You are excitedly looking at a few logo options and deciding on the right one. You just happen to see a colleague from finance and jump up and ask “Hey which one do you like?” After a game of inky-pinky-ponky they come up with their choice. This process is repeated with just about everybody you think you value. So what happens? The reactions range from – ‘this could be brighter’ to ‘make this portion smaller’ to ‘use that colour option for this font option’ and many more ‘helpful’ suggestions. Either it consolidates what you were thinking or leaves you confused. It is not to say that creativity should be a top-secret mission (actually you know what it is a secret most times than not) but ‘democracy’ in deciding creativity just about kills the effectiveness. You are never asked by the finance colleague ‘Hey do you think we could add this line item in the assets list?’ or the production head asking ‘Do you think we can increase productivity by this measure?’. Why? Because those are thought to be an exact science and thus there is only one way to do it right.

So why should Marketing be any different? People it is subjective and generalistic and hence anyone who is anyone has a right of opinion. Yes, they can give an opinion but the fact that marketing is the responsibility of the brand custodian should not be forgotten. As highlighted in previous blogs, evaluation of marketing/communication creatives is based on a number of parameters and not just visceral. People who were not part of preparing the brief or giving inputs generally have a very superficial reaction to creativity. And by that it is meant it just is a reaction to how it looks – nothing beyond.

Then how to know if it is the right communication? There is an ‘exact science’ for that as well. Known as Market Research. There are various kinds of research like concept testing, pre and post ad research, top-of-mind recall and so on that tells how effective the creative is. For example, if you are wanting to test your positioning alternatives, you can use focus group studies (among your Target Audience) to look at reactions to various positioning alternatives. If you want to know the recall for your advertisement you do something called the ‘day-after’ recall test. You do aided and unaided recall tests to find out if the brand is getting registered. So as you can see even creativity is an ‘exact science’ that also needs to be done in a specific way.

How then to ‘carry’ along all the colleagues without the process looking autocratic? You can involve all important stakeholders in the discussion on the positioning and also the brand personality. These are like strategic discussions done during the initial phases of the brand or whenever there is a change in the positioning. Their inputs on what needs to be presented to your Target Audience is valuable because you get that as many angles of views as there are participants. But that is the extent of involvement. Your research will guide you if you are fulfilling all those inputs.

So don’t feel that you are obliged to share every piece of creativity or communication. As long it is in line with the agreed positioning stance, the brand custodian has the ultimate call on all of these!