The other day I stumbled across this article from 1994. Originally published by an Auckland business (Hippo Marketing Limited) long before everybody discovered the Internet and the World Wide Web, the thoughts on the Creative Industries contained therein are as true now as ever. Kim (Hippo) Brady, thank you for these words of wisdom!
Do It Yourself!
Ahh, good old Kiwi ingenuity! That great Do-it-Yourself mentality for which we are renowned. lt’s a truly wonderful thing – or is it?
In today’s competitive economy, with the pressure on everyone to run an increasingly ‘tighter ship’, many organisations have dispensed with their advertising agency or in-house marketing professionals, seeing them as ‘unnecessary expenditure’. After all, newspapers will design an ad for free, radio stations will write a commercial as part of the overall schedule cost and someone in the office could run up a brochure on their PC with the aid of a photocopier and a bottle of twink. So why pay good money to an outside specialist?
The answer lies in that key word – “Specialist”.
Just as your company employs each worker in his or her most productive capacity, your promotional endeavours be approached with an eye for maximum return. Every aspect of a promotion including research, branding, packaging, quality control and final presentation is designed to showcase your saleable commodity to its fullest advantage and any marketing activity should work towards this.
It’s true that, while most media will offer to produce your ad for free, they’re also doing the same for many other companies in any given week, with the result being your ad will look and sound just like many others. You’d hardly instruct your sales team to tell potential customers your product or service is ‘average’, its price ‘about the same as usual’ and its benefits ‘negligible’. Yet poorly produced advertising and promotional literature can communicate all this at a single glance. Or worse, have no impact at all.
There’s a simple truth about advertising, marketing, promotions and PR. They’re time and labour intensive, and when not done right will reflect poorly on the image of your company and the integrity of products or services. The simplest advertising or marketing job entails numerous steps, each involving various individuals who are specialists in their field.
Fortunately, recent years have seen an increase in the number of these talented professionals working in small collectives or a freelance capacity. People like photographers, designers, copywriters, graphic artists and illustrators and related professionals.
If you were to tap into this pool of talent you’d find that you don’t need to spend big bucks to have a job done right. The money simply needs to be spent wisely, in the right areas, allowing you and your staff to get on with what you do best.
