Many times clients have asked us to change fonts, change colour shades, change layouts, even highlight lines.
Small adjustments get deemed important. After discussion they become more and more important as people entrench themselves in a position. It allows people to think they have made some impact on a project. We had some devious techniques to handle these small comments..
It is hard for anyone to step back and think objectively at how minor their own comments might be. We get fixated and then we get embroiled in the social conflict and the protection of egos. Humility is hard to come by. Humans are conditioned to notice small differences.
Advertising agencies tend to roll over on these minor requests because it isn’t worth the fight – to give a little to gain something. The client has bought a dog and decided to bark themselves. The clients want to show they are in charge and this is one way of expressing it. It is also a way for the client to feel they are, in some small way, a creative force. Few have the humility to know they don’t have much creativity.
And at the end of the day, do these changes make absolutely no impact on the effectiveness of the advertising. None. Nothing. Nada.
On the other hand, small differences in product or product delivery can be magnified by advertising attention. Whether the new improved product delivers a meaningful difference is not as important as being able to claim it is new and improved.
The old product loses value. Whatever magnified new benefit in the new product, no matter how small, can be trumpeted and be the focus of compelling advertising.
Does the new cellphone provide improved communication services or not? But it is version 12.2 so it has to be better than version 11. Just like Spinal Tap’s amp which went up to 11 had to be louder than one that only went up to 10.
There is amazing leverage in whatever small difference is enough to be able to claim “new and improved.” I have worked on many “new and improved” product relaunches. Was the old product bad? No. Was the improved product better? In some way, yes or even maybe. Was it demonstrably better and noticed by regular users? Sometimes, yes; sometimes, no.
We advertised fax machines back in the 90s with some amazing features. The features were real, but they were only relevant to 5% or 10% of users. (Sometimes, I didn’t even understand what these functions did.) That didn’t stop a “new and improved” label and a new product number, higher than the old one.
Product improvement announcements allowed us to attract new users through “news” and a permission to recover lapsed users who may have had a bad experience with the product.
Even if the change was minor, the advertising could magnify its impact through a dramatic presentation.
Sometimes the new improved product is improved for profitability, a new formulation that saves money for the manufacturer. These could be tested against the existing product for parity. A 5% decline in overall rating could be very acceptable if it come with a 5% savings in production cost. The quality reduction would hardly be noticed but the profit certainly would be..
By putting a spotlight on a small improvement, advertising can differentiate products and services and distract from other issues that might exist. We covered some of this in Overcome AD-versity.
As an example, the Frambix Pumpjak (that doesn’t inflate party balloons) can be advertised for the excellent job it does on Zodiac inflatable rafts and pool toys. In doing so it can make claims about its amazing ability to get air into things.
While the Acme Pumpjack focuses on happy kids with their party balloons and ignores your flat tire. Both can claim universal wonderfulness at inflating through their inflated claims. The viewer may come away thinking either one could do their inflating job.
Or how about “Our roast beef dinner includes a dinner roll. Theirs…no roll. Go for the full meal. It’s better.” That provides a superiority claim that should improve business. No matter that we then notice that hardly anyone ate the dinner roll.
When I worked with gas retailers, I learned that people would go out of their way to save 1./10th of a cent on a galloon or liter. Think about how small a savings could motivate a purchase decision but it was magnified by the sign showing the unit price in huge numbers.
Some small changes could totally change the impact of a piece of communication. But the minor changes that create self-importance by giving someone the impression they are important enough to make the change, not so much. As an agent for the client, we will honour such requests, especially if we are being paid by the hour and don’t think the change matters at all creatively. The client gets to do it, but pays for it.
Focus on these kinds of small difference are what Freud called “the narcissism of small differences.”
Tiny things that get magnified in the minds of the participants as their perception overwhelms objective judgement. One co-worker used to call it “picking the fly shit out of the pepper.”
Think about a set of identical twins you may have known. To almost everyone they were virtually identical. But to each of them, the differences were huge. Each had an ego that needed recognition. The point is that differences seem larger the more invested you are. But to the rest of the world, it often makes no difference at all.
My advice to those making minor comments on creative presented to them is – “Which is more important, your ego or inspiring confidence in the folks who do the work?” Making those folks feel more invested in their work will probably create the greatest return. The manager who makes little changes, over time, discourages the workers from being careful and becomes the owner of the work.
It happens everyday. We all carry some obsessive trait that makes us want to see things a particular way. Recognize that each of us has different ways to expressing ideas, and that is an advantage for you.
We employ art directors for their eye. They have the training and talent to see things others do not. We employ copywriters because they are good with expressing ideas efficiently and memorably. Challenging a creative team to explain an idea is one thing, and it is fine. Suggesting solutions is another. Not fine.
We all have slightly different makeups and different perceptions. Take advantage of this, but stick to the bigger ideas.