by Miriam Hara | Jul 24, 2013 | Advertising, Branding, Latest, Marketing
Sales makes money and marketing spends money. It’s usually said in a snotty way and the person saying it usually acts all superior as if they have the secret to life and anyone who doesn’t understand is low, low down on the food chain. Say what you will, those of us in the advertising and marketing business we understand what’s behind the comment. We know where the truth lies. Let’s clear up a major misconception. Marketing and the advertising it propels gets customers and clients in the door, sales closes the deal. There’s different types of marketing for different types of business. But regardless of what business you’re in, there are considerations that should be part of the equation when you decide to go the do it yourself route.
Cutting Costs: Bring marketing tactics in-house
Since sales generates money, there are times when the marketing support areas feels that they are looked upon as an expense… not an investment. Therefore, the quick and superficial analysis says…cut costs by bringing design and media planning in house. You say the media commission and you don’t have to pay agency premiums of simple design. Bright idea in theory. But not so bright in application. There are two very real impacts to this decisions.
1. In-house marketing doesn’t cut costs
Hard to believe? But time will tell. Consider this.For you accountant types out there… outsourced marketing doesn’t require vacation pay, pensions, statutory holidays, office space, computers….think of the savings!!! All kidding aside… look at it from this perspective. Chances are in house marketing creative staff are not as skilled as specialists in an outside agency. The real aspect of a design is being challenged creatively. That ceases to become an option once they have been working on the same business of over a year. An outside agency works on many business, thereby creating a natural environment of creativity and growth. It wouldn’t be fair to expect your in house marketing creative team to be as nimble. They have little exposure to other creative talents. They must rely on themselves for inspiration. Isolated, tucked away in some remote area, creativity comes hard in this type of situation. Time drags on. And no, a marketing coordinator can’t do the media strategy and planning…nor should they. There’s an artform to strategically choosing which media to go to and what the benefits and results are going to be . A handful of people can’t be experts in graphic design, copywriting, social media, web design, packaging, advertising, television, radio… do I need to go on. In house staff will give their best efforts but their efforts will take longer and they can make costly mistakes.
2. In-house marketing can cost money
Mediocrity becomes the norm. Breakthrough thinking becomes a thing on the past.This will, over time, weaken sales. Unfortunately lack of inspiration, creativity and lack of expertise will slowly destroy your brand. It’s an insidious degradation, hard to detect and even harder to understand. Sales weaken and everyone wonders why. Some will say it’s the economy, the company needs restructuring, let’s burn the sales manager but few will look at their marketing department. Take this recommendation. Rather than try to staff for a department that is a vertical business to your business, take the time to choose the right agency. Agencies provide a new perspective. An outside perspective and will stand and fight for the right solution for your business and brand. Based on expertise and experience that is vast and varied. To make sound analogies and fair business assessments to grow your business. It’s important to choose the right agency for your business. Before you bring your marketing in house find and talk to a few advertising and marketing businesses and discuss your needs.Instead of bringing your marketing in house consider outsourcing your advertising and marketing. Let’s see, you want to know if we can give you a referral? Oh yes… a company called 3H comes to mind. 🙂
by Miriam Hara | Jul 5, 2013 | Advertising, Creative, Latest
What does a career in advertising really mean?
Advertising has always held some mystic for many creative and marketing types wannabes. Many people on the outside looking in think of the world of advertising as being the ultimate career in creativity. I’ll let you in on secret… in many cases, depending on what your creative type happens to be, it’s true! Advertising is the most creative aspect in marketing communications… even more so than public relations (PR) and brand marketing. Add to that, the very popular TV series of Mad Men to this caché… well, then you may very well have a rose coloured view of this career choice.
Those of us in the the field have a different and more realistic definition of advertising and what it means to be “working in” this crazy, hectic, exciting field. Through my 25 years of running a marketing creative agency, I have been fortunate to meet many interesting people and I have come to the realization that we all have certain traits and characteristics in common.
See if you too belong to the wonderful industry of advertising… can you can identify with any one of these character traits?
1) You love being around creative and the creative process: You don’t have to draw or write…You can easily be an advertising account executive.Just as long as you are part of “creating” something.
2) Passion rules the day: You love your job. In fact you can’t wait to get out of bed and to greet the day! You love the challenge of newness that every marketing mandate brings…and working out the issues. You love that what you do can potentially reach millions of people.
3) You’re an adrenaline junkie: Not death defying tricks here… only true and pure rush. Rush to meet impossible deadlines put out by most if not all advertisers…. and to ultimately excel in your creativity and performance while meeting those said impossible deadlines.
4) You think ‘What if”…constantly! Never mind about inside or outside the box. You’re a natural problem solver that always looks at the marketing brief differently. Innovation is your mind’s middle name whether it’s comes to coining a phrase or conceptualizing a storyboard or ad… you simply strive on creating breakthrough creative.
5) Work…. what’s that?: Not exactly like Character Trait #3, more like an extension. You actually have fun at what you do? In fact it’s like a calling. You think about projects, ideas and products all the time. Grocery shopping isn’t just about filling up the pantry. Rather it becomes a store-check to see what’s new and innovative in products or POP or contest promotions. If you do a lot of TV advertising, you can’t see a movie without acknowledging the camera angles,the lighting, the propping. It’s about you driving your car, noticing billboards and trying to ascertain what the brief was and if if the creative was well executed.
If you see yourself in any one of the above character traits, then advertising is in your future! I’d love to hear from any and all of you who share in the passion of creativity and advertising.
Live creatively and prosper!
by Miriam Hara | Jul 2, 2013 | Creative, Design, Latest
What is creativity? There’s a misconception on what or rather who can call himself or herself a “creative”. There are many types of creativity out there. You don’t necessarily need to draw and paint in order to be a creative being…. so if you don’t, don’t sell yourself short. I run a brand creative agency and I have found that being creative and owning the label of a ’Creative’ is much more than drawing or painting. Through the many years of running a creative agency with graphic designers, web developers, photographers and writers, there are many different creative personalities, but they often fall into a creative type. Here’s my informal list of creative types identifiers.
Which one (or two, or three) best defines your creative style?
The ‘Artiste’: True and tried, these creative types are what everyone naturally thinks of as “creative”. They can be artists, sculptures, glass blowers, graphic designers, animators, art directors, illustrators and painters. They use any medium from a paintbrush and easel to computers and software such as Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, to name a few.
The Physical Artist: Born to perform, these artists are actors, comedians and yes, even musicians. They are at the forefront of their creative expression…. seen on TV or in the movies and can be found in local bars and theatres.
The ‘Conceptual’: Give these people a brick of information, add to it restrictions and rules of what can be done and what can’t be done… and leave them alone. They’ll come up with ideas that speak volumes and words that rock your world. Their thinking is organized, concise and rational. They’ll be creative directors, writers and art directors.
The Stylists: These creative types are visual. They use material (from fabric to brick) and colour… and understand lines and space. They’ll be your Fashion designers, architects, interior designers and interior decorators.
The Imaginative: Creative thinkers they always ask the one important question: “what if”. This creative group loves problem solving and is often inventors and innovators… and they can be anything from urban planners to scientists and anything in-between.
The Linear: With the advent of technology, I would be amiss if I didn’t include this creative type. From understanding website navigation and user interaction to making sites look good and maintain functionality, this group of creative IT designers are as integral as conceptual thinkers and artists in the marketing field.
So what’s your creative type? Do you have one that I haven’t listed? I’d appreciate you defining your creative type here.
Look forward to hearing from you!
by Lisa Wedmann | Jun 26, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Creative, Latest
Some guy in a suit is yawning, another guy in the back is asleep, a woman in the front is reading notes, another looks at her nails and everyone else is checking their phone.
And then there’s you, standing at the front of the room, nervous and starting to sweat, trying to hang on to their attention.
You’re feeling frustrated and don’t know whether you should speed up your presentation or slow it down. Maybe you need to add a little humour? You could tell a few jokes, but maybe the topic of your presentation can’t be made light of.
Is it you? Is it your subject matter? Or is it your PowerPoint? You rack your brain thinking about what could you have done differently to be more effective?
All this to say, if it’s your delivery, well that’s an issue for another blog. If it’s your subject matter, there’s not much you can do about that. But if it’s your PowerPoint presentation, I can help.
In fact, I can provide you with two killer tips for powerful PowerPoint presentations.
All you have to do is follow these two simple rules when you create and design your material and your PowerPoint presentations will not only look better, your audience will be more interested and more engaged.
ONE, ONE, TWO
It’s an easy rule of thumb: One idea, one slide, two minutes. It’s the most basic formula. 1+1=2. Simple to remember, easier to use. The reason for this is also simple. When you create content heavy slides with more than one idea per slide, your audience is unable to determine what message you want to deliver. Your slide is high in noise and low in message.
Your audience is thinking to themselves, “And the point is…?”. The result: Yawning and nail inspection.
Ideally, you need to design your presentation so that you spend approximately two to three minutes per slide. Yes, that means you must know your subject matter well. Any more than three minutes and your audience will get bored and end up losing interest in your presentation.
THIRTY-SIX OR TWENTY-FIVE
I can’t count the number of times I have seen PowerPoint slides with far too many words. Oh yes, I can count. More than 36 words per slide is too many.
The slides are there to support your comments, to act as reinforcement and to keep you on track with your presentation; they are not there to chronicle your entire speech. No, they don’t replace the index cards of the past.
I know we all hate presenting, but If you’re reading this it means your career is dependent on giving presentations at some level – so you’re going to have to get over it. I digress, back to the presentation and the number of words…
There are various rules for the number of words per slide but one of the easiest to remember is 6 x 6. That means six bullets each with six words for a total of 36 words. Some will even say 5 x 5. You can decide which makes the most sense to you. So, another simple formula: 6×6=36 or 5×5=25.
If you must have a slide with more than 36 words, take a few well chosen words from that slide and consider putting additional information in the Appendix that you leave behind. The audience can read about it more in depth at their own convenience and without yawning in your face.
THOSE WHO CAN COUNT
These two rules are very simple, but rarely will you find anyone who follows them. But as I always say, there are three types of people in this world, those who can count and those who can’t.
by Lisa Wedmann | Jun 12, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Latest
I looked up and high on the shelf in the Dollar Store was a giant eraser with the words “We Make BIG Misteaks”. I thought it was funny and not so funny.
Not so funny when you are the one making those misteaks.
I bet Lululemon doesn’t think making misteaks is funny after their recall of yoga pants in March because you could see through them. The recall amounted to approximately $67 Million in sales, a big chunk of change but small change when last year’s revenue was close to 1.4 Billion.
The supplier said they followed specifications so what happened?
Maybe the Chief Product Officer knows. He was fired immediately.
Then, three months later after the excitement settled down it was announced that the CEO, Christine Day would step down. She gave no explanation for leaving.
Looks like that was a big misteak somewhere. But where: Lululemon or the supplier? The Product Officer or the CEO? We may never know.
We can only hope it doesn’t happen to us.
If don’t want to make big misteaks like Lululemon I have two recommendations to help you ensure product quality control.
Define Guidelines
An important way to ensure quality control is to have specific written guidelines for your product. These standards must be followed at all times. Do not turn a blind eye and make the excuse to let it pass just this one time. If you turn a blind eye to quality you are on a slippery downward slope.
Teach your vendor about your products
Having a good relationship with your vendor will go a long way to getting good results. Help them understand and teach them what is important about your product . Regularly rank your vendors so you can determine which of them needs improvement and work on getting that improvement.
By making these recommendations I am not meaning to act like I know better than Lululemon. I’m not. It’s hard to beat a Billion dollars in revenue. But what I do know is I can protect my business ….and with all pun intended … that’s the bottom line.
