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This is truly one of the most poignant, beautiful commercials I have ever seen. Walk me through the creative process - how do start at seatbelt safety and arrive at this?
- Do you think this will make someone "click it" more than a "click-it or ticket" campaign?
- Why or why not?
- Look at Maslow's Theory of Motivation, which category does this fall under, and how will this motivate people towards safety?
The Most Important Sentence You Will Write
A great plan begins with a destination in mind. Some organizations have mission statements, vision statements, and value statements. What are these statements and why are they important? They are your compass pointing north.
You need this sentence because it lets you know if you’re on track. When someone excitedly comes up to you and says, “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if we started a new Twitter campaign?” You can say, “Well, excited individual, let’s see if it fits into this sentence.”
If I own a fried chicken business, and my sentence is “We are the tastiest fried chicken in Kentucky” – then how will a Twitter campaign help us BE the tastiest fried chicken or COMMUNICATE that we are the tastiest fried chicken?
This sentence will be the most important sentence you write for your business.
Ideally, it should be based on market research. If you’re a small business owner and cannot afford market research, you should facilitate anecdotal market research. Find the customers that you want more of, and ask them why they love you. Then, be that. Unswervingly, unabatedly, unabashedly.
Gather all the information you can about this customer, about why they love you, how they make you successful, and what exactly you can do to bring more value to them.
Write an essay, a paragraph, a sprawling brainstorm diagram. Whatever you do, get all the information you can about that customer down on a piece of paper. Now right one sentence that incapsulates the most important mission for your company.
Just one sentence. Anything after the first period is a distraction.
My brand strategy hero is Apple, so I will use their mission statement as an example:
If you think of every innovation Apple has brought to the market place, every creative marketing element they’ve presented to consumers, it all ties back to this statement, and their commitment.
Watch this video, to see how important that one sentence is.
Finally, here is a great list of slogan’s and mission statements for some Fortune 500 companies. HERE
The Most Important Plan You'll Ever Make
Creating an effective, well-thought strategic plan is a lot of work; it can take organization months to accomplish. This is why many small business owners shy away from creating a plan, because they’re just too busy with their day-to-day operations to make the time.
Here is the beauty of the strategic plan and why you need one: It is a blueprint for your future success, and once it is finished you don’t have to worry any more if you’re on the right track…you’ll know.
This is the first in a series of articles about creating a marketing plan. There are hundreds of books, ideas, and theories out there. My insight is meant to give you useful tools on how you can create an effective marketing plan in a few simple steps. My goal is that you at least start thinking proactively about your business.
Stay tuned for:
- Step One: Write one really great sentence.
- Step Two: S.W.O.T.T.
- Step Three: Opportunity Analysis
- Step Four: S.M.A.R.T.
- Step Five: Creativity
- Step Six: Execution
Do you really care?
I'm wondering if its just me, or if this commercial really is completely off base?
Do any of you think this much about your toilet paper? Is any of the market research that supported this spot really relevant to every day life and real value?
If a market researcher asked me if feeling clean is important, I would say yes. If a market researcher asked me to list 10 things that were important to me about toilet paper, after price, and perhaps a little bit of quality, I could certainly make some stuff up and arrive at the same conclusions. But, the bottom line is, I don't care this much about my toilet paper, and I find this entire spot distasteful...and stupid.
Thoughts?
Guess what? No one cares.
This is going to sound a little harsh Mr. or Mrs. Small Business Owner, but I hope it will help you craft a better advertising message.
No one cares that you have outstanding service.
No one cares that you have the best price.
Every business owner claims to provide these things for their customer, and they have become meaningless to consumers.
I challenge you to play a little game of "So what…I don’t care” to find your real competitive advantage.
“I own a dog washing business. We have outstanding service.”
“Uh…I don’t care.”
“What? But, its your precious doggie that you love like a child! You don’t care?”
“Nuh uh”
“But, when your dog shows up to get groomed, we offer it a biscuit, we spend time playing with the dog to earn its trust, and we are gentle with every pet.”
“Oh…that I can care about.”
“And we only charge $19.99!”
“Wow, that’s awesome Mrs. Small Business Owner.”
In conclusion – if you’re crafting a message, which has more impact?
- We have outstanding service and great prices.
- We pamper your pet, earn your pet’s trust, and treat each pet with love. (All for $19.99)
Project Management
Marketing, and all the aspects included therein, is really 25% creativity, 25% strategy, and 50% project management. Ok, those percentages are arbitrary, and I have nothing that quantifies them except for my own experience.
Strategy and Creativity are equal. If you don't know what the heck you want your creative to accomplish, than why bother. And, if the creative isn't attention grabbing and eye-catching, they no one will listen to your message.
But, the most difficult part of marketing is project management. This is when all the to-do's are listed, the players identified, the processes in place, and the plan/creative executed. Project Management is the most difficult aspect of my job.
I ran across these great points about project management and though that I would share.
1) Better efficiency in delivering services: Project management provides a “roadmap” that is easily followed and leads to project completion.
(2) Improved/increased/enhanced customer satisfaction: Whenever you get a project done on time and under budget, the client walks away happy.
(3) Enhanced effectiveness in delivering services: The same project management strategies that allowed you to successfully complete one project will serve you many times over.
(4) Improved growth and development within your team: Positive results not only command respect but more often than not inspire your team to continue to look for ways to perform more efficiently.
(5) Greater standing and competitive edge: This is not only a good benefit of project management within the workplace but outside of it as well.
(6) Opportunities to expand your services: A by-product of greater standing. Great performance leads to more opportunities to succeed.
(7) Better Flexibility: Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of project management is that it allows for flexibility.
(8) Increased risk assessment: When all the players are lined up and your strategy is in place potential risks will jump out and slap you in the face.
(9) Increase in Quality: Goes hand-in-hand with enhanced effectiveness
(10) Increase in Quantity: Often the result of better efficiency, a simple reminder regarding the benefits of project management.
Reference:
McDonough, M. (4 Sep 2010). Top Ten Benefits of Project Management. Retrieved from
Product Life-Cycle
One of my favorite tools in determining a copy strategy with a client is using the Product Life-Cycle graph to help the client determine where their business is and what their strategy should be.
The first step is to understand what each stage is, and how it appoints to a business.
The DEVELOPMENT STAGE is hopefully what a small business owner has gone through before they have opened their doors. This is the phase where it is determined WHAT VALUE ARE YOU BRINGING TO THE CONSUMER. If you're not bringing value to the marketplace that isn't substantially better than what is already being offered, then really, don't bother. People aren't going to be your customer because they like you...they will be your customer because you add value to their life.
INTRODUCTION STAGE is about letting your best potential customer know you exist. Surprising, this oh so important awareness phase is where a lot of business owners stay stuck...forever. Bureau of Labor Statistics studies show that anywhere between 60% and 80% of businesses fail within the first five years. One of the leading causes of this is lack of awareness. If you have yet to see your business grow their are two major contributing factors:
A) You are not providing superior value
B) No one knows you exist.
GROWTH STAGE is when your business is booming, life is good, and your customer base is growing! This is the stage that let's you know your plans are working... and when business owners pull back on their marketing efforts. The foundation you have built will surely gain and keep momentum, but this is not the end of the cycle. What goes up must come down, and it's important to be proactive instead of reactive when that time comes.
In the MATURITY STAGE it is better to be Madonna than (what's the name of that girl who was in 16 Candles?) This is the stage of reinvention or certain decline. Apple is the leader in avoiding the DECLINE STAGE of the product lifecycle. This is the stage when people know your product or service, new competitors see your success and start to steal your customers, you lose market share and profitability.
When the Mac was in decline Apple reinvented their brand. When desktop computing peaked, they invented iTunes. When they conquered the music market and new competitors moved in they created the iPhone. When Apple conquered the smartphone market and new competitors moved in, they created the iPad. We don't know what is next from Apple, but we know it will be innovative.
What we learn from each of these phases is that they are inevitable. Some businesses, services, products may have a longer life span than others, but the only way to survive in the long run is to continue to create relevant value for the consumer, and continue to communicate that value.
FAGE Total Plain Extraordinary™
Answer these questions by thinking of the strategy that led to this commercial:
• Who is their target audience?
• What do you think their market research told them about their audience demographic?
• What thought process or brainstorming was used to create the copy and the imagery?
• Why do you think this commercial has received over 4 million views on YouTube?
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