PIXEL MAVERICK

As I spend my day napping, watching football, and eating WAYY too much leftover turkey I am also catching up on some of my favorite blogs.  One of those blogs is Brains on Fire, and there was a quote in one of the posts that was dead on.

“There’s a difference between a brand promise and a brand commitment. It’s easy to promise. It’s hard to commit.” – Greg Cordell, Chief Inspiration Officer, Brains on Fire

If you work at an ad agency, or have ever worked on a marketing campaign for a client you have probably experienced the following situation:

CLIENT: “We need a great campaign to improve perception about our [product/ customer service/ etc]”

AGENCY: “Great, what sort of changes are occurring with said [product/ customer service/ etc]?”

CLIENT: Proceeds to explain at length a circular explanation that really amounts to …”Well, we are not actually going to change anything, but can’t you come up with a zingy tagline or something to cover that up?”

Agency: (Blank stares for a moment ?? Sigh ?? WTF?) “Sure, we are on it sir!”

This is not rocket science people.  If your brand is getting dinged because your product is inferior OR because your idea of customer service is an automated phone system that leads to nowhere …a tagline is not going to fix the problem.

OK OK, I realize it is not that easy to fix these problems.  It requires participation beyond the marketing department and into the other core drivers of the business operation & that can be a political nightmare.  That being said, everyone in the room (client, agency, …the HOT intern bringing in lunch) knows it is the heart of the solution.  So, why do we think ignoring it and coming up with smoke & mirrors will solve the problem?

How about this?  Before we start cranking out taglines and catchy jingles let’s make a list called “Sherlock’s List” (..as in No Shit Holmes) of total effing obviousness.  Upon completing that list, separate the list into groups based on assumed complexity to implement.  I bet you can find at least 2-3 things on that list that are extremely easy to solve quickly & would not require the CMO to risk his/her career to do it.

I am not proposing that the big issue items are ignored, but sometimes a few quick-wins can snowball and provide justification for getting some momentum behind attacking the big issues.  At least it is progress, and that is better than just slapping a jingle on a lie and wondering why customers don’t believe it.

Back to my turkey sandwich now.