To find unbiased information, delve into blogs, reviews, and the social media conversations people are having beyond the company’s website and press releases. These are great places to look for truth. Truth often presents itself in the form of a disconnect between what the brand wants to say and what people are saying about it. It’s our job to resolve this tension with a creative business solution.
7. What barriers to purchase do we need to overcome?
Actual or perceived, barriers are things that get in the way of someone choosing the product or service your client is offering. In recent history, Toyota had a series of automatic acceleration incidents, and that led to several recalls. This was clearly a blow to the brand heritage and trust that Toyota built over the years. Doubts about reliability and trust in the technology became a substantial disincentive to purchase. In this case, the barrier was from within, but barriers can also result from larger shifts or the economic climate. Now that Toyota has done quite a bit of work to rebuild that trust, it’s Volkswagen’s turn to rebuild after its emission scandals. List these barriers briefly, but be specific. Identify them so that you can overcome them.
8. What is the net takeaway?
When a customer interacts with a brand’s marketing message or uses the product, a moment of truth occurs. The brand or product either lives up to the hype or it doesn’t. After the target consumer has come in contact with your design, advertising, or in-store marketing, what should he or she take away from that interaction? In the car example, the key takeaway could be to re-establish trust through the value, innovation, and overall quality that Toyota is known for. I’m interested to see how Volkswagen will rebuild. A simple and focused message presented within a well-designed experience over time will more than likely be remembered.
9. What is the brand position?
A positioning statement is a succinct articulation of the target, brand, business category, point of difference, and reason to believe. If your brand has a positioning statement, be sure to keep it handy. If you know this doesn’t exist internally for the client or internally at your firm, you might need to try to write one yourself. See Chapter 9 for more information on writing positioning statements.
Samples of existing creative work should be included for reference in this section of the brief. The graphic standards or brand guidelines should also be easily referenced for tone and brand personality so as not to deviate from what’s on brand.
10. What is the desired response?
The customer will move on if you aren’t clear in your creative executions about how to take advantage of what you offer. Each brand is posturing for a share of the customer’s wallet. All brands that want to retain their current customers or convert prospects into customers should make it easy for people to respond. Should your prospects call, click, visit, or all three? This will depend largely on channel, creative format, and product. Be specific in the wording of your call to action and be sure to allow prospects the ability to respond in multiple channels. Whatever it is in your situation, be sure it’s compelling and clear.
11. What is the timing?
Be clear on how much time you have to come up with everything listed in the assignment. List any phases, and pad a day or two here or there. You want to stay on topic and spend your time thoughtfully.
Do What Makes Sense
Keep in mind that there’s no one way to approach a creative brief or strategy document. You may or may not include every section listed here. When determining the content of each brief, ask yourself, “Does it make strategic sense to omit or change the order of any sections?” If it does, make the case for why and take a chance. Strive for clarity rather than uniformity. Though I’ve personally found value in this framework from my former freelance partner and St. John’s University Professor Neil Feinstein, there is no template. If it’s worth its salt, it’s a custom-designed strategy coupled with tactics and execution every time. You’ll need to look at your specific project or organization to determine the exact course of action.
As our field evolves, I see the opportunity for smart creatives to become partners with business and marketing practitioners. That partnership benefits designers when we engage in whole-brain problem-solving—part strategy and part execution. It doesn’t have to be us against the business and marketing folks, and creativity doesn’t have to be relegated to execution. The creative brief is one place to capture all of the necessary components of a strategic creative campaign.
Turning Words Into Inspiration
Think back to the failed opportunities you’ve been a part of, and isolate the ones where you failed because you didn’t have a necessary piece of the brief. We all have them, and they are painful because we put ourselves into our work; however, if we can put our finger on what went wrong, these experiences will help us going forward.
Make a list of at least three failed attempts at making a concept work and isolate what the missing element was. Did this fail because of a lack of understanding of the target or was it because the creative format was misaligned with the media habits of the segment? Was the benefit unclear or missing or the barriers left unstated? This type of reflection will help you recognize when you don’t have what you need in the brief and give you the opportunity to ask for these specifics immediately.
If you’re currently solving a brief, how does the content match up to the previous 11 points? What does it do well and why is that helpful?
Each brief, client problem, and culture will be different so it is critical to compare and contrast what isn’t working and who to ask for the missing pieces. Ultimately, if you can train yourself to see trouble coming, you can set off the alarm for the team so it can be avoided if possible, and if not, at least everyone is prepared for it.
11 Matchmaking
Aligning Target, Channel, and Messages
Fifteen miles off the coast of Anchor Point, Alaska, in the middle of the Cook Inlet, is where dating advice from John the Fisherman is doled out. “When fishing for the halibut, guys, you’ll need to wait until they commit to you before reeling fast and steady. When women are on board fishing, they understand this the first time, but us guys have no idea what I’m saying. So just remember, even though you may see the rod bend slightly, be patient and wait until they commit before reeling fast and steady. A bit later when we are fishing for salmon, it may be slightly more familiar to us guys, because when you get a nibble, you have to be quick to set the hook, or she’ll get away.”
Before long, John the Fisherman’s advice on landing a beauty began to pay off. We caught a boatload of halibut and silver salmon. John made it sound simple for us but when I think about it, though, there was much more involved.
The halibut rods, line, and rigs were much different than the ones for the silvers. Halibut, being bottom feeders, needed a four-pound lead weight so that the bait sank straight to the bottom. The bulky reels, strong fishing line, and large circle hooks were needed to handle monster halibut that have been known to grow to 400+ pounds. We began our halibut hunting with half a herring (a small baitfish about the length of your hand) and then worked up to placing whole salmon heads on our gigantic hooks.
The silver salmon rod, reel, and tackle, on the other hand, was different in every way. For starters, there was no weight because the faster silvers were only about thirty to fifty feet down. The reels were lighter, rods were longer, and lines were thinner. The key for these fish was a ten-inch reflector on the line that twirled as we trolled along the water. We needed to be sure that the lines weren’t too deep in the water since we needed to reflect the rays of the sun. This attracted the silver salmon to bite because it mimicked the motion of a wounded fish right to our artificial lures.
Connecting All Your Dots
After a long day of fishing, it became clear to me that in order to be successful in the water, we needed to align the fish’s behavior with the right bait and equipment. The same is true on land when we are fishing for prospects or customers on behalf
of brands. It is our job to align brand strategy, media planning, and creative execution with the target’s preferences. When these elements are present, the conditions are right for a long-lasting relationship. Just as in fishing, the resulting connections between the brand and the target are not the result of chance. Research, hard work, and thoughtful consideration are what make them happen.
Matching Target, Channel, and Messages
In this chapter, we will discuss the media channels that bridge the gap between target and brand by delivering the message. But even with this knowledge, there are times when we get nibbles all day but can’t get a commitment. In these failed connections, there were barriers that prevented us from landing customers. Barriers to trust from not managing expectations, barriers to communication from unspoken expectations or the wrong approach, and barriers to willingness from not meeting expectations. Just as I needed John the Fisherman to help navigate through unfamiliar territory, I’ve invited a few seasoned professionals to guide us in aligning the elements.
First, storyteller and brand strategist Barry Silverman will discuss the four foundational elements that help creative teams and strategy teams align. I was first introduced to Barry in his Brand Strategy course at NYU. Shortly after, Barry became my client when we began working together on a design project for an organization he was helping to develop a unified brand with collateral. From there, Barry and I became colleagues on the faculty at NYU and often guest-lectured in each other’s classes. I’m proud to have secured his contribution to this chapter.
Then, senior vice president, group client director, and communications planner Andrea Waite Spurlock will discuss removing the barriers that exist between the media channel and creative execution that should connect the brand and the target. Andrea and I went through the Masters in Integrated Marketing at NYU as existing practitioners in media planning and advertising. While attending, we developed a working relationship when I helped work with her to develop a website for a charter school whose board she was on. Andrea and I were the only two in our cohort to be invited to join the Integrated Marketing faculty on graduation day. We taught courses focused on the alignment of media planning and creative campaign development, involved coordinated weekly topics, and culminated in a joint term project with corporate clients. It is a pleasure to continue that collaboration here in this format.
Aligning Creative and Strategy Teams
by Barry Silverman
Max sat around the table with several other designers and creative people that he knows in the industry. It was their regular Thursday night meetup and a number of topics were being covered, as always. Max began his usual rant about clients and long hours, but today he was also annoyed at a planner who was clearly “overstepping his ground.” His inquisitive friends probed and Max proceeded to describe the “pinhead” who not only did a brief, but offered several execution ideas as well, almost as a mandatory. Max hadn’t even had time to read the brief and this cavalier member of the planning team was explaining how he very specifically understood the brand and what this client was looking for, thus justifying his creative strategy. He also tried to explain how it really couldn’t end up in any other place and felt he was making Max’s life easier. Max received a bunch of nods and sarcastic smiles of understanding from his friends as they each told a similar tale of woe. Why couldn’t the strategy and account teams just let them do their jobs?
Max’s problem is not uncommon, and unfortunately I never believed there was a single solution. In all my years working in this business, I have never had an identical experience from project to project. As a “brand strategy professional,” however, I have noticed a commonality with every creative director I have worked with: quality of direction is key and enthusiasm for an idea is infectious. Let’s start with “quality of direction.” It’s important to recognize the modifier for “direction,” which is “quality,” the antithesis of “quantity.” Creative people don’t want to read endless drivel related to the nuances of the brand; they want to understand thoroughly. An important aspect of the briefing process is being able to clearly articulate four things:
The communication objectives
The brand essence
The consumer
The consumer’s relationship with the brand
There are generally additional elements to a creative brief, but I’ll focus on these fundamental elements. What makes them so important is that they are often the foundational elements that help creative teams and strategy teams align. The idea of alignment between strategy and creative teams is a critical step in the creative process and often overlooked. It’s an internal process that is completely transparent to clients and consumers; however, that alignment can be the gateway to greatness. To achieve this synergy, the strategy team must have a deep understanding of these elements and be able to articulate them clearly.
USING EMPATHY TO UNDERSTAND THE BRAND
The creative teams must be able to develop empathy with the consumer and then translate that empathy into creative work that delivers the communications objectives. “Empathy” is the key word in this equation, as the creative team should feel the customer’s needs and problems, and their spirit—what drives them. They should understand the role the brand plays in the consumer’s life and the relationship that the consumer has with the brand. I once had a creative director tell me:
“Don’t read me the brief; I can read it. Tell me a story.”
I realized that his way of feeling empathetic with the consumer was to hear a story about that consumer. Storytelling can be a powerful tool to create “quality direction.” Stories can bring the consumer to life and identify the opportunity or role the brand plays.
What often makes this exercise challenging is that brands can be complex organisms with many moving parts. They are fluid and not static. Agencies have built complex frameworks around their processes for developing brands. For the purpose of the creative process, I’m going to limit the discussion of brands to three core aspects:
Promise
Emotional benefits
Personality
(I am not including “Positioning” for now, as this often seems somewhat academic; in my experience, to create empathy you need to be focused on the core drivers of the brand, while giving enough depth and character to the audience and how they benefit from a relationship with the brand.)
A promise is important to understanding brands because all brands are promises. They are what the consumer can expect and how the brand will deliver. A promise is sacred. It’s also very defining, as it speaks to the core essence of the brand and what kind of experience the consumer can hope to have. The emotional benefit is the outcome of the relationship consumers have with brands. We can think of it as the “Why,” whereas the promise is the “What.” For example, I might say that Target’s brand promise is to democratize design or to make designer goods accessible to the masses.
The emotional benefits consumers get from shopping at Target are feelings of accomplishment, satisfaction, and importance, knowing they have found great value in a shopping experience and have had the opportunity to buy brands that may have seemed difficult in the past. The promise and emotional benefits begin to weave a very comprehensive story around the brand.
When you add the personality component, creative teams begin to understand the tonality and style of the brand and the way communications should feel to the audience. In Target’s case, we could say they are fun, exciting, and energetic. Their visual identity, color, topography, and advertising all support this personality.
USING EMPATHY AND STORYTELLING TO UNDERSTAND THE CONSUMER
From there, I need to help the creative team understand the consumer. This can be done in numerous ways, but there is one way that I have found that hits upon the important aspects of the customer to drive empathy. The goal is to create a persona with the following elements:
Description: Demographic and psychographic details of the person.
Mot
ivations and needs: What drives her, what’s important to her? What role will the brand play in her life?
Pain points/frustrations: In the context of this brand, what problems does the consumer have that need solving? How is her life made better by interacting with this brand?
Once this information is detailed, the goal should be to describe the consumer’s relationship with the brand. This can be done in a number of ways, but I have found it always best to keep it simple. Ideally, the strategist should reflect on the needs of the consumer and how the brand is solving a key problem. This can be done through thinking of the “enemy.” The enemy is what the consumer is struggling with and clues us to how the brand can take on the role of the hero. I find it useful to think of this scenario playing out in a classic novel: The consumer is the protagonist who deals with villains of all sorts. A villain can be anything from weight gain to bad breath. The brand is the hero who saves the moment or the day. In a novel, the brand would be the good guy whom the protagonist begins to rely on to make life better. In this respect, the relationship between brand and consumer is one of reliance and of gratification. There is always a higher level of betterment that occurs when the hero appears. The villain is conquered and cannot rear its ugly head, at least for the moment. Sometimes the villain is cast off into obscurity as the brand has laid the foundation for a new path. Other times the villain is subdued at least temporarily.
Creative Strategy and the Business of Design Page 13
