I am incredibly fortunate that my job requires me to travel … however as the last time I wrote about that, I was accused of being Mother Nature’s nemesis, so in the interests of peace and tranquillity, I will move swiftly on.
So recently I had the pleasure of staying in the delightful Grand Hyatt hotel.
Without doubt I am not the sort of person that belongs in places like that – but they were incredibly kind and gracious and even upgraded me to a bloody suite that just about guaranteed my positive view of them for years to come.
Well it did till I went into the bathroom.
Can you see my problem?
I doubt it because ‘size’ is the very issue I’m about to rant about.
OK, I’ll help you …
Can you see the plug socket?
It’s just below that shaving mirror thing that’s attached to the bloody huge mirror which is reflecting the bathrobe.
See it?
Got it?
OK … now look a bit above that.
You can’t see anything can you?
Well that’s what I’m ranting about because what actually is there is this:
Yep … it’s the world’s smallest bloody clock … a clock so small that even mice would need to put their glasses on to read it.
WHY??? WHY??? WHY????
To make it even more stupid, not only is it small, it’s bloody low down so there is a real chance someone could spend ages in there and never notice the clock at all!
At what point did someone think this was a good idea … and has this person ever interacted with real people and real hotel guests?
To me, this is like one of those ads that people need to have explained to them because the only people who ‘get it’, are the clients who have been talking about it intensely for 4000 years and the creative teams who feel it is a chance to show off their David Lynchesque brilliance, regardless of the fact the thing is supposed to have an actual commercial purpose such as making people notice it and – at the very least – want to find out more.
Doddsy recently wrote a great post called ‘Glanceable Marketing’ … and whilst his focus was on a slightly different issue, the underlying idea is very relevant to this post both interms of ill-placed and ill-sized bathroom components and overly-complex or complicated communication because if someone can’t work out the purpose and meaning of something in an instant, then the chance of them spending more time getting more deeply connected is unlikely.
That doesn’t mean you have to smash people over the head with the obvious, blatant, rational and lowest-common-denominator shit, but it does mean you should understand the needs, fears, wants and desires of your ‘user’ – not to mention the place your message/appliance has in their lives so you can craft/develop it to have maximum impact or heightened importance – because if you only do stuff that appeals to you, then you’re forgetting the reason why people are paying you a shitload of cash and ultimately contributing to the level of scepticism and scrutiny that this industry experiences from business each and every day.
Don’t get me wrong, maintaining high standards is massively important – and should always do things that make you feel good/proud/happy – but if you forget the needs and views of the client and the public in your creation, then you’d better be prepared to either answer a hell of a lot of questions or get some new clients. Quick.