not stand out. Do not demonstrate that you can articulate a brand differential. Or show them how you could truly help them.
You can’t actually speak to anyone to get any sort of clarity. You can, however, submit your questions in writing but then they will of course, send the answer to your question to everyone. Or talk about it with everyone at the bidder’s conference. Either way, your hope to have a fresh idea is pretty much squashed.
Oh yeah…here’s the part they can’t tell you. It’s mandated that they issue an RFP. But they already know which agency they want to work with. They just have this pesky “must get 3 bids” rule.
Or…they don’t actually intend to hire anyone. Somehow they budget is going to magically disappear. But they got 5 companies to give them their best thinking. For free.
No one in their right mind would look at that process and argue that it is effective. I can’t imagine it’s fun on the client side.
So what did agencies do or what are the clients afraid that agencies might do that makes an RFP the best choice?
If you’re on the client side – how do you select your agency partners? If you’re on the agency side, what’s your stance on RFPs?

The results will be part of a report called “The End of Advertising As We Know It” scheduled for release this fall. You can download the full survey results here. And a summary version is available here.
There were many fascinating findings but the one that really caught my eye was focused on the impact of owning a DVR. While general statistics are showing TV consumption down, apparently owning a DVR holds off that trend.

91% of DVR owners reported watching as much or more television than they used to. In the US, DVR owners report watching more than 50% of television programming on replay. Not only that, but 33% report watching more TV as result of their DVR.
We all know that TV advertising is changing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the dollars will change. Advertisers might just buy something different. So here’s what I’m left wondering:
How do you think this graph will change in 5 years?

Will TV spending drop? Increase? And what will they be spending their TV advertising money on?

Erich uses four new airlines as examples: Eos, MAXjet, Silverjet and l’Avion are doing things far beyond modifying their menu or adding better seats.
He says:
Four chic but cheap business-class start-ups, Eos, MAXjet, Silverjet and l’Avion have launched all-business-class flights on the incumbents’ most profitable routes from London to New York with huge success. They offer new services for business travelers that are so obvious and valuable: extremely late check-in, fast paths through the airport to avoid the masses, guaranteed luggage immediately upon arrival, private departure and arrival lounges, and all-business-class seating at very reasonable prices — even as walk-up fares. Two years into the launch it is clear that business travelers are taking great liking to these new airlines, which are beginning to get a lot more attention.

What do you think? Does he have a point? Do you (or your clients) focus on the minute details rather than really taking their industry by storm? Do you think you can discover radical change/fresh ideas while looking in the mirror or peeking into the competition’s window?
I think we’d all agree that spending some time looking at how to improve what we’re already doing is important too.
So, how do you find the balance?

Apparently, I’m simple-minded. When we were trying to come up with baby names, I had one steadfast rule. You had to be able to find it on a kid’s bike license plate.
But have no fear my friends; you don’t have to rely on family tradition, a religious book, your ancestry or country of origin any longer.
You can hire a nameologist. (Even my spell check didn’t know that profession existed.) For a mere $475, you can buy three 30-minute phone consultations and get a custom list of names sure to please both your ear and your in-laws.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal story, parents are paralyzed with all the choices out there and the push seems to be for the unique names. Mary, the good old stand-by that occupied the #1 position for many years, has fallen to #84. Nevaeh (heaven spelled backwards) is #43 and on the rise.
I don’t know about where you went to grade school, but a kid named Nevaeh wouldn’t have stood a chance on our playground.
The story goes on to tell of a pregnant woman who googled her intended name choice only to discover it already belonged to a British porn star. (Avoid Zoe Rose, for those of you who didn’t already guess what she had googled.)
The baby naming consultants seem to be popping up all over and the demand is on the rise.
So what do you think? What lengths would you go to, to ensure that your little progeny’s name jumped off the resume pile or flowed well with PhD.? Should we brand our kids within the first 10 minutes of their birth? Is this a job for consultants or would you prefer to do it the old-fashioned way?
What next? Baby logos and color palettes?

They have also “owned” a signature event for the past five years. It has its own name and logo identity, with equally high recognition. It is one of the premiere events for their industry. Neither the name or logo of the event sound or look like Cooper’s Pharmacopia. But most attendees would be very clear that they sponsor the event.
They just got a new marketing director. Your new client. He would like you to take the event logo (it’s round) and merge it into the company’s logo by replacing one of the o’s in Cooper’s Pharmacopia with the event logo. That would become the new event logo.
Question: From a strategic point of view (not if the round logo looks good as an o) what is your response?
Should you take an established “sub brand” and blend it with the corporate brand? Or, should the parent company and the sub branded event each retain their own identity?
Which strategy strengthens both the company and the event’s brand?

An e-marketing agency has announced that on behalf of their client Phytolabs Solutions – they are holding a contest to invite consumers to create a brand name and tagline for a new over the counter immune-booster.
According to the official press release, the marketing company is confident in this “crowdsourcing” method will generate the right brand for their product. The contestants are given some superficial information about the product. Potential customers are identified as busy moms and dads, traveling teens, seniors who want to get the most out of life–and pretty much everyone in between.
Two other things of note before I pose a question or two:

• There’s a payday attached to this. The winning name earns $15K and the winning tagline $7.5K.
• No pros allowed. So don’t start sharpening your pencil.

So, what do you think? Can Average Joe create an effective brand? If the company did a side-by-side comparison and let the pros compete against the consumers …. what would be the differences? Similarities?
Which of course leads me to …. does a product’s name/tagline matter or are they just empty vessels that are given meaning by what the company does with them?

Here’s how it works. I went to Reactee and designed my message based t-shirt. My message? “Do you want to be branded?”

I then select DrewMc as my keyword.
The shirt design software automatically adds the short code (instead of texting to a full phone number, you just text to 41411).
I then write the message (120 characters max) that I would like sent to anyone who text messages my shirt. By the way, I can change that message as often as I’d like.
So let’s see how it plays out.
I am walking down the street and you see me. You wonder what the heck my shirt means or maybe you really want to know more about branding. So you whip out your cell phone and enter the number 41411 and in the message area, you key in DrewMc (with no period).
Almost instantaneously, you receive a text message back from me. Go on, try it. Yes…I really bought the shirt. Be an explorer — give it a try.
Sounds frivolous? Maybe not.
Imagine an entire team wearing these shirts on a trade show floor. Or a new business pitch. Or a candidate’s campaign team. (Remember you can change the message on the fly from a cell phone.) Or at a non-profit walk or charity event.
Come on, call me and check out my message. And then, let’s get creative. How could you use this as a marketing tactic?

But instead of just complaining, I asked readers to offer words of advice for the new job seekers and promised to put it into a shareable format once we gathered enough ideas. I suggested it might be a better graduation gift than a digital camera! Boy, was I right.
I’ve come to be a huge fan of collaboration. I don’t care how smart I am (leave it alone!), as a collective – we are smarter. When I am wrestling with a knotty problem for a client, I can toss it up in the air and see where the collective takes it. When I have a good idea, like this e-book for college grads, the collaboration makes it better.
The “Giving College Grads A Fighting Chance” e-book is the perfect example of how collaboration can take things to the next level. Download your free copy and read what many Daily Fix authors and other marketing experts had to say about breaking into the job market. Whether you are a new grad or an old dog – I promise it is worth the read.
And to the collective, a tip of the hat and deep appreciation for the value you add.

Odds are, you said, “The other white meat.” Me, too.

Twenty years ago, no one was eating pork. People thought it was fatty and unhealthy. So the National Pork Board launched the Pork. The Other White Meat campaign to combat their eroding market share. The campaign was wildly successful and for the past 20 years, the NPB has enjoyed the fruits of that effort.
In 2005 the NPB partnered with a new agency that thought they should shake things up a little and they launched the Don’t Be Blah campaign. While recall and awareness were high for The Other White Meat, sales still weren’t where they wanted them. So, the new line was added.
According to a press release on their website, this “bold, new level” was based on research that showed many women lacked the confidence to be better cooks.
Here’s how they describe the shift:
1987 – 2005: The Other White Meat was their tagline.
2005: They decide to make The Other White Meat their brand and Don’t Be Blah becomes their tagline. Both “lines” appear in the lower right section on all promotional materials, one stacked on top of the other.

In a recent article, National Pork Board President Dave Culbertson said, “We conducted extensive consumer research and found that even though Pork. The Other White Meat did a fabulous job of positioning pork as a healthy protein source, it just wasn’t connecting the way we thought it should with today’s consumers, who obviously have changed quite a bit in the 17 years since we introduced Pork. The Other White Meat.”
He then added, “At the same time, we have no intention of getting rid of Pork. The Other White Meat because 90 percent of all consumers now recognize that tagline as belonging to pork. Our new message will build on that success.”
So here are my questions. (Answer any or all of them as you see fit or add some new ones.)
* Is a tagline the verbal expression of an organization’s brand?
* Should a tagline be more than a promotional campaign?
* Did the NPB confuse a campaign theme for a tagline?
* Will the duality of the two lines hurt the effectiveness of either of them?
* How would you have handled the addition of the new Don’t Be Blah message?

So it puzzles me when a client will say, “I showed the draft of the brochure (fill in your own blank here — logo design, tagline) to my accountant (again, choose your “expert” of choice — cousin, sister, the HR director, babysitter, lawyer, wife) and they don’t like this word (pick a variable — color, shape, phrase, tone).”
I get the psychology of asking for second opinions. And I understand that marketing is not a precise science like medicine. But it also seems to me that if we are going to engage a company for their expertise, we need to actually give them their due.
So if my lawyer says “you should file this report with the state” but the woman who cuts my hair says I don’t need to bother — shouldn’t I give the lawyer’s opinion a bit more weight?
And if I were going to disagree with the lawyer’s advice, I’d sure come up with something better than “my hair stylist said…”
I don’t tinker with the lawn guy’s fertilizer formula or recalculate the tax computations that come from the accountant. So why is it that marketing clients often let emotions, their own response (whether they are the target audience or not) and other people’s subjective reactions jerk their agency partners around like a puppet on a string?
Here’s why I think this is worthy of some discussion.
Because we let them. As marketers we are so driven to deliver a good customer experience that on a rare occasion, we forget that we were hired to do what they could or should not. I doubt there is a marketer practicing today who has never given in or compromised to make the client happy when they shouldn’t have.
Another reason why it happens is because marketing is not a precise science. It’s sometimes difficult to articulate a rational reason for each and every nuance of a campaign because let’s be honest here, some of it is based on intuition and experience, not cold facts.
Which is probably why the client can’t come up with anything better than “my daughter says the logo is too small.”
So once in a blue moon, we give in when we shouldn’t.
In the short run it feels like good customer service. But in the long run, and we know it in our gut, it is cheating our customer. We owe it to them to say no.
On occasion, you need to remind them that they came to you for a reason. Because this is what you do every day and you’re good at it.
Otherwise, they might as well let the babysitter do it.