Juicing the orange

How creative leverage can help you market more effectively

Did you know that most oranges have 10 sections? To honor the orange, we’ve gleaned 10 succulent lessons from Pat Fallon and Fred Senn, marketing pioneers who changed the ad business, to get your juices flowing.

Established in 1981 on the premise it “would rather outsmart the competition than outspend them,” Minneapolis-based Fallon Worldwide made its mark in the ad world turning creativity into a competitive advantage.

Agency founders Pat Fallon and Fred Senn stretch the meaning of creativity in their book, Juicing the Orange, (Harvard Business School Press, July 2006). In passionate prose, the book serves up a healthy dose of real-life examples that examine the creative process. The authors share the keys to their successes — and failures — marking 25 years in the business. They describe how they’ve applied “creative leverage” as opposed to “media leverage” (read: media buying power) to marketing and branding problems for, among others, Citi, Holiday Inn, BMW and United Airlines. Perhaps one of the most poignant sections of the book is how Fallon helped its client, United Airlines, respond to the 9/11 crisis that involved two of its flights.

For marketers concerned about the commoditization of their brand, choosing the right media for their message, or even reenergizing a mature brand, their insights are both inspirational and educational.

I. The seven principles of creative leverage

1. Always start from scratch.
2. Demand a ruthlessly simple definition of the business problem.
3. Discover a proprietary emotion.
4. Focus on the size of the idea, not the size of the budget.
5. Seek out strategic risks.
6. Collaborate or perish.
7. Listen hard to your customers (then listen some more).

Fallon and Senn suggest putting these principles to work and you’ll be on your way to understanding how to juice the orange.1

 II. Accountable creativity

Being creative isn’t just coming up with a punchy headline or a great design — although it may result in both. It’s being able to see things in new ways — from a fresh perspective.The authors contend that the only way to generate measurable results is through good old-fashioned hard work. Their approach entails rigorous research, not taking anything for granted; and combining the thoroughness of the left brain with the artistry of the right. The term they’ve coined, “creative leverage,” is about making creativity actionable and accountable for changing consumer behavior.

Whether the objective is to increase revenues, enhance awareness or raise assets, good marketing and creative leverage should be actionable and measurable.

Asset idea! Maybe it’s time to review your creative process. Do you have one? When was the last time you updated your marketing communications creative process? Would you like some help? Asset Communications would be happy to assist you in developing a disciplined process or enhance existing methods you employ for marketing strategy and campaign development — including steps that quantify and make accountable the initiatives that are most meaningful to achieve your business objectives.

III. Reason vs. emotion

Research from Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman about how our emotions help us code and retrieve memories — and form the foundation of decision-making — supports the authors’ thesis. They warn marketers’ reason-based messages are too soon forgotten. Their remedy is to strive for what they call a proprietary emotion. They suggest looking for “any thread of emotion that the competition has underleveraged or overlooked” … one that connects your brand to “how people live their lives.” By the time competition catches up to the insight, they report, you’ll already own the territory.

Find an appropriate emotional link to your audience that your competition has overlooked, and craft your message to connect your brand emotionally to your target market.

Asset idea! Get your sales and marketing team involved. Plan an afternoon creative session to explore the emotional ways your brand connects — or could connect — with clients. Ask participants to develop a list of emotions that could be further leveraged. Then test your ideas (in a controlled market research environment) with the kinds of clients you really want to reach — former, prospective or even existing clients that meet your target profile. The exercise may offer new insights and ways to experience your brand.

Creativity: the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.2

IV. Connecting to clients

Increased media spending may make your voice louder in the marketplace, but it can’t force people to listen. The authors suggest that only a campaign that makes a genuine human connection with its intended audience can engage the consumer to participate. To strengthen the message, the “Stay Smart” platform Fallon created for Holiday Inn Express, for example, was integrated beyond advertising to every point of customer contact: in-hotel marketing posters, in-room postcards and sales tools, services and systems — even the coffee is branded Smart Roast.

When an influential market segment is being ignored, you have an opportunity for effective marketing communication.

Asset idea! You remember the Pareto Principle, right? It’s also known as the 80/20 rule or the law of the vital few. It suggests that 20% of your clients likely generate 80% of your business. Why not audit the special programs that your company has developed for your special clients that represent the most significant proportion of your profits? Are they working? How can you tell? As a further step, ask your team to assess whether company-wide events and communication tools raise awareness, understanding and commitment to delivering on that customer experience promise.

If you would like to learn more or see advertising referenced here, go to www.juicingtheorange.com and click on “See The Work”.

V. The art of collaboration

Examples abound throughout Juicing the Orange underscoring the importance of collaboration. Whether between departments that have a stake in the results, partners that are working to solve a business problem, or the client/agency relationship itself, teamwork and cooperation are essential to extraordinary creativity. Fallon and Senn report that collaboration not only makes “tasks logistically manageable, but also raise[d] the level of the individual team members’ performance.”

Sharing both the risks and rewards of creativity through open communication and collaboration can produce meaningful and measurable results.

Asset idea! Encourage team participation with an incentive program. Ask members of your team to schedule 30-minute brainstorming sessions around your specific project, with someone they don’t know or have never collaborated. Have them submit a mind-map of sorts to show what ideas were shared and what new solutions were generated. Offer a prize for the best result such as a restaurant gift card, a half-day of paid time off, or a problem-solving feature in your employee newsletter.

VI. Losing your voice in the marketplace … and getting it back

Through its experience with Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Fallon and Senn observed that business-to-business enterprises are more at risk of losing their voice in the marketplace than consumer enterprises. With a willing client, Fallon was able to re-position and re-energize a mature brand that was being overlooked by clever high-tech startups. Their Super Bowl “herding cats” advertising spot became an instant classic. Beyond an ad, the effort became a metaphor for what Fast Company described later as “EDS getting its groove back.” While Fallon gets kudos for the creative execution, EDS took creative leverage to a whole new level by engaging management, the sales force and the PR department to make the most of its new-found position. Website traffic shattered all previous records and sales force productivity doubled six months after the new image launched.

In the business-to-business segment, if you don’t position yourself, your competition will do it for you.

Asset idea! Is your brand getting tired, outdated or overshadowed by market newcomers? Don’t give up on it yet. Perhaps there are ways to breathe new life into your brand by updating a tagline, sharpening the image or making even the smallest adjustment to your media mix. Our strategists would be happy to take a deeper dive to help you maximize your most valuable asset.

VII. The connection planner

Fallon introduced a new role at its agency in 1999 called the connection planner. Its purpose was to explore the connections between brands and their customers. In examples that range from Virgin Mobile and Nordstrom to BMW, they show how the connection planner “seeks out places where brands and people meet in the real world [connecting the two in ways that are often] more credible and engaging than conventional advertising.” Their experience rang true for a new generation of BMW enthusiasts with the introduction of high action films, directed by some of Hollywood’s most recognizable talent, accessible only on the internet. The campaign generated millions of views and, most importantly, BMW sales rose 12%.

How people experience your brand should be part of your marketing communications plan.

Asset idea! Do you have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system or customer database in place? When was the last time you took a fresh look at the information? What kind of information do you have? What’s missing? These databases are rich sources of underutilized intelligence that just might offer a fresh perspective on ways to explore the connections your clients have to your brand. And sometimes an outsider can help you get more “juice” from content that’s already there. We have plenty of creative ideas to help you out — so what are you waiting for?

Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.
— William Plomer, African-born English Writer, 1903-1973

VIII. Perception vs. reality

At one time or another, many of us have had to deal with brand perception problems. Examples in Juicing the Orange that Fallon and Senn tackle include a campaign for Rolling Stone magazine and a more complex problem dealing with a network of entities under a single brand for the Islands of the Bahamas. By identifying the business problem, and crafting excellent creative, Fallon helped Rolling Stone change its image among prospective advertisers by artfully presenting the facts. The results were remarkable: Without a single change in product, distribution, pricing or promotional budget, Rolling Stone’s revenues from ad sales increased by 47%. “If you can address the fundamental misconceptions about a brand,” Fallon and Senn explain, “then you can better figure out how to craft the right marketing message to close the gap between perception and reality.”

When an irrational prejudice to your brand exists, Fallon and Senn recommend confronting it.

IX. Outsmart not outspend

Throughout Juicing the Orange, Fallon and Senn serve up a variety of anecdotes that point to the fact that the assignments they have undertaken were always bigger than their clients’ budgets. “Necessity forces marketers to be more creative,” they explain. As the lines of conventional promotion and advertising continue to blur and new methods, tools and channels for communicating with stakeholders emerge, the emphasis will shift to an even greater focus on the quality of ideas.

Share of market no longer depends on share of voice.

X. The future of creative leverage

Fallon and Senn conclude with three predictions looking out over the next 25 years.

• First, they believe that creativity will be an increasingly essential business tool. And, as they say, “the last remaining legal means to get an edge on the competition.”
• Second, they conclude that you can’t buy creativity. Rather than hire more creative people, they advise, “first unleash the creativity in the people you already have.”
• And finally, creativity is not an easy path to walk but the rewards are worth it, the authors concur. “The survival of the fittest doesn’t mean the survival of the strongest,” they explain. “It means the survival of those who are most capable of adapting to change.”
    

Communicating more … but reaching your intended audience less?

Sure, we’re on Facebook and Twitter and we’ve got blogs on our websites. But as marketing professionals are we really reaching our clients more effectively with all these new media? Are we listening to our various and multi-faceted constituents? Communications technology has never been so ubiquitous or time sensitive. Sometimes you need to get out of the weeds to get a fresh perspective.

Asset Communications can help elevate your brand, your marketing and your message and show you how creative leverage can help you market effectively.
 

Getting the most from your creative partners

So, what are the keys to a successful partnership to ensure that you get the best work from your creative partners?

 
1 Human Motivation, 3rd ed., by Robert E. Franken, p. 11
2 Human Motivation, 3rd ed., by Robert E. Franken, p. 396