So you say you want a brochure? Or an advertisement? Or a radio ad? Okay, but … did you fill out your “Creative Strategy Form” first?
Welcome to another issue of Unusual Marketing Tips from JDK Marketing Communications Management.
It’s not just a matter of looking at a blank sheet of paper, or a screen, and saying to yourself, okay, I want a new brochure and this is what it will look like: I’ll put a picture here, put the logo there, and just write whatever I can think of and put it all inside …
So you say you want a brochure? Or an advertisement? Or a radio ad? Okay, but … did you fill out your “Creative Strategy Form” first?
Welcome to another issue of Unusual Marketing Tips from JDK Marketing Communications Management.
It’s not just a matter of looking at a blank sheet of paper, or a screen, and saying to yourself, okay, I want a new brochure and this is what it will look like: I’ll put a picture here, put the logo there, and just write whatever I can think of and put it all inside …
Not that that doesn’t have a chance to be successful compared to what your competitors have floating around the market. But the best chance is that when initial thought and discipline go into the recipe, you will be cooking something much tastier and more nutritious … if nutrition is here a metaphor for substance and a meaningful message.
This is what I prescribe to my clients before we board the vehicle itself, be it a brochure, an advertisement, a radio / TV spot, a billboard, even to some extent a logo design. They have to fill out a single sheet of paper, a questionnaire that I call the “Creative Strategy Form.”
This is what it asks:
- How would you describe your product / service?
- Who / who is your target audience?
- What are the (cosmetic) characteristics of your business? Are you bigger, smaller, prettier, older, younger, in the city, in the suburbs, etc.?
- What are the benefits to your customers (as opposed to “features”, what are the elements of your product / service that can really help them)?
- Who is your competition?
- What do they have that you don’t?
- What do you have that THEY don’t have?
- Do you have a “call to action” like a coupon, a giveaway, a website?
- Do you have samples of marketing materials made by your competitors, or even in another industry, that you particularly like or impress?
- If your audience could derive one main, focused thought (important word!) From this piece, what would it be?
And there you have it. If you can answer these questions … or even if you can’t, and that prompts you to think more about how to “explain” your business … you will be much further ahead when it comes to developing your message, your theme, even your work. of art that puts a graphic “face” on materials.
And it certainly eliminates the guessing game of how to fill that blank sheet of paper or screen.
As for how yours has really helped clients recently “fill in the blanks”, you can visit my website (www.jdkmarketing.biz [http://www.jdkmarketing.biz]), go to the Portfolio link and see what was done recently for the Matthews Family Chiropractic Clinic and Larry Hale Insurance Agency.