Having a technical background, I sometimes look at advertising through the eyes of an engineer. It occurs to me that advertising is not really all that different from product development.
The client comes to an agency with a business problem they want to solve. After doing all the research, the creatives brainstorm to create a solution. This ‘solution’ is basically what the agency deals in. Like any product, it is prototyped, refined, tested and then refined some more in the creative department. When it’s ready, the agency presents it to the client. In effect, we have created a ‘product’ to solve the client’s business problem.
Now, when engineers build a machine, no one questions their methods, their skills or their product. Especially not any non-technical people.
No MBA would dare pull out a screw out of a machine and tell the engineer: “Hey, can we use a bigger screw? And can we put it here instead of there?”
No accountant would dare ask: “Can we use a cheaper belt? Does it even need that belt?”
No sales person would dare demand: “It’s not noisy. Make it noisier!”
So why do non-marketing people get to question creative work?
Clients, listen. If you interfere with a well-designed product you do not understand, you will not only waste your money, you will also ruin your business solution.
You hired an agency for their expertise. Expertise you do not have, or else you wouldn’t have hired them in the first place.
Let the agency do its job. They want to help you solve your business problem. Let them.
April 26, 2010 at 11:19 am |
From the local point of view, one problem is that Marketing is not considered to be a specialized function in most organizations. It is either confused with sales or management, the latter being the less assessed and relatively unexplored of the two. Management is not marketing per se, even though both require an overall picture of the business. Management doesn’t necessarily require a separate and more importantly a specialized department and resource, however, marketing definitely does. So, until we don’t stop confusing marketing with other functions of the business and realize its importance as a core and unique system in-itself, the above mentioned problems will keep on recurring indefinitely.
Secondly, I would like to say that ‘non-marketing’ is a pretty broad term in-itself, how about narrowing it down to non-advertising professionals. Though after writing this, I feel I have officially gained the acceptance of the advertising brotherhood and burned any thoughts of treachery, deep in my heart. (*sighs*)