Bad Design or Fear of Committment?
After my last post I got an email from a friend/colleague.
He and I were discussing the various cryptic messages that we get from clients. Not all of them are credit union clients, but it is not uncommon to hear these types of things from a client.
- “It doesn’t do anything for me.”
- “I’m not wowed by it.”
- “It’s not what I expected.”
- “I’m not feeling it.”
- “It’s so-so.”
- “I liked the other option better.”
- “I don’t like orange.”
- “I don’t like it.”
- “I like it.”
- “I’m not sure if I like it.”
- “It doesn’t grab me.”
- I’m not responding to it.”
- “Can you just jazz it up a little?”
The last one is a favorite since it hit me a little close to home. While I was out sick I was working from my house and had said something like this to a designer here. I will let myself off the hook by saying that I then gave some design direction and ideas to “Jazz it up”.
So we (this friend and me) were talking about why we get these comments. I will be first to admit that not everything I say is a golden nugget of wisdom - but I think I do a pretty good job. I work with my clients to understand their intent and goals and try to give them something that will accomplish those goals (not that the client always listens to me - but I have to give them my best ideas you know).
What we try to figure out from these comments is what the client is REALLY saying. All we know is that they don’t like “Something” about the piece. Unfortunately these comments don’t really help us proceed with any real direction. We are forced to guess what the client wants. I think pulling teeth would be easier. And when you have a looming deadline, you almost feel like Jack Bauer with the constant “ping ping ping” of the time rattling away in the back of your head.
We are forced to hold the client to a phone and ask question on top of question in the hopes that the client, who only knows what they don’t like, is looking for.
The question is if this is a manifestation of the client not wanting to hurt feelings? Nah, I don’t buy that. My clients don’t have a problem simply saying they don’t like something. My feelings can’t be hurt. This is business. They aren’t telling me I have ugly kids and my breath smells.
I think it is “Fear of Commitment”
What we do is subjective, but open to scrutiny and measured for effectiveness. How scary is that? Think about the real life scenario. A Marketing Coordinator or V.P. of Marketing is looking at a piece and is saying to themselves “I know these people are good at what they do, but this is not something that I can get behind”. Basically, the marketing person needs to be confident in the piece in case it all goes south and the campaign is not effective - at least they went with their gut instead of looking back and saying “I KNEW I should have canned this concept!”. So we know why great concepts get shelved. Sometimes reaching out can get you bitten.
What you don’t know can cost you
But just because you don’t like it (or understand it) doesn’t mean that it’s not the right direction for your members. Instead of shutting a concept or a design down without new supporting direction, ask your desiger “Why did you do it this way?” or “Why did you choose orange?” or even “This looks pretty simple, why did you go this direction versus something more flashy?”. You may find out that there was a very good reason for using orange (like it the color of the local football team on a football oriented piece for your community.) You may find out that the reason makes sense to you and you agree that the design is the correct way to go. This is what I do when I talk to my designers. I ask a lot of “Why” questions. This saves them time, me money and keeps your invoices low.
I don’t want to give too many details here, but we had a campaign designed for a client. The campaign was relatively successful. It just exceeded its goal in in a down market. Obviously we would have liked the campaign to blow the doors off the goal numbers - but it was a moral victory. The department head came back and hated the campaign after it was already done and out the door and in the hands of the members. We felt like crap. Not that we had negatively impacted the brand or were unsuccessful in the execution of the campaign. The department head just didn’t like the idea. They would never of approved something like that. It just felt like someone had popped our balloon, peed in our cornflakes and tripped our grandma all at once.
From our side we were saying “But it was successful in a down market” from their side it was “But, I don’t like it”. Had we tried this campaign any other time (when this person was more available) it would have been shot down for another, maybe less successful, concept. One that they liked. Not to say that their idea wouldn’t have been successful (even more successful). But you’re ruining my point 
Now, it had nothing to do with the work. We are rarely emotionally attached to the artwork that we produce. We are invested in the work, but basically we are gunslingers - killer marketers for hire. When we work on something there is an intent. There is a message that we are trying to convey. We are working on the behalf and in the interest of our client.
Sometimes that message is squashed because the client thinks the person in the piece is “Smiling too much”. The client may focus on something else. It can be something as minor as “add some kids so it looks like a family” to the absurd “Add some ethnic people, no not Asian, ETHNIC” (I got this one a few years ago and it still boggles my mind).
Good marketing doesn’t have to excite you (there is nothing exciting about adult diapers, but we all know what Depends are). It doesn’t have to impress you with its cleverness (how many cool commercials have you seen where you ask yourself “who was that? what were they selling?”). Your marketing just has to sell your members (not you) on your product, services or brand. It has to motivate action on the part of the recipient. It has to buy some brain space. It has to be relevant and it has to make a connection. I forget this too sometimes so don’t feel bad.
When looking at marketing to your members, remember, you may not fit your ideal or current member profile. Maybe you are college educated and your membership is not. Maybe you are white in a 90% African-American credit union. Maybe you like obscure references to 1950’s songs and your membership is college-age based who never even heard of those songs. You may decide that you want a campaign based on “The Twist”by Chubby Checker when your members would respond better to fart jokes or references to lines from the movies SuperBad or Knocked Up. Maybe you don’t know what you don’t know. Ignorance is a hard thing to swallow, especially when it is age related (none of us want to get old).
You know what you want and your marketing person (agency or in-house) may have a different or maybe even better idea. But they will ultimately give you what YOU want - good, bad or SuperBad. Just because you don’t get it, doesn’t make it wrong. Ask questions, don’t close doors. Saying things like the list above will only cost you money in revision and concept time and may, just maybe, cause you to miss out on a hugely successful campaign.
Side Note - we have a client that has specifically requested all of our concepts that other credit unions have rejected because they were too “crazy”. I love these people. The stuff they are doing is so much fun and so interesting. I will have to let you know how successful the campaigns are. Who knows, they could bomb and I could just be full of crap
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Comments
Great post. You can add, “It doesn’t strike a chord with me” to the list of hollow comments clients sometimes make.
It’s tough for marketers to release their personal feelings and approve concepts that will appeal to their target audience, even if the concepts don’t appeal to them. ‘Edgy’ for a 45 year old isn’t the same thing as ‘edgy’ for a 20 year old.
And “Knocked Up” is one of the funniest movies ever. I just saw it last night. Two hours long, but funny from start to finish.
Elaine, you are right. Unless you have a strong background in design it IS hard to articulate what it is that looks “Wrong”.Our eyes see things that our brains miss. For example, the movie The Crying Game. The whole time I thought there was something a little off about that cute chick… I just couldn’t put my finger on it .
Working with the designer and communicating is THE BEST option here. Let the designer explain why they did what they did. If the piece makes you feel uncomfortable, maybe that was a visual gimmick created by the designer for a reason. You can also run the piece by another designer and let the two “geek-it-out” and listen to what they say. It will help you understand the process a little better too.
Jeffry, You are right. I have had clients tell me that they thought a conservative concept (by my standards) was too edgy for their members. What kills me is when in the next breath they say, and how can we use this to get more youth memberships. Argh!
They might also not know what it is that’s not clicking. Most people don’t spend much time thinking about design in their lives.
As a self-taught designer, I’ve had to work pretty darn hard to articulate what’s not working. I’ve been lucky enough to work with a few very good designers, including one who taught design. They’ve helped me understand why a design makes me feel “wrong” and how to express that in design terms.