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The Creativity Factor

Every so often, there is a breath of fresh air in a marketing or customer service technique. Every so often, someone somewhere does something unique that provides them with a marketing edge in their community. Every so often, we see a unique and memorable piece of marketing. “Every so often” became a reality in Clarksville, Tennessee during the winter of ‘93....

This article is excerpted and digested from Jack Burke’s Creating Customer Connections: How To Make Customer Service A Profit Center For Your Company. Originally published by Merritt Publishing in 1997, this popular book remains in print at Silver Lake Publishing. Ordering information can be found by clicking the book title above.

“The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.” – Thomas Carlyle

While acknowledging the importance of corporate character or culture, creativity is the very essence of marketing and communication. The creative spark is the cornerstone of business. Creative means “characterized by originality; imaginative.” However most marketing and advertising today would be better placed under the category of mundane: “typical of, or concerned with, the ordinary.”

Today’s marketing “creativity” seems to have evolved into new twists on old techniques. The creative brains toil at a new, or better, ways to restate an old message. A catchier print ad, a better letter, a more memorable commercial--the script may change, but it’s the same play. Even with a horizon of new electronic media such as advertising via Internet and CD-ROM, originality and imagination seem to be sequestered in a closet.

Every so often there is a breath of fresh air. Every so often, someone somewhere does something unique that provides them with a marketing edge in their community. Every so often, we get to see a unique and memorable piece of marketing. “Every so often” became a reality in Clarksville, Tennessee during the winter of ‘93.

Enhancing the holiday spirit was the goal of the Clarksville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Christmas Decoration Contest, which included commercial establishments as well as residential. James W. Dunn of Clarksville’s Dunn Insurance, Inc. had vetoed entering a float in the Christmas Parade due to the immensity of the task. However, he agreed that entering the commercial category of the decoration contest would be less demanding.

Little did he anticipate that decision would result in getting Dunn Insurance’s name on the front page of the local paper twice, plus a full front page write up–not to mention extra publicity from a contest within the contest and a new concept for the annual Christmas card. In fact, from the grocery store to private parties, Dunn couldn’t go anywhere without people talking about his agency’s entry.

James gives most of the credit to his son, Jimmy Jr., who suggested a giant snowman in lieu of a more traditional outdoor Christmas tree. Centered on the agency’s front sign, chicken wire, poly insulation and other odd materials were bonded with glue onto the post. Soon the arms of a giant, 15 foot tall snowman reached upward to hold both sides of the agency sign–seemingly waving to passersby. To add a dramatic touch, over 2,000 white Christmas lights were attached to the interior chicken wire, providing a warm, glowing effect. And, of course, the sign was altered to read “Seasons Greetings” below the Dunn Insurance Agency name. Jimmy’s design incorporated two faces on the snowman, one face facing each direction of traffic.

Dunn chuckles as he relates the fact that they even got calls during the construction phase. It seems that they ran short of the poly insulation which covered the chicken wire, leaving the lower section of the snowman “exposed” until more insulation could be collected. The phones soon begin to ring about the Clarksville “flasher.” Jimmy’s creativity was acknowledged by the community voting and the agency won first place in the commercial category, resulting in the aforementioned publicity.

Now that’s a nice story, definitely creative, and the publicity was good. However, it’s not the end of the story–although it could have been. Rather than stopping with a first place win, Dunn built on the existing publicity with his own contest, “Name The Snowman.” The lure of a $50 savings bond generated over 400 entries. The winning name, “Bondable Snowman”, was suggested by a 12 year old girl who lived over 40 miles away. And of course, both the contest and the winner generated additional publicity for the agency.

But, we’re still not at the end of this story. Dunn then gathered his entire staff for a group photo around the snowman and turned that photo into the agency’s Christmas card.

Now that’s what I call full-circle creativity in marketing. Not only was it original, but the Dunn Agency continued to build on the concept. The question most of us need to ask is, “Would we have stopped at the winning of the contest?” Unfortunately I think all too many of us would have.

Marketing is designed to gain favorable attention for your company or product. Yet, how often to we: (1) brainstorm for new ideas, (2) take advantage of creative opportunities, or (3) maximize the opportunities when they exist.

Although this book is filled with marketing ideas, here are a few examples of what I consider creative marketing:

A Ford dealership in New Jersey builds its image around selected community charities. It started with an annual reverse raffle co-produced with five local charities involving community youth, shelters for abused women and the local hospital. Although the raffle continues, the dealership has gone on to produce two major concerts each year to generate additional revenue for charity. Co-sponsors include a local bank and a supermarket chain. During the promotion and ticket sale phase, every bank customer sees signs with the dealership’s name and every grocery shopper has a bag imprinted with the dealership name too! That’s one dealership in one community that has definitely overcome the negative perceived image of “car salesmen.”

As director of car sales for Hertz Corporation, we developed a program for the leasing of used rentals to augment sales efforts. Not only was this long before leasing became a fashionable alternative to purchase, but we were talking used cars not new. Traditional newspaper and radio advertising was not acceptable–there was just too much to explain and it needed a one-to-one approach. We developed a quick training program to first teach our sales people throughout the country about leasing. But, rather than relying on the initiative of individual sales personnel to talk about it, we needed to find a way to get the potential customer to ask them for more information. We solved that problem with a simple button, which we ordered in the thousands and distributed to all of our employees. All the bright yellow button said was, “Ask Me.” Ask they did, and the total cost was minimal.

Business cards and agency brochures are another example of “nice, but mundane.” A number of businesses have gotten creative by producing short audio or video programs that tell their story. These marketing productions get the prospect’s attention and allow you to really introduce yourself, your company, product or service.. Granted that video can get expensive, audiotapes or CDs are fairly reasonable and can be packaged in any number of ways–depending on your budget and your image.

There’s also an additional benefit to this type of creativity. All too many business cards, brochures and letters end up in your prospect’s waste basket. Audio and video cassettes have a perceived value in the mind of the holder and are seldom tossed. I’ve received calls as much as a year after an audio mailing. The caller generally says, “it’s been sitting on my desk for a year and I just got around to listening to it.”

Sponsoring a local golf tournament is another great way to market your agency or brokerage. It’s done wonders for many major corporations on a national level, why not duplicate their efforts on a local level. Bring in other businesses to help co-sponsor. Maybe a local car dealer can display a vehicle and buy hole-in-one insurance to cover a car giveaway. Local realtors and banks are also excellent co-sponsors who can help with the prizes. Not only is the publicity great, but you get a chance to network.

Closer to the office, what about your telephone system? Does a client on hold hear nothing or are you using a local radio station for music-on-hold? If you answered "radio station," beware that: (1) your clients and prospects may be listening to a competitor’s commercial, and (2) ASCAP and BMI can levy stiff fines if you have not purchased a licensing agreement to “re-broadcast” the music over your phone system. Don’t laugh, many small, medium and large businesses have already been caught and fined. This dilemma’s creative answer is a message-on-hold service. For relatively little expense, you can have a professional message tape produced that talks to your clients about your services while they’re waiting on hold.

Do you FAX information to clients and prospects? Do you use a cover page? You’ve probably answered “yes” to both questions. Now comes the big one, “Does your cover page list all the services and products you provide?” If not, and I'm guessing it doesn’t, you're missing a creative opportunity to market your message.

There are hundreds of ways to creatively market your company and most of them are far less expensive than traditional advertising. Develop an opportunistic eye within your community. Conduct a brainstorming session with employees a couple of times a year and make it exclusive to new and unique methods of marketing. Maintain strong relations with your Chamber of Commerce and other groups that cater to your particular markets. But above all, get everybody involved. Many of the opportunities that you encounter will come from the least likely source, so it pays to have everyone keeping a watchful eye. Finally, when you do identify an opportunity, maximize it!

Jack Burke is the president of Sound Marketing, Inc., host/producer of Audio Insurance Outlook, editor of ProgramBusiness.com newsletter, and author of both Relationship Aspect Marketing and Creating Customer Connections. For more information, please visit http://www.soundmarketing.com, call 1-800-451-8273, or e-mail jack@soundmarketing.com.