the world of advertising

my client sent me this email. totally made my day! and finally, more quotes for the blog! i *heart* dilbert!

A magazine recently ran a “Dilbert quotes” contest. They were looking for people to submit quotes from their real-life dilbert-type managers.

Here are the top ten finalists:

1. “As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday and employees will receive their cards in two weeks.”
(This was the winning quote from Fred Dales, Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, WA)

2. “What I need is an exact list of specific unknown problems we might encounter.”
(Lykes Lines Shipping)

3. “E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business.”
(Accounting manager, Electric Boat Company)

4. “This project is so important, we can’t let things that are more important interfere with it.”
(Advertising/Marketing manager, United Parcel Service)

5. “Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule.”
(Plant manager, Delco Corporation)

6. “No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We’ve been working on it for months. Now, go act busy for a few weeks and I’ll let you know when it’s time to tell them.”
(R&D supervisor, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing/3M Corp.)

7. Quote from the Boss: “Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say.”
(Marketing executive, Citrix Corporation)

8. My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my Boss, he said she died on purpose so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday. He said, “That would be better for me.”
(Shipping executive, FTD Florists)

9. “We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees.”
(Switching supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division)

10. One day my Boss asked me to submit a status report to him concerning a project I was working on. I asked him if tomorrow would be soon enough. He said, “If I wanted it tomorrow, I would have waited until tomorrow to ask for it!”
(Hallmark Cards Executive)

another golden nugget from Advertising for Peanuts:

Meet client needs, not necessarily wants

Back in March, fellow Peanut Gallery denizens Tom Tom and Littlejohn chimed in on the importance of viewing and dealing with clients as if they were actual human beings, because they are. This is a valuable point that merits revisiting often, in order to fend of the apparently inevitable tendency to one-dimensionialize, stereotype and often demonize clients. It’s tough to earn respect and trust from someone you disdain, dismiss or demean.

This does not, however, mean we should kowtow (me: i’m amazed how this word got to the other side of the world!), suck up, subserve or patronize our clients. Much of the value an agency offers its clients lies in its independent thought and willingness to share that thought, along with a spirited advocacy for and defense of the creative process. (me: STRONGLY agree)

The difference between good to great ad agencies and mediocre to bad ones is not necessarily the level of creative talent. It is more likely to be that agency’s ability to guide, direct, explain, consult, push and sell to clients. This in turn is predicated on developing a certain level of trust, which can only happen over time, built on having mutual success.

Agencies, as a rule, are more likely to create great work than to sell it.

Perhaps it’s helpful to remind ourselves that our job is not to make client conversations as short and pleasant as possible. Rather, we need to recognize when the client needs some tough love. A good client understands that sometimes the agency has a better idea of what they need (versus what they want) than they do. Here are some things that I’ve found most clients need, but few want:

• To slow down

• To plan, spend and generally think about their brand proactively, not reactively

• To think harder

• To know their customers better, or trust that we do

• To use their marketing dollars more wisely

• To keep the brand top of mind (in their own minds)

• To stretch their comfort zone

• To trust our judgment and their own judgment over the results of an informal poll of six people they bump into in the corridor

• To get over themselves

Surely this list is not exhaustive. What else do clients need, but not necessarily want?

very well said, from Advertising for Peanuts:

people, not labels

In advertising we study people. We attempt to understand what they want, why they want it and what we can do to convince them. Notice the language I’m already using: we and them. As if we aren’t them.

We also attempt to group people together into targets against which we create messages and buy media.

Do these labels make it easier or harder for us to meaningfully market to people? Is a target group helpful or does it hinder our ability to actually persuade people? Is it possible to market to people, not labels? Should we drop the idea of a target?

So I’ve raised a few questions without answers. Here comes my opinion. I think labels (i.e. targets) are necessary for marketing. We can never capture the complexity of every human being so targets are an efficient and effective way of resonating (at least partly) with a large group of people. Having said that, I think awareness of the abstract and thus, inherently inaccurate, nature of targets is also needed. Without this balance we risk thinking that targets are real, which they aren’t, people are real.

Balance the need for targeting with awareness. Awareness of the risk that thinking of people as targets can block your ability to actually perceive them as real people.

if you haven’t been to his site, i urge you to take a quick peek, coz you’ll always be entertained by his posts!