I want a lot of products/services customized for me, especially services. Who doesn’t?
The Lillian Vernon Catalog would personalize things from business card cases to leather desk sets to, well, just about everything. And you could always return them, no questions asked. Personalized means more than just your name on something, though.
For instance, I need a new couch, the just-right-for-me personalized couch, not too modern, not too plush, not too austere. The smart salesman at a Decorator Showroom listened and then showed me diagrams in a catalog where I picked the arms, legs, backing and pillows I wanted. Done! When I got home, I had a moment to relax, picked up the Wall Street Journal and, ta da, there was an article: “ ‘Custom’ is Customary. Entrepreneurs see rise in demand for Made-to-Order goods”.
This reminded me of the work we do in advertising/marketing agencies.
Years ago when I was President of Vickers & Benson Direct up in Toronto, the head and creative director of Vickers & Benson Advertising, our parent company, was a wonderful man named Terry O’Malley. Everyone who ever worked for or with him would follow Terry into the jaws of hell.
His mantra for the agency’s work was simple: Everything tailor-made, nothing off the shelf.
I shortened that to “Nothing off the shelf” and made it my mantra when I opened my own agency in New York and now here in Miami. It’s the only thing we’ve ever espoused that we took from someone else. Here’s the (very) shorthand version of how Nothing off the Shelf works:
1. Prospective clients tell us what they want to accomplish. (“Incremental sales from 1,000 new bank openings”)
2. They brief us on past programs and results.
3. We familiarize ourselves with the products(s) and market(s).
4. We develop a new plan to test against the previous one.
5. Then we execute and measure results.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of our business is that when we do lift response, it is almost never due just to the creative. Yes, it looks good and reads very well, but the real lifts usually come from all kinds of ideas: great new offers, new lists (and new segments and selects), perhaps a compelling Subject line on an email that begs to be opened. The most dramatic wins are in the dozens of details we test.
Yet a new client will be in this week who will ask to see other bank “creatives” we’ve done. Sigh.
