Sunday, December 17, 2006

Building a New Marketing Campaign from What Came Before

It has been almost 12 months since the launch of my firm's makeover campaign. We've gotten incredible mileage and reviews off of what we did... But a new year approaches. One of the attributes of good marketing is to appear consistently new and interesting while feeding the need for comfortable and stable. A mistake many marketers make is to completely redo everything with each new campaign. The example that states this principle best is what happens when moving to a new home.

When people move into a new home it just does not quite feel like "home" until pieces of their personal life are unpacked and put in place. It might be a favorite chair, a picture on a mantel, a rug, a pan on the stove.... Until a place is found for what is timeless and true a house is just an empty shell. The same holds true for marketing campaigns.

As I am assembling the pieces of the new campaign and initiates I making adjustments to what my marketplace is already familiar with. Big and little pieces of words and graphics will remain intact while some things will be new. Anything that is totally new will be constructed using parts the market is already familiar with.

Don't ever forget that people, in general, do not like change. No matter how exciting you believe your "great new initiative" is, if it is too far from what has come before you will lose your audience in the blink of an eye.

Graphic Artists are Crazy

I might know. I am one. But, not like, "Wooo Hooooo, la la la la la, put me in a rubber room!!" Go online and look at any portfo...