Everybody has a process whether its a five-part process, a 10-part process or in the case of our more account-driven folks, a 50-part process that we couldn’t include herein due to time constraints. The one thing we discovered was that process is important, it helps us to replicate our successes and, if you don’t have one, get one.
From 20YEARS Communications: 20 Leaders, 20 Questions, 100’s of Lessons by Kevin Popovic
4 Comments
Tom Stacey says:
June 15, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Great piece! For me, any act of effective communication all starts with the target audience, as just about everyone mentioned.
It’s second nature to most creatives, but clients are not always clear on this from the outset. So my basic, seat-of-the-pants creative brief is to pose four simple questions:
– Who is the audience?
– What do we want them to know?
– What do we want them to feel?
– What do we want them to do?
Answer these fundamental questions, and then you have another long list to go over with the client:
– What’s are the parameters of the brand voice?
– What are the design / budget / approval constraints?
– What’s the best media to use?
– Etc., etc.
It’s basically a process of due diligence and discovery. You can have this process as institutionalized or as informal as you wish, but the more disciplined you are about it — while still giving yourself room to be creative — the better your results will be.
Dorian Biegay says:
November 16, 2010 at 3:44 am
Again, my process is to be direct, clear and concise in delivering brand/marketing directives to the individual territories. I also make a point of establishing procedures and feedback systems, per project, that are easily adapted for approval and feedback purposes. In other words and as I usually deal with the same international film distributors, I brand my own routine so that everyone knows what information they’ll be getting and what information they need to contribute. This is particularly important when there are a lot of legal and licensing issues involved.
Hunter A. Homistek says:
February 13, 2013 at 8:41 pm
For me, communicating begins with a decision: Is what I want to say worth saying?
If I decide it is worth saying, then I determine who will receive my message. With an idea and now an audience in mind, I can write whatever is on my mind at that time. This helps maintain relevancy, and it ensures I am always writing with my reader (consumer) in mind.
After the article is written and published, I wait for feedback and actively engage my readers in conversation to ensure the connection is not lost.
Josh Nelson says:
May 18, 2014 at 11:27 am
Hunter – absolutely love this: “For me, communicating begins with a decision: Is what I want to say worth saying?”
The only thing I would add to the video and text input is: I watch and closely feel non-verbal reaction when communications of a face-face nature.