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by David Gillespie

on Nov 17

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing

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This is my marketing mantra. It isn't perfect, show me one that is. But it helps me frame my thoughts, a filter I can run an idea through before taking it to clients. Of course they have their own filters and metrics to balance off, so sometimes I'm successful with it, some times not so much. The core thing for me is it focuses an idea around what I believe are the key touch points for something I would present, I don't believe in selling an idea I don't agree with. We've all had to do it at some point, I think we can all agree it is never fun.

Anyway, the mantra goes as follows:

  1. Markets are conversations.
  2. Conversations happen around social objects.
  3. A social object is a product or service that is remarkable.
  4. Something that is remarkable isn't just good, it is worth making a remark about.
  5. The most remarkable thing you can have is a good product, and even better customer service.

I was thinking about this as a friend of mine dropped me a line with a great quote in it: Advertising is the price you pay for being boring. Wow, that got me. Right down to the bone, I love that quote! A number of people I shared it with in the industry were a little perplexed by it, what would we do if people talked about our clients without us? That's an interesting question, but for another post.

What I want to talk about is remarkable. Specifically, spending all this time creating remarkable ads and campaigns. For what? For our clients to be talked about so long as the campaign runs. Then what? Campaign ends, conversation (at least the one we wanted to happen) ends. We rinse and repeat.

Look at Google. They weren't always Google, not like we know them. They created one of the most remarkable services the world has ever known and built their empire on being remarkable. Products and services do not get more remarkable than that. Where are those products? The ones that don't require a clever tagline and a media spend to get the attention they deserve? Why are we not sitting with our clients and challenging them on what is actually remarkable about their work? Believe me, they will challenge us to prove the remark-ability of ours!

I'm not advocating an unrealistic shift to Crazy People-style truth in advertising. I'm talking marketing as business strategy, engineering your offering for maximum talkability. Chances are there is a story somewhere within your product or brand that will generate this for you. If there isn't, it's time for a long hard look at what it is you do. These times were made for remarkable products and services, and it is no longer OK to just be ‘OK’.

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4 Comments

ZebraBites
  • Wrote on 17 Nov, at 10:05PM
Right on the nose David!

I really like the idea of marketing as business strategy. Remarkable products/service speak for themselves, with great authority and resounding credibility. 'Show me, don't tell me' and all that.

Thanks for a great read.
lucioribeiro
  • Wrote on 18 Nov, at 01:28PM
'I'm talking marketing as business strategy, engineering your offering for maximum talkability'
brands and organizations that stand for something benefit as a result. Standing for something helps you build trust, makes it easier to manage expectations and aids in daily decision making.
Standing for something is being remarkable.
David Gillespie
  • Wrote on 21 Nov, at 11:36PM
Lucio - right on. I was at dinner with Katie Chatfield tonight who said something very similar - there's this idea of leveraging ideas larger than your offering to gain benefit - what Movember do in this space is a great example - talk about experiential!!

Zebra, thanks for the kind words. You're bang on the money with regards to credibility, seems the more digital we get, the more we realise the rules are the same, there's just this technology thing in the game now.
NeilShewan
  • Wrote on 9 Dec, at 10:34PM
Great read David. Companies that place high value on design (product, service and experience design) tend to have design savvy people in the senior management team. People that look at the user experience and find the "remarkable" in them. If this culture does not exist, it can be highly frustrating for Marketing Professionals to be a roll where they cannot influence the creation of the product/services that they are marketing. It comes down to the basics of marketing - start with a remarkable product/service and 95% of the work has been done. In my experience, when a Marketing Manager has the respect of the wider management team he/she can play a vital roll in shaping product/service development.

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