Many wise managers and agency partners have taught me over the years that when asking for changes to creative work, framing the problem you want the creatives to solve, versus telling them how to solve it will virtually always get you the best results.

For example, instead of saying this: “Can you make the label bright green?”
Say something like: “I’d like the label to be more noticeable on the package”.

This way, you use the creatives to identify different, multiple ways to solve your problem. Versus spending their time on coming up with the perfect shade of green.

So I was pretty mortified a few weeks ago when I realized that I should have applied this “Frame The Problem” approach to my personal life as well.
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I read an article recently in National Geographic Adventure magazine (link below) about how a team of climbers helped with an archeological expedition in one of my favorite parts of the world, Nepal.

The gist of the story is that for years, local residents of Mustang have “reported seeing old manuscripts fluttering out of [an inaccessible] cave, but they never had the means to explore it.” So National Geographic got an expedition together to use expert mountaineers to climb up and into the caves. One of the climbers said something which has really stuck with me: “It was the first time in my career that I got to use climbing techniques for something other than mountaineering.”

There’s a great parallel to the business world here. Read More -›

The businesses I meet with are often struggling to figure out which marketing tactics they should be using. This is where having a marketing strategy can help: It gives you permission to say “No” to tactics which will not clearly help you achieve your business goals.

No matter what the size your business or brand, I am willing to bet that you do not have the time or money to sign up for every marketing tactic you want. In fact, in all my years of marketing, I can honestly say that I have never worked with a business or a brand that felt that it had all of the resources it needed. Because of this, it is important to be extremely clear upfront about what you want your marketing dollars and staff to focus on achieving.

Once you know this, it is much easier to assess the myriad of tactics that are out there. You’ll be able to better decide things like:
• Whether or not you should be on Facebook,
• If you should sponsor a local baseball radio show,
• If you should you buy a booth at a certain trade show.
Best of all, a marketing strategy will “give you permission to say no” to the tactics which do not obviously help you achieve your specific marketing strategies.

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