YUCK!

My young designer proudly handed me an ad layout. 

“Yuck.” I responded. 

“You don’t like it?” he said sheepishly. “I can try again...” 

“I hate it,” I replied. “But who cares what I think.” 

He looked into each of my eyes to see if I was angry or joking. He
furrowed his brow and bit his lip as he pondered my response.
Then, he brightened.  “I get it. It doesn’t matter what you think,”
he said. “It’s the client’s opinion that counts.” 

“Nope,” I said. 

“I’m stumped,’ he replied.
 
“It’s the client’s customers that matter,” I explained. “It has to
connect with them.” 

A giant light bulb went on in the designer’s head. 

“The target audience in this case is females age 50 to 65,” I
explained. “I probably don’t like what they like. They wouldn’t
like what I do. Like a good salesperson, your ad has to connect
with the customer. This connects -- just not with me. That’s fine.
I’m not your market..” 

“So you don’t like it -- but you like it?” he said confused. 

“I don’t like it, but I LOVE it,” I said. “I think it works. It will
connect with the audience. That’s really all that matters. If others
like it, too -- great. But connecting with customers is not our key
concern.” 

He left my office smiling at a job well done. Or laughing at how
confusing I was. Either way, he left thinking. And that’s all that
really matters. I think. 

Who likes your marketing materials better? You or your customers?

- Phil Sasso