The client hands me chicken scratch on a napkin, and I’m fine with that. He apologizes for it with, “I’m no artist,” but it doesn’t matter. There is brilliance in the idea, just waiting to be discovered, polished and promoted. And I’m the lucky guy who gets to help him do it.
“I’m not an artist,” she says, before explaining her inspiring idea, “So I can’t draw it.” It’s okay, I am an artist, and it’s why she has me there. But she is an artist too, just not a visual artist.
People frequently apologize for their lack of drawing skill. It reminds me of my mom apologizing just before serving a home-cooked meal. “This isn’t very good,” she’ll say, but of course it’s delicious.
Clients would be amazed at how many designers can’t actually draw. (I’ll admit, I think good graphic designers make an effort to learn to draw.) I can draw and I thoroughly enjoy it, but drawing is not a requirement for being an artist.
We’re not here to be superior to our clients. We’re here to help them communicate who they are, what they do, about their amazing approach or offering, what they stand for and why anyone should care. And we love it.
Yes, we’re artists, but so is most of everyone else on the planet. From the guy who designs and manufactures sustainable furniture to the doctor (of any modality) who makes connections that solve medical mysteries to the woman who helps more people ride bicycles, they’re all artists in their own right. Can they draw? Maybe not on paper, but they can draw in their minds, formulate ideas that change our reality, improve lives and inspire greatness in others. That’s art, all of it.
Strong brand launch strategy starts at the very beginning of brand development, and it continually evolves all the way up to launch. As the brand characteristics become clear, so too does the launch strategy. If you rigidly set a launch strategy, then fail to add flexibility to accommodate the changes along the way, your team will get off track.
Staying on track means strategy questions don’t get sidestepped. It’s impossible to set a rigid launch strategy for a brand that does not yet exist. You can have an idea of what you want to do, but as soon as you clamp down on strategy shifts, you clamp down on potential success and limit your team’s vision.
Imagine you’re launching a new brand, and you need an internal document to get your sales team excited about it. If you impose a rigid brand style guide on the launch and sidestep emerging strategy questions, how can you accommodate new characteristics or holes that have been filled during the branding process?
The answer is simple: you can’t.
If your brand launch strategy remains flexible before all of the brand’s launch announcements and materials are completed, opportunities to capture the full strength of the brand can be developed and used to their full potential.
The key to effective brand launch strategy is flexibility. Once you have completed the full breadth of the brand development, then you can tighten the reigns and plan the final roll out.
Social media management is am interesting topic. Every day we hear the same things: How will we manage our social media? Or control it?
Answer: Don’t. Social media will manage itself. And you don’t need to control it either.
Then there’s my favorite: What should we say on social media?
It’s fascinating to watch business people be all but completely flummoxed by social media. If you dissect the word parts of the phrase, you get ‘social’ and ‘media’. Pretty simple, yes? You’re either social or you’re not. Simple. And if you advertise or even just have a website (both business basics), you have media. To be social with your media, you just take it live, albeit without the sales pitch.
Do you really have to be part of the conversation? Probably not. Or can you just go on communicating effectively with the people who make your business? Probably so. Will you get left behind by being a social media outsider? Not likely.
As the population rises, new generations will not supplant old. They just create new markets.
If you really want to take part in social media, find relevant conversations, but first, think about your motivation for wanting to contribute, then see if it aligns with your business goals.
When you have enough Facebook likers, you can leverage your numbers to connect with them on Facebook and connect with them through other sites (this is really just advertising, but shhh, don’t tell). Until then, just be social without imposing obvious advertisements, and you’ll be just fine. Same thing goes for your blog. Keep it to relevant editorial. Leave out the sales pitch text (such as ‘act now’ and so on) that your business instincts tell you to insert. Again, simple.
Train anyone on your team who will be adding to the conversation to understand your brand inside out. Teach them that a positive attitude online is like gold, and negativity is like kryptonite. These are basic customer service concepts. When your peeps communicate with an overall sunny presence, their communications will manage themselves.
Unless your company has a reputation for treating people like they are all evil ogre mother-in-laws, don’t worry so much about controlling the conversation about your business. Let it flow, and happily correct any gross misrepresentations.
The truth is most companies need to worry more about improving their customer service, and let social media manage itself.
(If you really want your social media handled and managed, we do that too.)
What makes trusting the work of a graphic designer so darned hard is the very nature of the work they do, which often must counter what management thinks ought to be done if it’s to be effective. The graphic designer brings the needed objectivity often lacking at the management level of businesses (large and small alike) to make your marketing communications work.
Trust the objectivity, work together on strategy, and you get inspired creative that fuels great marketing communications.
How do graphic designers gain your trust? Listening is key, but so too is aligning themselves with employers or clients who give them the freedom them to do outstanding work. And as much as it chaps upper management’s hide, good graphic designers have to maintain outside objectivity. That means they can’t be squished to fit the corporate cookie-cutter, which often makes your graphic designer stand out like the rogue entity they are.
That’s why you hire a graphic designer. We know how to stand out. We bring originality to your marketing and objectivity to your team. Graphic designers help you gain the long-term trust and loyalty of prospective customers. Sound appealing?
Ever notice how all nearly businesses have either an in-house graphic designer or they work with a freelance designer or design firm? So you recognize the necessity. It’s not a big leap to extend your trust in the same way you do to other critical team members.
Since graphic designers and copywriters are typically not board-certified (there is no such thing in the industry), clients and some bosses look down on them, telling them what to do and how to do it, often without regard for how their (micro) management may negatively effect the outcomes.
The truth is graphic designers (and copywriters too) are just as critical to product or business success as salespeople, attorneys and accountants. Graphic designers are a critical cog in the team.
Consider how your advertising, interactive and marketing communications might suffer if the warehouseman or sales team did them. If the thought scares you, place your trust in your graphic design professional.
Great graphic designers challenge their clients. They work with them too of course, but graphic design that fails to challenge the client also fails to engage it’s target. Great graphic design upends the cart, and makes you uncomfortable. You don’t hire a graphic designer to bore you or keep you yawningly safe, do you?
When graphic designers deliver strategy-driven design concepts that make you uncomfortable, realize that the more uncomfortable you are, the more likely you are looking at either a business-winning design or an absolutely abhorrent amateur hack job. As a seasoned businessperson, you can probably tell the difference. It’s the stuff in between, the designs that bore you, that you should really be concerned about.
How will you know if the design is boring? Simple, you will experience neither nervousness nor that excited feeling you get at the moment of a great success.
If your graphic designer works to keep you comfortable, they’re not doing their job. And if you micro-manage your graphic designer, know that you will not get the results you want (unless your ideal result is mediocrity). BTW: This applies to web design, advertising and brand development too.
In my experience, clients who accept the challenge and push gently back or collaborate to develop stronger concepts are clients who encounter the greatest market success. They tend to enjoy their designer relationship more to boot because we develop mutual respect and admiration.
David Ogilvy once said, “Why have a dog and bark yourself?” I love this question.
Think about it. Do you tell your surgeon or dentist how to perform her work? Do you tell the chef how to prepare the meal? How about your attorney—Do you tell him the law precedents? Or do you let them do their jobs, so they can deliver their best work?
One of my clients shared with me how he manages his employees: “I hire great people, then I let them do their thing.” That’s smart strategy.
