The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Emperor’s New Clothes …

OK, so last week I used photographs of an Indian Restaurant as a metaphor for [planning] discovery.

Yes I know it was slipping into total wank territory [thanks for pointing that out Andy!] … but the basic premise was that if look deeper, wider, longer and harder, you often find something far more interesting and motivating [for both consumers and brands] than if you’d simply stuck with what the basic research and/or what the category conventions/habits are.

Anyway, continuing with that theme, here’s another thing to be mindful of, SOME COMPANIES BELIEVE THEIR OWN SHIT … and to demonstrate it, here’s another wanky visual metaphor.

So today I had to do another workshop in another horrible hotel room – but to fair everything looked quite scmick and they’d obviously spent quite a long time getting things ‘just so’.

However, whilst looking around the room, I saw a screen covering what seemed to be another door so me being me, I thought I’d have a look and here’s what I found …

Hmmmmmn, not so schmick afterall eh! 

Agencies follow this practice quite alot … they all have fucking cool receptions and meeting rooms and then when you go through to where the munchkins work, you find them all stacked on top of eachother like battery hens. Pathetic.

Sure image is important but too many companies are obsessed with it [especially banks] … and they forget that at the end of the day, it they don’t deliver what consumers want/expect, it’s all going to end in tears or at the very least, lack of trust! 

It amazes me how much communication is seemingly created without any real consumer input … all to often I see brands screaming bland, monotone, promises – when the real opportunity is to address fundamental issues/opinions that the consumer has with them. 

Some companies believe ‘negatives’ should never enter their ‘little World of perfection’ … however I passionately believe that when you understand what people HATE / DISLIKE / GET ANNOYED ABOUT … you can develop a brand idea that is much stronger, relevant and resonant than if you only focused on what people thought was ‘OK’. 

It would seem that too many planners don’t investigate the negative – they only focus on the good things – and whilst there could be many reasons for that including time / client openness / planning philosophy / etc … if we are to truly help business achieve their goals, it’s going to be much easier and effective if we do it by motivating the actions of the millions by understanding and appreciating what’s really going on in their heads/lives – both positively and negatively – rather than expressing messages in the tone, manner and image that the clients wants/believes they have.

I’ve said it before, anger is an energy … so go and find out what’s pissing people off!

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