SMART MARKETING: The Creative Component

The creative component in marketing is designed to capture the customer’s imagination and gives them a reason to consider your offer. It is, at once, completely subjective and crucial to the overall success of your marketing effort.

Marketing folks know that for a program to be successful your message must reach your target and say something meaningful. It’s not enough to simply "get your name out there." Your message has to elbow its way through the clutter and then get the attention of the people you’re trying to reach.

A DIFFICULT SELL. Ours is a need-based business. This means that customers tend to purchase our termite and pest services when they have a real or perceived need. This also means that when a customer doesn’t have a real or perceived need, we probably can’t influence them sufficiently to purchase our services. The analogy I like to use is that a funeral home probably can’t give you a reason to purchase their products and services unless there’s a dead body lying around. Think about the times in your life when you’ve bought a new car. Once you drive it home from the showroom, all of that automobile advertising you see on TV goes right by without making a significant impression.

Need-based businesses tend to fall into another difficult category. Unlike food, clothing and shelter (also need-based, but in many ways commodities, where price is the only point of differentiation), need-based service businesses are often purchased negatively. That means that people buy them under real or perceived duress and are not really thrilled that they need to make the purchase in the first place.

This is why the creative component is so important. Taking all of the aforementioned into consideration, how can we create our messages so they make the most favorable impression possible? And how can we make them memorable so that the customer will recall our message when a need strikes?

HUMOR VS. SINCERITY. How do you want your existing customers (who will consume your message along with non-customers you’re trying to recruit) and new customers to perceive you from your marketing message? Two creative devices that lend themselves to need-based service businesses are sincerity and humor. Don’t confuse these "devices" with the message itself. The true message is contained in the words and/or pictures you present. The method of presenting the message constitutes the style of delivery; humorous or sincere.

Humor, of course, requires a great deal of consideration. Ours is, for better or worse, a serious business. We often apply regulated materials to kill living organisms. Some advertisers have relied on soft humor to make their point. On the other hand, some have used humor as a club, beating the viewer/listener/reader over the head with the message. This, I believe, is counterproductive in the long run, although it can produce some marginal success short term. Inoffensive, nice humor leaves the viewer/listener/reader with a smile on her/his face and a positive feeling about the deliverer of the message. Bad taste humor achieves exactly the opposite effect.

Sincerity is tricky. It usually can’t be faked, although I’m sure some advertisers have pulled it off. I believe people instinctively know when they’re being conned. The words can be as on target as possible, but if the delivery doesn’t match up, the presentation falls flat. Many advertisers use seasoned, professional spokespeople for this purpose. Credibility is sometimes equated with celebrity, although for the life of me I can’t understand why. Others wrap their message in or around faith, the American flag, little kids and other "warm" images to suggest sincerity. Personally, telling the truth, respecting the consumer’s intelligence and keeping things simple makes more sense to me, both as a marketer and as a consumer. It’s tricky, but not impossible.

Of course, humor and sincerity are not the only methods that work. Third party endorsements that are real and credible are effective. Existing customers saying nice things about you are usually received with more acceptance than you saying nice things about yourself. So also are honest representations about longevity in business, image and reputation, employee training and professionalism, and no-nonsense guarantees.

The creative component of your marketing effort is the artistic portion. Get that right, then couple it with proper placement (the science part, as it relates to delivering the message) and you’re on the road to marketing excellence.

The author is vice president of marketing/public relations for Massey Services Inc., Maitland, Fla. He can be reached at 407/645-2500 or via e-mail at bbrewer@pctonline.com