Exploring a client's uniqueness
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- breadlegz
Hi guys
I'm meeting with a client tomorrow and they want to go back to the drawing board (so to speak) on their brand, strapline, core values and USP etc.
Do any of you ever facilitate these kinds of meetings with clients? Obviously there's a ton of ways to do this, so how do you go about it?
- vaxorcist0
Sometimes this happens whey they think you're going random, or when there are new people / new authorities at client
DO NOT show up with a bunch of new creative... try to re-center the discussion and the direction / ammunition to defend your ideas... this is a bit of a process I was taught when I worked at one very smart ad agency:
MOST IMPORTANT: Clearly get them to define, and write down:
1.Their business objectives,
2.Who exactly is the target market,
>>Target market's buying triggers (often irrational reasons, they may not really want to say, but really matter),
>>Target market's "back rationalisations" (i..e official reasons, not real reasons,example: SUV buyers emotionally want to be up high and feel like the king of the road, floor the gas and run over their irritating co-workers and go to the grand canyon.... , but SUV buyers rationally like to say they need the towing capacity and the 4WD for the winter and they need that extra storage... all of which they could get in a minivan, but they won't be caught dead in a minvan...
3.WHO is their competition, (and who is in their target market's radar, not always the same as what the client may think their competition may be... i.e. an SUV buyer's competition for the vehicle may just be to spend the $$$ on a round-the-world tour, rather than a new SUV this year)
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The whole idea is to prevent random ideas from hijacking stuff...
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OK, so once you have sign-off on all these ideas, you use them to come up with your ideas, AND to keep the discussion from going random, i.e. you show creative and when they're asking why you did something, you say "in order to hit the business objective, we did xyz based on our knowledge of the target market's buying triggers and back rationalisations"
- breadlegz0
One format that someone shared with me was to go through these simple steps:
1) Mission and Values
2) Core Values and Beliefs
3) Target Audience Avatars (needs, problems and desires)
4) Align Products and Services to the right Avatars
5) Craft key messages to be used in marketing for each target avatar (Straplines will jump out)
6) Study competition and define how they will be different - Price, Value, Offering etc
7) Grab the crayons and move onto brand positioning and creative
- doesnotexist0
ah ha
good luck
it's really about asking questions. don't explore creative options with them.
- ohhhhhsnap0
• DO NOT EXPLORE NEW OPTIONS FOR THEM ON THE FLY, JUST TAKE NOTES
• LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN
• ACTIVELY LISTEN
• ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS (when they are done speaking, just take down notes for yourself so you don't loose track of your ?'s)Best of luck!