(tie in the idea that you can Start Clear & Stay Clear — two different mechanisms)
update
If you’re looking to develop your brand, start a marketing campaign, or launch a new product, you probably realize you’re staring down the barrel of about one gazillion (give or take) decisions you’ll have to make over the next several months. Some are big, some are small. Some you can make on your own, while others need multiple teams involved. The decisions can be expensive and scary or (maybe even?) fun and exciting.
Not all of those decisions are make-or-break — let’s not be dramatic. But they are individual steps that either take you closer to the best possible outcome for you and your organization or down a much-thornier path that can be confusing, time-consuming, and downright ineffective.
What you need the most as you travel down this path, I’ve learned over the past 20 years as a marketing strategist, is clarity.
Clarity is the destination. Although it’s sometimes hidden in the complexity of all you have to accomplish, it’s the simple, powerful goal you’re striving for: for customers to understand who you are, what you offer, and why they should choose you. And through some sort of “as is the inner, so is the outer” phenomenon that I probably don’t have the full faculties to truly understand — clarity is also the best day-by-day decision making tool you can have.
REAL-LIFE PROJECT
Existing T-fal packaging didn’t help customers understand why one cooking set was more preferable than another and which one they should buy based on their needs.
Guided by a competitive audit, new packaging (now on shelves everywhere, including the Target shown here) now includes an easy-to-compare copy bar that highlights what the product was designed for (“Everyday Meals” vs. “Inspired Cooking”) and the most important benefits that back that up.
Because opportunities for better clarity come at different times during the development of a marketing project, and each opportunity can look slightly different, the goal of this series of articles is to shine a light on those moments and to help you make the most of them.
Each moment of clarity takes you to the next, and then to the next… and by the end of it, you might look back and see how they all aligned, like a crazy constellation, to create a project that’s not only more effective but also one that’s been more enjoyable, behind-the-scenes.
At least, that’s been my experience over the years when I and the teams I work with can get real — and stay real — about what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and why we’re doing it so that customers can know what it’s all about and get truly excited by the possibilities.
