Ad Insider - Apr08

The consumer is my mother. And the client's my friend.

Recently, a much-loved client manager of the agency moved on to another role, another city. Her ‘good bye and thank you' email stopped me for a moment, and reminded me of one the most fundamental, but critical facets of our business. 

The team that worked with her on her business remember her well. Demanding, but fair. careful with money, and about her brand's global guidelines, but ready to buy good ideas when she saw them. More importantly, she's always sensitive to the people around her.

She never forgot a name, even the creative chaps, never forgot that good creative products come from people spending time on her work, and always factored that time into her planning and her briefs.   

Thing is: she is a ‘people' person. Not just that she got along well with people, but she knew that the business of communication is, besides facts, figures and working processes, first and foremost about people.

The target customer is not a statistic. 

The target customer is a person (and yes, mothers are significant consumers and decision-makers). Beyond the demographics, she has desires, values, quirks and fancies. She chooses (in her own unique way) what she buys, and rarely makes that choice based on price alone. 

Our work will only yield results if we truly begin to understand her, respect and speak to her. (It's amazing how often we forget that, and aim our message not at her, but at the client managers, or at the creative award judges instead).

The agency creative department is NOT a factory. (Or at least, the best ones don't think they are).

Despite their quirks and dress codes (or lack of), copywriters, art directors, and studio managers are really quite human. (Some writing experiments have been tried with apes and white mice, but those didn't work, and we're still stuck with these guys).

Most work hard, often into the nights and over the weekends. But they can't, unlike a production plant, just turn it on and off. 

The client and client servicing manager who recognises and respects that, puts effort to provide the necessary information, time and modicum of motivation, stands to gain bigger, better, more refreshing ideas.

Last not least, coming back to our much-loved client who started this discourse, the client is not a bean counter, and much more than a list of jobs and invoices.

He or she, much like our very human target customers, also has desires, values, quirks and fancies.  And she works within an organisation and environment with its systems, processes, demands and limitations. 

The best client servicing person recognises, and shares the client's needs and challenges. She becomes an extension of the client person; a work-buddy sharing knowledge of brand, product and the pressures of the business, but also sharing the challenges, concerns, and success of the person.  (One of the very best client managers I've had the pleasure to meet helped feed his client-friend's fish while the client was on holiday).

Much has been made of new media, technology and integration.  Each agency or practice has its tools, systems and processes for doing things better. But beyond the science and the art, at the heart of what we do, are people. Consumers, creatives and clients.

Seems very fundamental, really, but as a simple but memorable radio commercial for a luxury automobile brand puts it: "It's not that we don't know these things, but we all need a reminder now and then".

The difference, if we remember the flesh and blood of it all, will be better work: more insightful, more inspired, better crafted, better results. And a heck of a better time doing it.

 

David Phey

VP of SE Asia

TNBT