You can not believe the number of times I see marketing concepts written by a marketer or R&D specialist while sitting in their office or cube at work. So, in a very David Letterman approach, I present the top 10 reasons you should not do it. Here you go:
10. Too many cooks in the kitchen – When writing concepts in the office, generally everyone wants input into the approach of concept. This could be a boss, a more senior manager, a colleague on your business, and even the ad agency. It is very difficult to keep the concept single-minded when multiple minds want to edit.
9. Too long because think everything must be in the concept - #10 generally leads to this challenge. Each person with oversight into the concept often has his own take on what is important and relevant. As a result, an “organic†concept is created which has something for everyone (in the office), and means nothing to the consumer.
8. Brings nothing new to the consumer – Writing concepts in the vacuum of the office doesn’t bring new insight from the consumer. One never knows if something in the marketplace has changed unless the current pulse of the consumer is taken. One could argue that the car industry did this. While Japan was creating fuel-efficient, smaller cars the American car industry overbuilt gas guzzling SUVs and Trucks and look where we are today!
7. Negative – The desire to make the product or service benefit sound like a huge hero creates a tendency to identify/set up the insight in a very negative manner. Examples might include: – I really do not like it when… or it makes me so frustrated when…. You can easily tell where these are going and consumers generally don’t want to be reminded of bad news.
6. - Does not have appropriate consumer insight – Sometimes the marketer has really great ideas about the benefit offered to the consumer for a new product positioning. Unfortunately, a compelling benefit link in with the wrong insight can make the entire concept tank. This is really why you never want to flesh out the concept before any quantitative test. It is too expensive to blow it just because you selected the wrong approach to enter the consumer’s mind.
5. Not objective – As an employee, one has an inside knowledge on what the hot buttons are for the company. As such, a tendency exists to want to showcase that area to please those in charge. Unfortunately, what is important to the company may not be important to your consumer. You really need a gut check.
4. Not believable – Often too much “techno-speak†gets written into the concept, which makes the concept completely unbelievable. This is particularly true because the “cube writers” are very close to the product or service. They try so hard to convince themselves that they can lose the simplicity of a well-written concept and the product/service loses its credibility.
3. Is illogical and/or confusing – Too many details can be included because the writer “knows too much” so he believes he must put all the support into a reason to believe. Since more is not definitely better when it comes to concept writing this just is not effective. Unless the product is extremely high tech, most do not demand a lot of information just what is essential for believability.
2. Not written in consumer’s language – When companies write the concept, the language sounds more like a company than a person. It is very difficult to relate to one’s target audience talking “manufacturer’s speech”.
1. It does not reflect your consumer’s wants and needs – And the worst of them all, you have created an offering that the consumer does not see a need to have and you have wasted a lot of time and energy on a “flushed” idea.
The solution: Work with a concept development expert (like me! I know shameless self-promotion) who can teach and coach your team AND work with your target audience to build a smarter concept.
