I don’t care what my clients want. Not really. As an
advertising creative and writer, I’m supposed to say the opposite; I’m supposed
to say that their needs and wants and desires are not only of the utmost
importance, but the sole reason for my existence. Wrong.
Clients only think in terms of bullet points. Oftentimes the
points look a lot like this:
·
Sell more
·
Get more likes and reposts
·
Sell more
·
Sell more
They live and breathe their brands and products. The result:
they think they’re more important than they actually are. Trust me, if you
really have an all-important product, like a vaccine or cocaine, people will
find you to hand you piles and piles of their cash.
So when a client brief comes through the door, instead of
treating every word like a jewel falling from the mouth of some great deity, I approach
it as if it were a gun loaded with bullets in the hands of a toddler—with slow
movements and extra caution. That’s not to say all clients are misguided or
stupid, but more that they are coming at a problem only from what they want,
which is where the danger lies.
If you only care about what you want, you aren’t listening.
You’re telling. And telling is not selling. That’s a very “client out”
approach.
So I don’t bother telling consumers what my clients want; they
already know. Instead I ask myself why the consumer should care. What is it
about my clients’ products or services that can improve a consumers’ lifestyle?
Or at least provided them with a mildly engaging experience? Once I find that,
oftentimes the bullet points get checked off in rapid succession. That’s a very
benefit driven approach—a “consumer in” approach.
As a creative, it may not be the most popular approach, but
as a consumer, I like it better than listening to someone incessantly talk
about themselves.
