Mostly, we shut ourselves in our offices with a No. 2 Ticonderoga pencil, a yellow legal pad, and a stack of past issues of Communication Arts. Then we flip through them until we find an idea we can steal and call our own…
Nah, there’s more to it than that!
Good marketing communications is a combination of method and magic.
The Method Behind the Magic
Pop Quiz:
In creating effective marketing communications, what’s most important?
Yup, you guessed it: All of the above. And those are the bases we cover with every project and every campaign, at a level appropriate to the task at hand.
First, Dig Deep. Know Thy Prospect.
If your dad was anything like ours, you heard it a million times: “Think before you speak.”
It was good advice then. It’s good advice now.
And when it comes to marketing communications, the first step in thinking is to know as much as we can about your target audiences. We ask lots of questions about who they are (or who they could be), and about what potential each group of prospects holds for your company and product. We look at what the research tells us – yours, ours or what’s available through third-party sources such as our membership in Second WindTM, the nation’s largest network of independent advertising agencies – about what’s important to your prospects in making their buying decisions.
Finally, Somebody Understands Me – Strategy.
Finally, Somebody Understands Me – Strategy.Before one word goes down on paper, before one image gets laid into a Web site, or a brochure, or a direct mail piece, we’re going to do some serious thinking with you about the most important thing in your marketing communications: Crafting a strategy to position you apart from and above your competition, based upon the real differences in your product or service that we discover together, differences that, properly communicated, make a difference to your audience. Strategy is about matching your product’s attributes to your audience’s problems and desires, and being clear about the great story we have to tell them.
You’re Talking My Language.
You’re Talking My Language.Only then, when the right thinking about audience and message have been done, do we sit down to the business of crafting and delivering a message that gets noticed, gets remembered, and most important, gets acted upon. That’s what we mean by “smart execution” – a strategically-driven message that is informed by research and clear thinking. And the really wonderful thing about it? If you’ve done your homework, creative that really works is almost always both easier to arrive at, and right on target.
Getting It Done.
There’s an old joke about a woman who married an advertising man. The punch line goes something like, “All he ever did was tell me how great it was going to be.” We’ll spare you the joke here, although it’s a pretty good one. (If you really want it, send us an e-mail, and we’ll send it to you.)
At Rave Communications, we go to great lengths to “get it done,” on time and on budget. It’s absolutely true that an average idea well executed beats a great idea that never sees the light of day. But a great idea, crisply executed, beats them all.
We manage the work we do for you with all of the standard industry tools that are “standard” precisely because they work, but which so few agencies take the time to use: Call reports, production schedules, estimates and change orders. The objective can be summarized easily: “No Surprises.” (Except pleasant ones.)