The Art of Client Service

Chapter 25Know When to Look It Up; Know When to Make It Up

I was working with some colleagues on an advertising assignment for Myers's rum. We were struggling with the rum's dark color. “People think of rum as being clear,” said one of my colleagues. “I don't know,” I said, “I don't think rum is supposed to be clear. The way I see it, Myers's is the color of rum.” One of my colleagues replied, “That's it! That's the line: Myers's is the color of rum.” We used it in our advertising. Our client loved it.

Another time, this same group of colleagues and I struggled to devise a name for a customer loyalty program we were developing for Polaroid. The reward for using Polaroid cameras and film was going to be frequent flyer mileage. We didn't know what to call it. Out of the blue, one of my colleagues said, “Let's call it the Polaroid Frequent Smileage Program.” We loved it, the client loved it, and that's what we named the program.

I was recently sitting around at a conference room table, surrounded by a sea of paper, working with a colleague on a brand positioning assignment for a client. We were early on in the process; we hadn't even completed our research. But we were talking about finding a positioning the client could own, one that would speak to the company's strengths and would energize its employees.

We took a break. While sitting there, three words came into my head. When we reconvened, I told my colleague, “I have an idea. I don't know if it's worth a damn or not, but let ...