Author Archive for Nick Rice

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Expanding my reach

Published on July 31, 2006 in business, entrepreneur and management. 0 Comments

I wanted to let everyone know that I will be blogging on the SmallBusinessBranding.com blog as well. A little backstory; while surfing around I came upon Yaro’s blog the day that he announced that he was looking for 2 additional writers to grow the blog. So I threw my name in the hat and was accepted.

We are building a nice team of international writers with experiences from big business to entrepreneurs on SBB. The goal is to share information and best practices about all things branding and marketing. It’s geared toward small business. But that’s a broad category, so there will be valuable content for everyone.

As soon as my posts start to go live, I’ll let you know.

Check it out. We’re also going to work on a site redesign so that it’s easier to navigate through the multiple authors.

technorati tags > small business, branding, marketing, blog, smallbusinessbranding.com

The typical customer

Published on July 27, 2006 in business, management, service and strategy. 0 Comments

I was reading this post from Olivier and I realized that he is describing how a large percentage of the American population consumes.

There are lessons to be learned.

  1. Most of time, consumers will tire of your products/services
  2. Comfortable and safe is only tolerable for so long
  3. The products that work today probably will not tomorrow
  4. Brand loyalty is hard to generate and harder to sustain
  5. Consumers are human, not statistics.
  6. Listening is better than analyzing.
  7. The “what have you done for me lately” attitude applies to products/services as much as people.

technorati tags > branding, consumers, customers, market research, trends, product development

Live or die by documentation

Published on July 25, 2006 in design and marketing. 0 Comments

For some reason the rigorous documentation practices that drive software development have not migrated to the creative space. The ability to write down your expectations, audience desires, and overall strategy is critical to ensuring success.

A lot of professional design firms that I worked with as a Fortune 500 marketing manager didn’t even have a standardized project management process. This was very scary. To think that you’re spending thousands if not hundreds of thousands or millions on an agency that just “wags” it scared me to death.

Trust me; I know how hard it is to get senior executives to give good direction on projects. They like to be elusive and provide vague instructions on what they want. They believe that it “empowers” their staff. For a lot of people, documentation freaks them out. They are not comfortable seeing everything on paper without any wiggle room. Most clients know that the unexpected will happen (budgets change, timelines decrease, management overhauls, etc…). When everything is written in stone, no one is sure how to handle these changes.

I’ve written about it before (here, here, and here). Documentation is your savior. It allows both client and agency to be on the same page concerning deliverables, strategy, timeframe, and budget. It’s not fun or glamorous; but it’s the #1 way to ensure that your projects meet and/or exceed all expectations. And that’s the #1 driver of customer satisfaction.

technorati tags > marketing, process, collateral, project management, documentation, budget, timeframe, strategy, audience, creative brief

How to give better feedback

Published on July 24, 2006 in business, management and marketing. 0 Comments

Another wonderful post (an oldie but a goodie) from Seth Godin via Core77.

How to give better feedback.

Synopsis:

  1. No one cares about your opinion
  2. Say the right thing at the right time
  3. If you have something nice to say, please say it
  4. Give me feedback, no matter what

Giving good feedback is all about putting yourselves in the shoes of your audience. It’s not about your personal feelings or your favorite colors or what you think your boss will like. When you approach everything from the POV of your customer (hopefully based on research) your opinions don’t matter. It’s what’s best for your audience.

Here’s a good hierarchy for reviewing marketing materials. Start at the top and answer the hard questions first.

  1. Does it meet the stated strategy?
  2. Does it succinctly convey ONE value proposition?
  3. Is it visually interesting? Does it make you stop and want to learn more?
  4. Does it meet your branding guidelines?
  5. Can it be developed within the stated budget and timeframe?
  6. Is it legally appropriate?
  7. Is it free of typos and grammar mistakes?

Notice that copy editing comes last. A lot of people want to dig right into spell checking as opposed to making sure the collateral is on target and effective. It’s easy but it’s not appropriate to do first. Having the ability to better review materials will increase the effectiveness of your marketing.

technorati tags > marketing, review process, strategy, seth godin, opinion, research, core77, guidelines

Creative Constraints

Published on July 21, 2006 in advertising, design and management. 0 Comments

Johnnie Moore’s post on constraints got me thinking about limits that clients naturally put on projects. It always surprises me that no one likes to talk about budgets or deadlines up front. Especially considering that those two very real constraints drive 99% of all marketing projects. After all who is going to pay an agency to work forever with no goals or defined invoice amount?

The true genius of a creative person is finding the best solution available given project constraints. It’s not unreasonable to renegotiate deliverables to fit within constraints – and that goes for client expectations as well as agency desires to produce top notch materials on every engagement.

It’s hard to fault a designer for wanting to do the best job possible on each and every assignment. Unfortunately the business world is one of realities more so than possibilities. The trick is doing the best job possible under the deadline and budget restrictions. That’s hard for a lot of creative directors and producers to wrap their heads around. You have to make conscious design decisions that meet the project/brand goals while staying on time and budget.

As an agency, we have to set client expectations up front about what is possible within given project constraints. With margins thinning, it’s a fine line to walk between customer satisfaction and agency profitability. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The days of multi-year retainer client/agency relationships are gone. I’ve heard a lot of mega-agency people talk about retainers as if they are an open bucket of money without defined deliverables or deadlines. In reality, retainers are just multi-project engagements under contract with one agency. You still have the same constraints as one off project work; you’re just not fighting off other firms for each job.

We have to learn to embrace constraints. Use them as fuel for out-of-the-box creative thinking. Great work comes from finding unique solutions while meeting all goals (project objectives, client satisfaction, timeframe, budget, agency goals and designer expectations – probably in that order). Budget and timeframe should determine level of effort on a sliding scale. A seasoned design professional will know what is possible when they understand the constraints. After that it’s a matter of aligning client & agency expectations with those constraints and everyone involved making purposeful decisions to stay on target.

technorati tags > marketing, communications, advertising, level of effort, constraints, retainer, projects, budget, deadline, project management, designer, client, agency, creative

Simple vs. Dumb

Published on July 19, 2006 in branding, business, management and strategy. 0 Comments

Great post from Mary Schmidt.

The summary is that “dumbing down” your marketing so that it seemingly appeals to all audiences is the wrong thing to do. That tactic will appeal to no one. On the other hand, simplifying your message so that it’s easily understood and actionable is key to connecting with your customers/clients/prospects/etc…

New technology, being constantly connected, and having fewer hours in the day have created an environment where people are demanding more control over their marketing & sales exposures. You have to keep your message short, unique, value laden, and available on their terms to gain traction.

technorati tags > marketing, advertising, strategies, consumers, messaging, targeting

How to live happiliy w/ a great designer

Published on July 19, 2006 in design and strategy. 0 Comments

I had to include this post from Godin… It’s good enough to be considered professional development for a lot of marketing managers and company presidents.

Why do some organizations look great… and get great results from their design efforts and ads… while others languish in mediocrity? I think it has little to do with who they hire and a lot to do with how they work with their agencies and designers.

Here are the things your design team wishes you would know:

  1. If you want average (mediocre) work, ask for it. Be really clear up front that you want something beyond reproach, that’s in the middle of the road, that will cause no controversy and will echo your competition. It’ll save everyone a lot of time.
  2. On the other hand, if you want great work, you’ll need to embrace some simple facts:
  3. It’s going to offend someone. If it doesn’t offend them, then it will make them nervous. The Vietnam Vets memorial offended a lot of people. The design of Google made plenty of people nervous. Great work from a design team means new work, refreshing and remarkable and bit scary.
  4. It’s not going to be easy to sell to your boss. That’s your job, by the way, not mine. If you want me to do something great, you’ve got to be prepared to protect it and defend it. Come back too many times for one little compromise, and you’ll make it clear that #1 was what you wanted all along.
  5. You can’t tell me you’ll know it when you see it. First, you won’t. Second, it wastes too much time. Instead, you’ll need to have the patience to invest twenty minutes in accurately describing the strategy. That means you need to be abstract (what is this work trying to accomplish) resistant to pleasing everyone (it needs to do this, this and that) and willing, if the work meets your strategic goal, to embrace it even if it’s not to your taste.
  6. Help me out by pointing out the work you’d like this to be on a peer with. If you want a website to be like three others (in tone, not in execution) then point it out. In advance.
  7. Be clear about dates and costs. Not what you hope for, but what you can live with!
  8. You don’t know a lot about accounting so you don’t backseat drive your accountant. You hired a great designer, please don’t backseat drive here, either.
  9. If you want to be part of the process, please go to school. Read design magazines or take a course from Milton Glaser or get a subscription to Before & After. By the way, that one link is the single best part of this post.
  10. This one may surprise you: don’t change your existing design so often. Not when your kids or your colleagues tell you it’s time. Do it when your accountant says so.
  11. Don’t get stressed about your logo.
  12. Get very stressed about user interface and product design. And your packaging.
  13. Say thank you.
What I like about this is that he’s not talking about an artist, he’s talking about a designer. There is a difference. Because the marketing communications & advertising industry has done a poor job of aligning itself with business, a lot of of business people still think of designers as artists. Designers are really just communication specialists. They are trained to find the simplest, most effective way to get your unique message out to your unique audience. They are simply proficient at another part of business. There’s no mystery to the creative process, but it may seem that way when people don’t follow Seth’s advice above.

technorati tags > graphic designer, marketing, relationship, management, professional, development, performance

Q1 Online Ad Spend Up 46%, MySpace Gets 17% of June Ads · MarketingVOX

Published on July 18, 2006 in ROI, advertising and strategy. 0 Comments

Q1 Online Ad Spend Up 46%, MySpace Gets 17% of June Ads · MarketingVOX

Interesting fact; Yahoo Mail & MySpace account for over 50% of ALL online advertising clicks. That’s amazing.

technorati tags > online, advertising, myspace, yahoo, spending, budget, increase

Brand Autopsy: Creationist WOM Eggs-ample

Published on July 18, 2006 in advertising and branding. 0 Comments

Brand Autopsy: Creationist WOM Eggs-ample

John Moore is right on. I’m not sure what made CBS thinking that advertising on eggshells made sense for their brand, but they’re trying it anyway. Just because it’s technically feasible to put a message on a substrate doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for your company’s image. WaffleHouse maybe, but CBS? I’m all for trying new things, but you have to stay in alignment w/ your business.

technorati tags > word of mouth, marketing, advertising, eggs

Don’t squeeze the Charmin

Published on July 17, 2006 in advertising and social media. 0 Comments

Great post from Olivier Blanchard on Charmin’s latest ad in the UK – there’s even a blog to go along.

It took me a little while to catch on, but it’s pretty clever. Great job on getting people to talk about toilet paper of all things. If TP can be viral, anything can!

technorati tags > advertising, viral, toilet, paper, UK, branding, blog