A Creative Perspective
by Andy Shemeta
5,000 per day. 5,000 of just about anything per day would be considered too much for the average person. Yet recent research has found that this is the average number of marketing messages a person is inundated with over the course of any given 24 hours.
Marketing is everywhere, not just in the traditional media vehicles we’ve grown accustomed to, but in innovative and “under-the-radar” approaches, too. It’s been tattooed on foreheads, posted in bathroom stalls, in the movies we watch, in comic book and novel story lines, it’s coming out on eggs and grocery store conveyor belts, it’s in our phones, in our video games, on the sides of school buses and even on air sickness bags you hope you’ll never have to use.
This seemingly endless bombardment of messaging shows the lengths and depths to which companies will go to call attention to their product or service. Companies and their marketing partners are using any means necessary to grab customer attention and market share in this new world of heightened, global competition.
Obviously this situation presents a challenge to organizations that need to get their message out. Typically the goal for marketers is to get their product or service into a considered set of choices that customers evaluate when making a purchase. To achieve this, challenge one is to make them aware, challenge two is to get them to consider it and ultimately, challenge three is to induce trial. After that, marketing has done its job and it’s up to the product or service to deliver on its promise and gain a repeat customer. The difficulty of getting your message noticed and into the considered set is becoming increasingly difficult.
How do you combat this situation and make your marketing dollars work for you? Barry Group Creative has three simple criteria for producing work that “cuts through the clutter.”
1. Singularity of message with a clear benefit:
So many organizations with something to say try to say it all at once. The attitude seems to be “let’s fill up all the space we have with as much information as possible.” Barry Group’s point-of-view is that this mentality just adds to the clutter that’s out there and instead of the prospect coming away with all the company’s information, they come away with nothing. We strongly feel it’s important to communicate one main message that resonates with the prospect in each communication. What resonates with the audience? We feel there needs to be a desired benefit communicated. So many companies advertise features of their business, for example, fifty years of experience, or quality-built. These don’t answer the “what’s-in-it-for-me" factor that we feel is necessary to resonate with the audience.
2. Attention-getting and memorable:
“Play it safe” seems to be the guiding phrase of so many marketers today. If the communication doesn’t look and sound the same as others, it might cause a stir. Exactly! Barry Group feels that bold, emotionally compelling visuals, memorable headlines, and clean distinctive design must all come together to get a communication not only noticed, but just as important, remembered. We constantly strive to move away from the herd and produce communications that get noticed and talked about. How many billions of marketing dollars have been wasted over the years on “safe,” boring communications that go unnoticed as wallpaper in the background of life around us? It’s our point-of-view that marketers need to take a chance on ideas that create excitement and perhaps even a little nervousness when implementation time comes around. This is the type of work that gets noticed and remembered.
3. Strategically targeted to the right audience:
Many marketers try to cast a wide net with their messaging. Unless you have something everybody needs, it’s imperative to know your audience and communicate to them in a way that they can relate to. Are you dangling a carrot when they really want steak? Barry Group believes that you need to know your customers better than ever before. You need to know who your core customers are. What’s important to them? How do they make decisions? What are their needs and values and how are they changing? Good research on the target audience is the backbone of developing communications that cut right to the heart of the matter and makes them care about your message.
Copyright © 2006 Barry Group, Inc.
