How To Learn The Hard Way About the Marketing Continuum

In the 1990s, I started a non-profit magazine called Two Cities. I’d had success helping clients launch products —DMs with 10% response rates, campaigns that increased revenue by 150%. I expected similar results with my own product.

People embraced the concept—Mpls St Paul had a strong literary community but no literary quarterly—and Aaron King’s design was remarkable. 

 I relied on posters and ads in a local literary newsletter. An insert with the headline “We’re a Twin Cities literary quarterly—which means we have three winter issues” garnered subscriptions. The magazine gained traction. But it was taking too long, even with a good idea, strong design, and strong messaging. 

That’s when I encountered the marketing continuum in Ad Age. Basically, what that means is that, for products which require any real decision-making, you can’t go from 0 – 60 overnight. Good creative can accelerate this process. But it can’t eliminate it. 

There are two compatible versions of the continuum:   

·      Awareness>Consideration>Purchase>Loyalty

·      Awareness>Interest>Consideration>Purchase>Loyalty

Both imply at least three questions:

·      Have you developed tactics for each phase of the continuum?

·      Have you given your potential customers enough time to make a decision?

·      Do you have a large enough budget to reach enough people frequently enough?

The experience also taught me valuable lessons. First, middle class guys shouldn’t have rich guy hobbies. (I wanted to be the midwestern George Plimpton.) 

Second, messaging and design are necessary but far from sufficient. I gained renewed appreciation for all the other activities that create runway and momentum for new products, from finance to sales.

Finally, you need to acknowledge not just the buyer’s needs. You need to respect their process.

How to talk about branding WITHOUT ASKING PEOPLE WHAT EXOTIC ANIMAL THEY ARE

There are good branding exercises, and there are silly ones. Here’s a simple one, which we used at the late great design firm Kilter. It’s been a part of my tool kit ever since.

It’s based on the realization that companies don’t choose their brands any more than people choose their personalities. You discover your brand. Frankly, you acknowledge your brand. 

This question helps you do that:

What five adjectives do you want people to associate with your company?

This question is provocative enough to get you to think and broad enough that you don’t need to argue about every single word. The five words will likely add up to something distinctive that will provide real direction.

While they inform every word you write, your brand adjectives are seldom public. But here’s mine:

 Strategic, witty, responsive, smart, conceptual.

 Accurate? 

How To Write A Better Creative Brief

 All creative briefs are good. But some are better than others at getting to stronger work, with fewer detours. In my experience, successful briefs do five things:

1.     Focus relentlessly on audience. This goes deeper than finding out their title. The good briefs also include demographics—age, gender, income, profession. The great ones provide insight into the buyer’s real motivations. They know what they value, how they think, and what keeps them up at night.

2.     Make it a tool, not a task.  Do not treat a creative brief as a box to be checked. It should reflect a serious discussion of your audience, your product’s strengths, the current and desired perceptions of your product, the relevant supporting facts, and the appropriate tone. Avoid jargon dumps and strategic dithering. Note budget and timing. 

3.     Separate direction and background. The goal of a brief is direction. Anything more than a page is suspect. That said, point the creative team to additional background materials. The goal of those is immersion—which is a very different thing.

4.     Don’t try to be creative. You’re not trying to generate the solution, but to guide it. Be clear about what should be said and why it should be said. Leave the creative team decide how that is said—or visualized. You will get better work while making creative teams love you.

5.     Gain buy-in. If key decision-makers don’t agree, you will be redoing it anyway, after you’ve burned more hours and depleted good will.    

That’s it. Going on at length about briefs would seriously miss the point. And if you look at the work I’ve showcased on this site, most of it started with a pretty good brief.