It’s no secret that advertising creative has gone down the tubes in the last decade. Businesses are now substituting aggressive online placement in place of strong concepts. Good advertising creative is smart marketing. Poor advertising creative, all too common today, isn’t so good because it shows the company doesn’t really care about its customers.

Like many people, I’m annoyed by online banner ads. It’s not the ads themselves I mind (well, there are some terrible ones), but the manner in which companies aggressively place them that is beyond annoying.

If I want to buy a product, I check it out, then like most consumers, I either think about it on my own or I buy on the spot. If I choose to think about it, it means I want time, on my own. By default, it also means I do not want to see it over and over on every website I visit, which only deceases the likelihood of a purchase.

Banner advertising networks track your every online move, with tactics that throw ads in front of our eyes for nearly every product we view online. There is no better way to thwart a sale that to annoy the customer.

The more a company contacts me, the less likely I will buy. For example, I bought a shirt at BaseballSavings.com, being careful to uncheck any email subscription boxes. I received no less than a dozen email advertisements in the month after the sale, many after requesting removal from their list, and still more from their other sites. In response, they’ve been added to my ‘do not buy’ list.

I suspect as advertisers get more and more aggressive, more people will respond by buying less or buying the competing product. Which is good, because it will force businesses to simply do better advertising creative instead of taking invasive maneuvers.

Why did Van Gogh cut off his ear? We all talk about how the man must have been insane. I don’t recall anyone asking, back in school, why he did it. I’ve read he was madly frustrated, but no one says why.

In the old school, ‘why’ slowed things down. It caused delays. They couldn’t teach you in the allotted time if they always had to answer to why.

Why provides purpose. Why speeds things up. Why increases efficiency and effectiveness. Why provides critical answers and illuminates new ideas. Why is good for marketing and connecting.

Young children ask why every hour of every day. As we grow up, we stop asking why for some unknown reason. Our parents or boss tells us not to ask why, so we put our head down and do what we’re told. Why should we do that? Maybe it’s fear, or maybe we aren’t inspired. Why are we uninspired?

Inventors, engineers, artists, researchers, parents, and children ask why. You can too. Now is the perfect time to take your curiosity to next level. How do you start? Just ask why.

The real question may be, do companies hire graphic designers to fill a budget sheet or fuel their marketing? The industry and billions of dollars would seem to suggest graphic design is a real profession, yet there has never been a shortage of people who will ask professional designers to do free work to “gain a portfolio piece”. It often seems as if companies see graphic design as a hobby.

I’ve been a professional graphic designer (and art director, creative director, senior copywriter) for 26 years, yet I still get asked to do work at near-minimum wage (the answer is always, ‘No’) by some companies, and I’m not the only one. Designers commiserate about this all the time.

There can be no question about the marketing value of graphic design. That value comes into question primarily because companies hire based on price, not based on needs. They do it to themselves.

It is commonplace in the design industry for clients to price-shop. Companies routinely choose the lowest price, regardless of qualification or possibilities. If you hire based solely on price, the end-result will invariably be of lesser quality, which means you’re knocking the legs out from under your marketing.

Legs are what you get when you hire highly-qualified professional designers. Legs carry your marketing. Cheap design falls on its face, undermining your marketing.

There are two kinds of graphic designers: hobbyists who work for free or cheap and do work that helps you fill a budget sheet; and professionals who can make your marketing fill your pipeline. Only one of them has real value to businesses serious about success.

In spite of great urging from professors and students alike to fall in line, my beliefs have remained fully intact since enrolling in university last year. There have been at least half a dozen professors who have strongly encouraged me to fall in line with university thinking. Luckily, falling in line has its detractors there too.

Falling in line is falling down.

It’s you giving up on your beliefs. It’s bad for your health, and it’s bad for everyone around you who might have been inspired. Falling in line shuts down your own ability to grow as a person.

There is a time and place for everything, right? Business is not the time for falling in line. (Neither is vacation.)

Except in the case of threat of physical violence, there is no reason why anyone should fall in line. We’re not in the military. Your sister’s life does not depend on your compliance.

I suggest falling out of line.

Do you recall the hundreds or thousands of people you’ve encountered who did exactly what they were supposed to do? Not so much. They march in line, uniformly, obediently, anonymously under control.

We remember the people who fall out of line. They make great characters, inspiring individuals, and memorable leaders.

We tend to believe in the people we work with. It’s in our nature. It’s also in the fibers we weave together as team members, coworkers, or client and service provider.

Most of the time the equation works out great, with a natural symbiosis strengthening relationships and producing better work.

Occasionally, an anchor-holder will find their way into your team, and a weak link is created. Sometimes that person is a boss, a friend, coworker or client, and you may not even be aware they are dragging you down.

There are hints if you are paying attention, such as verbally wallowing in past failures, asking ‘why the world is doing this’ to them, or looking for every excuse under the sun to not take responsible action. Sometimes, they’re just repeating the same mistakes over and over, wondering why life is so hard, listening to no one. I call these anchor-holders.

They could drop the anchor, but they actually choose to hold it, knowing it will weight them down.

If you are backing an anchor-holder, your life is harder too. Their dialog is hypnotic, sapping energy and time, like a siren leading you to shipwreck.

Marketing shortcuts often come with a hefty price, as I was reminded a couple nights ago. I had an allergic reaction to soy that hurtled me into health hell, throat nearly shut, the rest of me swollen like an overstuffed pillow. (I’m writing this still in that condition.) Why did I eat the soy? It was a shortcut to self-knowledge, I thought. I suspected my soy allergy had gotten much worse, but I wasn’t sure. Eating a tiny bit of tamari with some sushi would surely reveal the answer. Dhoh!

As with most shortcuts, the cost was far greater than the time and money saved. I could have gotten tested by the allergy doctor and known in a week. It would have cost me several hundred dollars and a few hours off work. Plain to see, it is now, that getting the testing would have been far smarter than potentially, you know, perishing.

Marketing shortcuts
There is a veritable laundry list of shortcuts are we asked to help clients take in the course of marketing a business. As with life, the cost of marketing shortcuts is far greater than the cost of just doing the work right.

Take photography for instance. Small business owners frequently try to take their own shots to save money, often with downright hideous results. Upon failing in their attempts to make poor shots look better, they commit the cardinal sin of shortcuts by asking, ‘Can you just photoshop it?’ (Conjures the old saying, ‘You can’t polish a turd.’) Better to take the shot right with a professional photographer, so it will stand out among peer products.

Marketing plan shortcuts are perhaps the biggest shortcuts of all, wherein business owners state that they don’t want a marketing plan, then wonder why in the course of the year their efforts aren’t panning out. Or we develop a marketing plan that they don’t bother to follow, then complain when the not-followed plan doesn’t work. (This is not exclusive to small businesses.)

The logo shortcut involves undermining every ounce of what a logo does by buying a clipart logo for fifteen bucks. A logo is personal and communicates ideas that make people think and form connections. A clipart logo is impersonal and generally communicates nothing.

I could go on and on, but the point is that the shortest route from startup to success is the longcut. It’s taking the road that will almost inevitably force you to do the work and reap the rewards of your efforts.

In a marketing context, this doesn’t mean you must have a Fortune 1,000 budget. It does mean that the road to success is not paved with clipart and marketing shortcuts. It means sticking to a budget and follow a good plan you believe in. It means measuring results, adjusting, and making another effort. It means doing things right, slowly, surely, keeping the end-goal in mind, and skipping the tantalizing shortcuts.

Paying the price of marketing shortcuts will take much longer and cost more. Take the longcut. Do the work.

Hobbyists play to prove.

Businesspeople play to win.

Hobbyists start at the middle and negotiate to the bottom.

Businesspeople start where they start (high, middle or low) and stay there.

Hobbyists spin.

Businesspeople tell the straight story.

Hobbyists doubt their ability to succeed.

Businesspeople are pragmatic about their impending success.

Hobbyists dream.

Businesspeople dream and act.

Hobbyists spend time.

Businesspeople make time.

How did we get to a point of a gay marriage vote? How did we get to a point in society when the very thoughts, rights, and inborn feeling of human beings in our country were actually up for vote? This seems, at the very least, antediluvian in nature, if not draconian.

When one community’s beliefs are shunned or deemed improper, splinters occur. That’s how underground sex clubs, public restroom hookups, and rampant prejudice happened here. The road back to civilization and equality is a long one, as plainly evidenced by the African-American plight, which has spanned over a century.

When one splinter occurs, others follow. The more splinters our society spurs on, the less coherent and globally relevant our collective efforts become. What happened to ‘together we stand’? It’s not like standing next to a gay person or couple will threaten my well-being as a straight guy. We’re all human.

By the way, large splinters sometimes rise to overthrow their oppressors.

The fact that there is now a vote on the legality of gay marriage is an insult to humanity. Baby steps? Sure, ok, but come on! I think we can all agree on the idea that everybody needs somebody.

‘I’m sorry you feel that way,’ needs to be stricken from the customer service bible.

It’s not about how I feel, and it’s not about how you feel. Customer service is about grasping a golden opportunity to help your customer in a way few people can. It’s your customer giving you an opportunity to make them happy by forging a unique connection.

If you decide to lose their business, ‘I’m sorry you feel that way,’ is the wimpy, unsatisfying way to tell people you don’t want their business. Customer service is better equipped to satisfy when they have a short list of companies or products to refer unsatisfied people to. ‘I’m sorry you feel that way’ just upsets people. It’s all about the service rep, not the customer. ‘Here’s another company who may be able to help you,’ is all about satisfying the customer. It’s positive, helpful, and straightforward.

Training teaches customer service representatives to say ‘I’m sorry you feel that way’ to put the onus for the solution back on the person calling them for help. When the customer cannot respond, the rep ends the call. It’s indirect, rude, serves no practical purpose (other than manifesting anger and wasting time), and is totally unnecessary.

Customer service could take a tip from restauranteurs, who go out of their way, making accommodations however they can in pursuit of one sole result: customer satisfaction.

When you’ve been in advertising as long as I have, you learn that there is really only one reason why most advertising fails, and it’s called fear. How fear manifests with regard to advertising presents in an almost endless list of methods, some of them justified, most not.

Advertising limited by fear bores people, possibly the most dangerous result in all marketing.

There are very few things a company could say in an advertisement that would offend those loyal to the brand so greatly that they will go away. Boring them, on the other hand, can result in customers jumping ship to someone more exciting. Being boring always yields the same result: bad advertising. Boring ads usually result from fear of risk.

Some companies kill their own advertising efforts by asphyxiating creative or completely forgoing real strategy. Others buy media “deals” which waste budgets on mediums that will never pan out. Some companies insist on writing their own headlines and text, resulting in ads that they can connect with but no one else can. Still others go for “wow factor,” forgoing (or forgetting) to make real, meaningful connections. It’s easier to undermine advertising efforts with fear-rooted action than to hold high ambitions for success.

When I hear a client say, ‘advertising doesn’t work,’ what they really mean is that their past advertising hasn’t worked. They rarely can show measured results, which means they often base advertising effectiveness on feeling rather than any sort of hard data. Sometimes they have data, but don’t understand what it means. In order for data to have any intrinsic value, the advertising effort must have meaningful, stated goals prior to the creation of the campaign. Without goals, success is virtually impossible. Not determining or stating goals up front is a fearful approach.

Among initial advertising goals, I’ve often heard little more than, “more sales.”

“More” is a hard goal to reach because it could mean literally anything, and does little to inspire people in marketing, creative or sales.

Setting goals is risky because someone has to raise their hand, stick their neck out, and take responsibility. If the company dynamic says sticking your neck out ends in it being chopped off should the effort fail, fear rules and no does what it takes to realize effective advertising efforts.

I suggest a different approach.

How about the people who stick their necks out get rewarded regardless of success? This may inspire a more constructive dialog, such as, ‘What a great failure that was! What did we learn? What’s next?’

Show me any other part of life where every single effort results in success. I think you will find that no arena offers guaranteed known success.

Activities as simple as walking present risk. You could trip and fall or step in a hole, but you don’t stop walking. You need to get where you are going, and walking forward is the most sure way to get there.

Similarly, an advertising effort might fail, but you keep taking risks and keep advertising because it’s the most sure way to succeed.