Recognizing Greatness - Understanding The Creative "Bell Curve"

Most Creative Is Above Or Below Average - Demand "Great"

By David Miranda

Statistically, everything in life (and marketing) falls on some point of a bell curve, i.e. 2-3% of everything sucks, 94-96% of everything is below or above average, and 2-3% of everything is great. The challenge is demanding great and not settling for anything less.

Nobody says "keep up the fair work" to inspire anyone.

Nowhere is this truer than in marketing creativity.

In today's hard-to-reach consumer environment, the currency of the realm is ideas - ideas that differientiate one brand from all others in the hearts, minds, and ultimately the wallets of consumers - ideas that sell stuff.

What's a great idea? MasterCard's "there are some things money can't buy. For everything else there's MasterCard." This is great idea.

For years, MasterCard was a poor Number Three in marketing after American Express (Don't leave home without it) and Visa (It's everywhere you want to be). During this time, MasterCard struggled to find its brand identity that would differentiate itself. It's previous unsuccessful tage line was "MasterCard, Smart Money". Now after seeking not just another mediocre campaign, it found greatness - and great success in the "Priceless" campaign while American Express and Visa now search for new ways to counteract MasterCard's success.

There are other examples of greatness - The Chik-fil-a "Cows", Nike's "Just Do It", The Aflac "duck", and the Apple "PC vs Apple" campaign to name a few.

It's high time that advertisers demand greatness found only in that 2-3% of the creative bell curve. This means that advertisers should say no to 97% of what they are presented from agency creatives.

Say no to mediocrity, say yes to great ideas.

Marketing Mediocrity - The Silent Killer Of An Enterprise

The Need To Recognize and Purge Mediocrity From The Marketing Organization

By David Miranda

Mediocrity is the silent killer of an enterprise. It is easily transmitted from one person to another - one department to another - until it becomes a pandemic. It is a threat to every organization and most pronounced in the larger bureaucracies. The source of mediocrity is a person who performs to the minimum acceptable standards, i.e. performance that is just good enough to get by. These people could be young or old, male or female, executive or staff level, new to the company or one with a long tenure. Their impact on the enterprise is disruptive in a stealth way. Others witness this mediocrity and, if they do not see it challenged, begin to doubt a company's committment to excellence. Then the "if they don't care, then I don't care" syndrome rears its ugly head.

Mediocrity is a bigger problem in the marketing arena where a company communicates with the outside world. If mediocrity pervades products and services offered, fertile ground has been created for competitors to identify and exploit vulnerabilities. Here the repercussions can be catastrophic and the historical examples are many.

The American automobile industry for years were the world leaders with the likes of GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Over time, the quality of American cars eroded and new models no longer captured the excitement of the American consumer. Along comes the Japanese - where quality, new models, service, and performance are superior to their U.S. competitors. Mediocrity had infected the American car industry. Products were just okay, but no match for the Japanese. It is unlikely that the U.S. car industry will ever regain its former dominance. This year, Toyota, for the first time will be the Number One seller of cars in the United States. Mediocrity did the U.S. in. For every company that suffers from mediocrity, there is a competitor plotting its demise. There is no gentle way to deal with this problem. Mediocre people and their performance must be purged from the organization. Darwin's tenet still applies. Survival of the fittest. The title of Tom Peters' best selling book was not "In Search of Mediocrity".

What is the formula?

1. Hire and encourage people who strive for excellence and will not settle for anything less.
2. Set high standards of performance - make no compromises
3. Encourage those that push the envelope, that think outside the box, that take personal initiative
4. Don't compliment average work. No one ever inspired with "Keep up the fair work".
5. Reward on merit, not on tenure. Promoting a mediocre performer exascerbates the problem.
6. Encourage people to get out of their comfort zone which is a breeding ground for mediocrity.
7. Celebrate the best

In summary, rid the marketing organization of the silent killer while there is still time.