When you reach out to a prospective customer, whose language are you speaking – yours or theirs?

This is the fundamental question we try to answer at Marbury Creative Group. When a client approaches us, there are three major steps. First, we learn everything we can about the company – strengths, unique qualities, etc. Second, we learn everything we can about the company’s target market. We learn their language, so to speak, and start the process of translating the company’s language into the consumer’s. Third, we find the gap between the organization and the perceptions of the target market — and bridge it with the best creative solutions that will get attention and speak clearly to the target market.

Telling the Right Kind of Story

Back in Chicago, Bob had the pleasure of working with a dream client. Oscar Mayer produced high quality products and had a unique, marketable image. When they determined that advertising could help their bologna sales the way it helped their hot dogs, Bob’s team was charged with developing a memorable marketing campaign. The client wanted to sell the product based on the quality of the ingredients, appealing to the sensible parent who needs a healthy, practical everyday lunchmeat.

Bob was stuck. Try as he might, he couldn’t find a single kid who uttered the words, “Hey Billy – check out all the high quality ingredients in my bologna sandwich!” *high five*

It didn’t exist. Kids didn’t care about protein content and reduced sodium. So Bob took another approach; he let the kids do the talking. What resulted was one of the most iconic ad campaigns of the last century – the Rolling Stones of ads, if you will.

With seven words and five letters, a legend was born. “My bologna has a first name; it’s O-S-C-A-R” became one of the catchiest, most relatable and most charming campaigns in memory. People sang it at the dinner table. “The Simpsons” did a cover. The response was overwhelming. “How did you know?” parents would ask Bob. “That is my third-grader.”

Bob didn’t know, but he trusted the people who did. The target market was speaking (or singing, as the case may be) and Bob merely had to listen.

Come back next week for a discussion about creating a memorable message. And, as always, contact Marbury Creative to learn more about how we can help you tell your company’s story.

With over a century of combined experience, we have a lot of stories to tell. But the very nature of the conversation is changing, and we intend to adapt. This blog is our effort to connect with companies and consumers. Have a topic you’d like to see discussed? Shoot us an email! Have a funny video of your cat? Attach it! We love that stuff.

In the meantime, we hope you’ll join us for a regular conversation about marketing, advertising and brand development. Some of it is based on the current trends, and a lot of it is based on the basics that somehow many marketers seem to have overlooked. We’ll even include some anecdotes and advice along the way.

Adapting the Medium, Preserving the Message

Consider your first desktop computer. It probably held less memory than the new iPhone, which can also be easily concealed when you’re watching football in a staff meeting.

A lot has changed in the past 20 years. We’ve gone from pencils to pixels, and we’re communicating with friends, family and customers in ways that have completely revolutionized the process of brand development. But the fundamental concepts have stayed the same. The most effective advertising is still just people talking to people, regardless of which high-tech device is carrying the message.

Getting Back to Basics

The purpose of our blog is twofold. Our first goal is to engage in a conversation about the evolution of advertising. We’ll discuss the role of technology while remaining mindful of the basic principles of effective and timeless marketing. We don’t want to talk at you; we want to talk with you. We’ve all at one time or another been a promoter, a consumer, an expert, and a layperson.

Our second goal is to tell stories. We certainly have a lot of them, spanning decades and including clients of all shapes, sizes and industries. This is our chance to use those stories for the greater good, like the way Batman uses the Batmobile…well…kind of.

The blog is a bit of an experiment in connectivity. That said, we hope you’ll read, comment, and join the conversation.

Imagine, if you will, your favorite NFL team. Thinking of the Falcons? Us, too.

Now imagine the team without any supporting staff. Mike Smith stands alone on the sidelines without an offensive or defensive coordinator. He handles drafting and trading without any input or dissent. For good reason, it’s an unnerving hypothetical. Experience tells us that in sports, multiple perspectives are essential to a team’s success.

Advertising and brand development are no different. An effective ad must break through the line and speak to a busy consumer in his or her own language. More eyes on a project means more ideas and expertise to help it succeed. And at Marbury Creative, we have some of the best young and old eyes in the biz.

When it comes to the medium, Rob’s seen it all. He initially worked in print, then moved to television and radio and ultimately added web design for a fully-integrated marketing approach. He has spent 24 years assisting clients from multiple industries, including healthcare, professional services (legal, consulting and accounting), and food & beverage manufacturing. But while Rob continued to focus on brand development, he started to feel creatively stunted. The concepts needed to be bigger and the challenges more inventive. Enter: Bob.

Bob’s professional development took place in Chicago’s “Mad Men” years. As the Sr. Vice President and Creative Director of J. Walter Thompson, Bob worked on early television campaigns and developed ads that are nothing short of iconic. When the two met, their destiny seemed unavoidable. “Rob pulled me out of retirement,” Bob laughs.

And with that, the A-Team of ad agencies was born. (The Lennon and McCartney of Marketing. The Ben & Jerry of Branding. The Butch Cassidy… okay, I’ll stop.)

Since that day, Rob and Bob have joined forces to create exciting campaigns and marketing for everything from cardiologists and enchilada sauce, to banks and energy utilities. Perhaps their most unique attribute? “We have a ball,” says Bob. Their team of six full-time creative thinkers and account reps approach clients with the expertise of a century of combined experience and the curious tenacity of a kid with a science project.

If Rob and Bob seem like your kind of guys, give Marbury Creative a call.

Intention is everything. Just ask your spouse. If you’ve been in a long term relationship, at some point, you might have said something that was less-than-ideal. If you’re lucky, you realize your mistake immediately. But sometimes, ‘whatever-you-said’ comes back to haunt you later on. Advertisers do this, too, and most of the time, they don’t realize it.

The Most Common Advertising Offense

“If you can, help others. If you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.” – Dalai Lama

At the very least, an ineffective ad wastes a person’s time. You can say how great you are all day long and you’ll bore people. At worst, ads can tarnish your brand.

You can have the best products and services in the world, but if all you are interested in is telling people just that, it will fall on deaf ears. Imagine if you developed a system that accurately predicts lottery numbers, then went to the nearest busy intersection, and started shouting to everyone passing by. People will definitely hear you, but they will also think you’re crazy and annoying.

Most people can tell the difference between telling (selling) something and trying to have a conversation. People are smart enough to know that a guy with a megaphone probably isn’t going to sit down and learn more about you. So why should they take the time to listen?

Delivery Is Everything

Have you ever been solicited to sign a petition outside your grocery store or at an event? Once most people see that clipboard, they avoid eye contact. Sure, the petitioner might be a nice person and the petition might be for a good cause, but most people don’t want to be bothered. When someone has an agenda, it’s as obvious as holding a clipboard or a megaphone.

Advertising is your chance to provide your customers with something more than your product or service. Through advertising, you can offer customers hope, a laugh, or even a new dream. Join them on their side of the equation and tell them what THEY want to hear.

You can have great people, products, and services, but it doesn’t matter. Your competitors are saying the exact same thing. You need to listen to people to figure out how to improve your message, but additionally, you need to listen to yourself and know when to ask for outside help.

What message are you giving customers? Do they care?

There is a big difference between just saying “I love you,” and meaning it.

”He who is always his own counselor will often have a fool for his client.”

Every company, product and service has a story. The story isn’t necessarily on the surface. Most of the time, the story is the meaning behind the message.

To create a simple story, you need a beginning, middle, and end. But when was the last time a life experience had a clearly defined beginning, middle, and ending like a story? Life is more complex than that.

Every day, we work at ground level, interconnected with countless people, things, and places. We are constantly pushing forward in our day-to-day lives. Without taking a step back, it’s easy to lose track of our own story because we know too much. We know every detail about ourselves and our businesses to the point that much of it becomes mundane in our eyes — yet, those mundane things may be extremely important to our clients. In that case, the challenge is bringing them out in an interesting way.

Seeking An Outsider’s Perspective

To reach your clients, you need a story that touches them emotionally. To win customer’s hearts and minds, they need to feel something. But when you try to create your own story, the wrong details will get pulled from the proverbial haystack.

My Hero…

Recently, Athens Regional Medical Center contacted us about doing a campaign for their cardiologists, and they had specific ideas about how the campaign should look and feel. They wanted us to promote the procedures offered, and talk about the doctors’ credentials.

We studied the procedures and interviewed the doctors but we ALSO paid attention to the patients, and had a few interviews with them. In a very short period of time, we could clearly see that this campaign should not be about how the doctors viewed themselves — it needed to be about how heart patients viewed the doctors.

One of the patients said, “My doctor saved my life. He was my hero.” It was nothing much at first, just an inkling, but we found POWER in that word. Power that went beyond a list of qualifications and hospital excellence.

With some time, the thought turned into a full blown idea: “Heros” and “Heart” fit together nicely. “Heros of Your Heart!” had a ring to it. The story was born:

Athens Regional Medical Center is the place where Heros wear masks, and save lives every day. Their doctors are “Heros of Your Heart.”

As a part of the campaign, we created dramatic imagery for the billboard. It was short, bold, and to the point. It was an appealing story that you had to look from the outside to find.

“Today, it’s going to be 60, clear, and beautiful here. How’s the weather by you?”

It’s an icebreaker. A way to get the jaw muscles moving. Since we are already talking, we might as well talk about something else once we’re done with the weather. Hopefully, that something else is a little more meaningful.

“Well, it’s going to be 30 and dreary here today, but I’m too busy to even notice.”

“Oh yeah? What do you have going on?”

An Invitation To Talk

People love to talk about themselves. Whether it’s the new thing going on in their business, with their kids, or a family problem, humans like sharing what THEY have been experiencing with someone else.

The problem is we have become conditioned to those lead-in statements like: “I’m too busy to even notice the weather.” And it’s too easy to reply, “I hear you, I’m pretty busy too.” You’re empathizing with them, but you are also cutting off their story as if you already know it.

End of conversation.

The mistake advertisers make is target market hubris. Target market hubris can be easily identified in statements like:

• “I am my target market.”
• “I was my target market and that’s why I got into this business.”
• “We’ve had success with this in the past and that’s what our market likes.”

If you hear these statements, take a second to pause and reflect on their effect. You may very well know your target market. Their habits, wants, needs, incomes, and ideas are all well documented in your marketing strategy—but does that mean the conversation is over? You might have grown up with a friend and know them like the back of your hand. Does that mean you shouldn’t call them to find out what’s new in their life?

Keeping In Touch

Connections, and sales opportunities come from any number of places — like conversations — but there are some places they don’t come from:

Cutting off conversations, assuming knowledge, and relying on past success creates a rift between you and your target market. Eventually, you’ll grow apart.

The next time you are asking YOURSELF questions about your marketing or advertising, stop. Reach out to your customers and ask them instead. They have something important to share with you…in addition to the weather.

Intention is everything. Just ask your spouse. If you’ve been in a long term relationship, at some point, you might have said something that was less-than-ideal. If you’re lucky, you realize your mistake immediately. But sometimes, ‘whatever-you-said’ comes back to haunt you later on. Advertisers do this, too, and most of the time, they don’t realize it.

The Most Common Advertising Offense

“If you can, help others. If you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.” – Dalai Lama

At the very least, an ineffective ad wastes a person’s time. You can say how great you are all day long and you’ll bore people. At worst, ads can tarnish your brand.

<iframe width=”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/QI0P0ULYBbM” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

You can have the best products and services in the world, but if all you are interested in is telling people just that, it will fall on deaf ears. Imagine if you developed a system that accurately predicts lottery numbers, then went to the nearest busy intersection, and started shouting to everyone passing by. People will definitely hear you, but they will also think you’re crazy and annoying.

Most people can tell the difference between telling (selling) something and trying to have a conversation. People are smart enough to know that a guy with a megaphone probably isn’t going to sit down and learn more about you. So why should they take the time to listen?

Delivery Is Everything

Have you ever been solicited to sign a petition outside your grocery store or at an event? Once most people see that clipboard, they avoid eye contact. Sure, the petitioner might be a nice person and the petition might be for a good cause, but most people don’t want to be bothered. When someone has an agenda, it’s as obvious as holding a clipboard or a megaphone.

Advertising is your chance to provide your customers with something more than your product or service. Through advertising, you can offer customers hope, a laugh, or even a new dream. Join them on their side of the equation and tell them what THEY want to hear.

You can have great people, products, and services, but it doesn’t matter. Your competitors are saying the exact same thing. You need to listen to people to figure out how to improve your message, but additionally, you need to listen to yourself and know when to ask for outside help.

What message are you giving customers? Do they care?

There is a big difference between just saying “I love you,” and meaning it.

“He who is always his own counselor will often have a fool for his client.”

Every company, product and service has a story. The story isn’t necessarily on the surface. Most of the time, the story is the meaning behind the message.

To create a simple story, you need a beginning, middle, and end. But when was the last time a life experience had a clearly defined beginning, middle, and ending like a story? Life is more complex than that.

Every day, we work at ground level, interconnected with countless people, things, and places. We are constantly pushing forward in our day-to-day lives. Without taking a step back, it’s easy to lose track of our own story because we know too much. We know every detail about ourselves and our businesses to the point that much of it becomes mundane in our eyes — yet, those mundane things may be extremely important to our clients. In that case, the challenge is bringing them out in an interesting way.

Seeking An Outsider’s Perspective

To reach your clients, you need a story that touches them emotionally. To win customer’s hearts and minds, they need to feel something. But when you try to create your own story, the wrong details will get pulled from the proverbial haystack.

My Hero…

Recently, Athens Regional Medical Center contacted us about doing a campaign for their cardiologists, and they had specific ideas about how the campaign should look and feel. They wanted us to promote the procedures offered, and talk about the doctors’ credentials.

We studied the procedures and interviewed the doctors but we ALSO paid attention to the patients, and had a few interviews with them. In a very short period of time, we could clearly see that this campaign should not be about how the doctors viewed themselves — it needed to be about how heart patients viewed the doctors.

One of the patients said, “My doctor saved my life. He was my hero.” It was nothing much at first, just an inkling, but we found POWER in that word. Power that went beyond a list of qualifications and hospital excellence.

With some time, the thought turned into a full blown idea: “Heros” and “Heart” fit together nicely. “Heros of Your Heart!” had a ring to it. The story was born:

Athens Regional Medical Center is the place where Heros wear masks, and save lives every day. Their doctors are “Heros of Your Heart.”

As a part of the campaign, we created dramatic imagery for the billboard. It was short, bold, and to the point. It was an appealing story that you had to look from the outside to find.

“Today, it’s going to be 60, clear, and beautiful here. How’s the weather by you?”

It’s an icebreaker. A way to get the jaw muscles moving. Since we are already talking, we might as well talk about something else once we’re done with the weather. Hopefully, that something else is a little more meaningful.

“Well, it’s going to be 30 and dreary here today, but I’m too busy to even notice.”

“Oh yeah? What do you have going on?”

An Invitation To Talk

People love to talk about themselves. Whether it’s the new thing going on in their business, with their kids, or a family problem, humans like sharing what THEY have been experiencing with someone else.

The problem is we have become conditioned to those lead-in statements like: “I’m too busy to even notice the weather.” And it’s too easy to reply, “I hear you, I’m pretty busy too.” You’re empathizing with them, but you are also cutting off their story as if you already know it.
End of conversation.

The mistake advertisers make is target market hubris. Target market hubris can be easily identified in statements like:

• “I am my target market.”
• “I was my target market and that’s why I got into this business.”
• “We’ve had success with this in the past and that’s what our market likes.”

If you hear these statements, take a second to pause and reflect on their effect. You may very well know your target market. Their habits, wants, needs, incomes, and ideas are all well documented in your marketing strategy—but does that mean the conversation is over? You might have grown up with a friend and know them like the back of your hand. Does that mean you shouldn’t call them to find out what’s new in their life?

Keeping In Touch

Connections, and sales opportunities come from any number of places — like conversations — but there are some places they don’t come from:

Cutting off conversations, assuming knowledge, and relying on past success creates a rift between you and your target market. Eventually, you’ll grow apart.

The next time you are asking YOURSELF questions about your marketing or advertising, stop. Reach out to your customers and ask them instead. They have something important to share with you…in addition to the weather.

For over 40 years, Volkswagon has had wildly successful advertising campaigns — streaks like that are more than coincidence. We think they come about by carefully considering the target market. Take their recent campaign “Is it Fast?”  See how they were able to identify with the thoughts and feelings of their 30-something male target consumer? They not only considered his past thoughts and feelings — but his evolving ones.

This has been true of VW and their ad agencies since Bill Bernbach took a fresh approach with the Volkswagon Beetle ad. And he did it with two simple words: Think Small. By appealing to a less “practical” generation of consumers, they tapped into the hearts and minds of a growing psychographic.

The BIG engineers and executives wanted to convey the everlasting list of bells and whistles to everyone that would listen. It was standard practice, and expected. I mean, putting the specs in the ad is the best way to get your point across, right?

Wrong.

Car manufacturers were telling their customers what the executives wanted to hear. They should have been listening to marketplace instead (the keyword there is “listen”).

The manufacturers weren’t taking the time to listen to the next generation of car buyers. They wanted customers to fit their mold, rather than mold their product to their customers. The older executives didn’t take “those people” (hippies, hipsters, etc.) that seriously. As a result, they made small talk and sold cars like they always had without attempting to learn more about certain groups of people.

Everyone Needs A Car

Where VW and DDB “got it” is that they knew everyone needed a car eventually and that some of those people didn’t want their dad’s car. They wanted something that helped to differentiate them from the current day mindset. So what if a car is slightly impractical? At least it isn’t like everyone else’s car. The VW was impractical — but it was more fun.

There are certainly more people out there that need what you are selling, but you need to listen to them first.