marketing Archives - Page 2 of 2

July 16, 2009 In advertising, art, business, communication, creativity, graphic design, illustration, marketing, networking By Patricia Saxton

It's All About Relationships

A recurring theme has been emerging in my world quite a lot lately. In talks over the past several months with colleagues, in twitter posts directed to Seth Godin’s blog, and most recently in a conversation over lunch this week with Milton Glaser who has unarguably seen and done it all, combining art and business with unparalleled success.

The theme? It’s all about relationships. Here’s my quick take on it, with regard to the graphic design business (or any business, for that matter):

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In this day and age of computer savvy, a glutton of designers and a climate of economic strife, it’s no wonder many artist’s and agencies are having a hard go of it lately. It could be there’s too much talent and not enough demand, as everyone – from individuals to families to small businesses and large corporations – is holding tight to their purse strings.

But in any business climate – whether it’s booming or equilaterally depressed – three key elements always reign supreme: creativity, quality, and relationship.

An unfortunate side effect of a distressed economic environment such as the one we’re experiencing now, is that some media-buying decision-makers may opt for mediocrity, somehow aligning their efforts with the mood of the times – the sense of “lack” or “needing to do without” – by shopping around for the lowest price, regardless of creativity, quality or relationship. It’s easy enough to do nowadays; just google graphic design and hundreds upon hundreds will come up.

What can also happen in this kind of situation though, is that while it’s still possible to find creativity, and still possible to find certain levels of quality, relationship may well be left out of the equation. And that particular absence can kill a project, or make people wish it did.

Despite all the wonders of online connecting, the enormous choices and competitive pricing available, if you don’t like the people you work with, it can be a miserable experience. It boils down to the old adage of being a pleasure to work with.

You can be as creative as DaVinci, with the quality and craftsmanship of a Frank Lloyd Wright; and likewise, you can be a brilliant business mind with a world-changing product. But regardless of whether wallets are open or whether they’re closed, at some point human nature always plays its card – and wins.

July 13, 2009 In advertising, art, communication, creativity, graphic design, illustration, marketing By Patricia Saxton

Google's Unpopular Offer: Work For Free

Some Artist’s Say “No Thanks.”

Who doesn’t love Google? It’s friendly, fast, smart, practical and has established itself as an indispensable tool. It’s the undisputed King of search engines. But in June, word spread about a Google offer that many top illustrators felt they could refuse.

Exploitation? Good business? A dishonorable trend? Welcome exposure? … What do you think?

Read about it here in the NY Times.

June 15, 2009 In communication, marketing, presentation, words and language By Patricia Saxton

Tangled Messages

Mixed messages are rampant, and their effect is usually one of two things: confusion or fear. Both of which can lead to a state of suspended inaction. What are people to think these days? A little clarity please, would be nice, if not wise.

The jumble of words and images slung at people day after day begins to resemble a garden overgrown with weeds. Hopefully, most folks can clear away the tangled messaging and find some sense among the vines. Something that is what it is, and means what it means.

Here are a few tangled messages that come to mind:

There’s nothing to fear, but if we don’t fix this problem there could be disastrous effects.

My door is always open, just please call first and not between 8-4 or 5-9.

This new drug will cure your disease, but it may kill you.

Isn’t it fabulous? There are now 2545 channels on tv and you can watch them all day everyday, even all at once!

And then, perhaps thankfully, some mixed messages elicit humor. (What were they thinking?) Unfortunately, they still have the fear/confusion factor in play. (Apologies to Mr. Rothenberg, but one must admit this image hardly elicits optimism.)

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I like a good riddle as much as the next person, but if it’s not meant to be a riddle, please don’t go there! A little extra thought is well worth the investment of time, especially if it avoids a tangled mixed-up message.

January 5, 2009 In advertising, marketing By Patricia Saxton

Selling Dis-ease

I realize this entry may not win me many friends in the Pharmaceutical advertising world, but I just have to ask – is anyone else weary of pharmaceutical commercials on TV? Or is it just me? I find them incessant, often offensive, and insulting to one’s intelligence. Here’s why.

On the rare occasions when I do actually turn on the tube, 9 times out of 10 one drug ad or another is right there with me. Spewing an idea that if you haven’t already had a particular set of horrid symptoms related to some nasty ailment, you soon, undoubtedly, will. And then you will need such and such medication. Which may or may not make you feel better, and which is almost guaranteed to cause an interminable array of god-awful side effects, even death.

All the while, happy medication-takers are shown walking through sun-dappled gardens with ever-so-pleasant music splattering the background reminding us how wonderful we can feel if we take such and such drug – compared to how completely awful you must feel, or will inevitably feel, without taking said meds.

Number one, I’m irritated that these ads are on when I happen to turn on the TV, which isn’t often. Which causes me to think they must be on a lot more than I realize. They are incessant.

Secondly, I find the bulk of the messaging insulting. The messages, in essence, tell you that you have, or will have, one – or several – of a variety of problems. (Tapping into the aging boomer generation no doubt, convincing people of the inevitability of ill health that arrives with age.) You will most likely have this or that sickness. You will suffer. You will have to have medication. You need to see a doctor now before it becomes a reality. If you have a hang nail, it could be a serious sign of A, B , or C disease and if not treated, you will be one miserable old coot. It will be far worse to be plagued by the rampant discomforts these meds will induce than to suffer the fear that you may possibly succumb to one of these health dilemmas.

The insult is the assumption that you don’t have a mind of your own. That you don’t have a clue. That you are easily swayed and you will then surely develop the very symptoms they are suggesting. Maybe even sooner than expected.

This is good old advertising at its best. It’s called hypnosis. The power of suggestion. Persuasion. Repetitive messages delivered to reach your subconscious mind, so that doubt and worry set in. Placing the seed of need in your mind. It makes me so angry I could spit. (I’m not sure where that phrase originates, but it feels heated and angry, doesn’t it.) In a nutshell, they are basically selling dis-ease and ill-health.

I am not a fan. And it worries me that people are taken in, convinced. (The ads keep running – must be working?) They will not seek a healthy lifestyle; they will assume they are headed for the worst. They will not consider that the thoughts they think, and the fears they feel, can aid in the manifestation of unwanted experiences. They will believe that they are, or soon will be, very ill. They will need the cabinet full of pills. They will be miserable. Just like the ads’ said.

May 24, 2008 In graphic design, marketing By Patricia Saxton

Marketing Overload?

Maybe it’s because it’s the end of a work week, but my head is really beginning to swirl. I just received some “must-have” information about LinkedIn – you probably know it, the online networking tool touting more than 20 million experienced professionals and ways to discover inside connections and potentially expand your business in untold ways. And the information I just received is intended to share all the fantastic ways you can make the most of the LinkedIn environment.

But I’m feeling struck by a seemingly raging river of marketing advice out there – mostly the marketing about marketing variety. And everybody, their uncles and maybe even their pets, are jumping on the bandwagon – make that rafts – and make that plural, rafts. I’m not making a negative judgment, because it is what it is, and probably needs to be what it is, but sometimes I get what I’ll call a “New York City” feeling: a sense of stimulation overload.

In this case it also arrives with a sensation similar to desperation, or perhaps anxiety – in the form of a message implying that if you don’t do these things you will not succeed. So you must do these things, and that is that. Join or lose. Fight and wriggle for your place amongst the million others vying for virtual attention. Do, do, do. Share, share, share. Express profundities and hope to be found. Blog it, video it, radio-blog it, webinar it, get the edge. Be everywhere. And the claims are promising; if you do this, and do that, and then do enough of that and that – and if you do all that over and over again – you’ll eventually hit gold.

Don’t get me wrong; the internet is a mind-boggingly wonderful medium. The opportunities for learning and the possibilities for connecting are pretty staggering. But once you dive in to the pool of all-the-marketing-you-need-to-be-doing, it can take a toll on not only your time, but may also take a little piece of your sanity. It’ll swallow you up if you don’t take a healthy break.

This raging river is partly because, of course, no one really needs to see anyone. They can work wherever. But the hope, of course, through all of this internet marketing-you-need-to-be-doing-so-you’re-not-left-behind, is that you do connect, and maybe you will meet, and in the end everyone can make wads of money and live happily ever after. I get that. I also get that people are yearning for connection.

Normally I love learning new tools, finding new and better ways to do things. So, call it Friday afternoon blues, semi brain-dead from filtering through all this stuff … but the onslaught of marketing to-do’s leaves me feeling compelled to simply avoid the frenzy, and approach it more from a zen-like place. Using the Chicken Soup mindset, or The Secret, or a Power of the Subconscious Mind place.

That’s where I’ll be this long-weekend. Not marketing, but “knowing”. Letting the zen of knowing take over, while digging my hands into a delicious bit of garden earth with joyful mindlessness – in between, of course, working feverishly on the illustrations for my next children’s book. (there; was that a good, if not round-about, touch of self-marketing?)

In the end, I know it’s smart to do both – the zen and the marketing. You have to pull back now and then, reflect, affirm your ground and define your goals. But you also have to “do the work”, and be a part of the changing way things are done.

Virtually speaking, that is.

And, yes, by the way, I am on LinkedIn. (Isn’t everyone?)