When it comes to creating advertisements for my own business, I find myself understanding what my clients go through. Their doubts. Their fears. Their conservative gut reaction.
Like clients I have worked for, I have my own business. I sell T-shirts from my web home at sharpastoast.com. And like many retail businesses, most of my sales take place during the run up to the December holidays. In the past I have relied mostly on word-of-mouth, blogs advertisements, and shameless self promotion on first dates.
This year I decided to go a step further.
I decided on running a series of small ads over the course of four weeks in the print edition of The Onion in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
I am just getting a first glimpse at them now. One thing is for sure: these ads aren’t going to win any awards.
They are actually pretty clunky. Full of cliches.
I even resorted in using “look-at-me” models wearing my shirts (a guy with a huge Oregon beard named “Scrappers” and a lady who is nice to look at.). The logo and website? They are LARGE. Pass the Horsey Sauce.
No mystery. No misdirection. Just my company and the shirts. See them. Wear them.
I run Sharp As Toast “on the side” while I am pursuing other dreams at Wieden and Kennedy 12. The business hasn’t made me rich, but I think the perspective I gained from running a small business has helped me enormously in how I approach my work.
First, our clients entrust us with a great deal when they hire us. And the ones that step the farthest away from the work should be considered for Sainthood. I think we lose perspective on our side of the table. Advertising and design is a cost to a business, like electricity, mailing supplies, or a health care plan. Seeing performance and a return on investment is paramount. With electricity, for example, it is easy to see a return. You pay the bill, flip a switch, and the lights go on. But our craft is more tricky to measure.
Be conscious of the darkness that clients often have to waltz through when they are dealing with us. It is natural for them to be hesitant, and unsure. Consider this next time your leave a client meeting cursing because they want the typeface to be more readable, or their logo larger.
Second, remember who you are serving. I have found clients can sense when I am advocating something that may well be “cool” and look good in my portfolio, but may not be the best solution. This occurred when I was working on developing the brand for Frank Wines (frankwines.com).
The idea was for a “plainspoken wine”; a wine that was better tasted than discussed by Robert Parker.
One direction I showed the client had a large “Hi” on the label, and then proceeded to speak in a “frank” way to the consumer, describing itself plainly.
The other direction was a silhouette of a bottle with quotation marks around it. That was it.
The second direction was the one I pushed for. I felt, at the time, it would make a bigger visual splash in the sea of chateaus and french flowers you see in wine stores.
We tested both directions with a group of consumers. Most loved the “Hi” direction.
Like the good lawyer, I was stubborn enough to question efficacy of the testing. We then set up another test. I was routed again. So you learn. So you learn.
Even though my client loved the “Hi” from the start and felt it would do well with his consumer, I continued to be a jackass and push for my choice. If I had looked at it from his side, I would have realized that my solution was too risky, to artsy-fartsy to make any sense to someone lingering in a wine store. It would have been an enormous risk to take and for a start-up business, the stakes were even higher. As my relationship with the client has continued, I have taken these lessons to heart.
So, remember we are really blessed to do what we do.
But we get to do it because of our clients: we get to rock on the client’s dime. Keep them in mind at all times.
Ahhh, Jimm
so glad to read another article of yours . . . def agree with you on this one . . . i had to design something for my mother's business not so long ago, in that case i chose the safest design as i didnt want to take any risk with her bread n butta
. . . there is also another flip to the coin though – perhaps finding clients that DO take creative risks is more friutful than changin ol' habits . . .
maybe your business is too cool for cool design or maybe you are just giving up too soon . . . but anyways, if you have a nice logo, nothing wrong with makin it big . . .
On Jul.16.2006 at 06:00 PM