Creative is the energy of strategic marketing communications. It is an ingredient that can multiply the effectiveness of advertising, promotional investments, media buying, even the planning process.
It is also easily misunderstood.
Creativity is not solely the domain of writers and art directors. Nor is it expressed in novelty, cuteness, entertainment, or by outspending the competition. Creativity is measured by making communications work better. Achieving higher attention levels, a longer memory, greater credibility, clearer understanding, faster and more positive reactions, increased investment returns.
Here’s a Good B2B marketing agency case study example:
Our client, Gerber Plumbing Fixtures, makes toilets and brass (faucets and showerheads). Because Gerber is basically a professional brand, its products are not sold in retail outlets. So plumbers, being the target market, were the main focus of Drucker Group’s Voice of Customer research. The research findings told us Gerber products are viewed by plumbers as really “good workers.”
They’re tough, easy to install, and easy to service. They’re seen as reasonably priced products that work well, install easily, and don’t generate callbacks for plumbers. Yes, there are more expensive and fancier products out there, but Gerber offers a lot of the same styles and added value features as those well-known, often-nationally advertised brands. So it’s long been a solid choice by plumbers for both residential and commercial installations.
Using these findings, it was then The Drucker Group’s task to position Gerber in the marketplace as a good choice for plumbers. And it was that word “good” that became key to all the marketing communications. While not bragging to be the best, positioning Gerber as Good had many good connotations like high quality, righteous, trustworthy to the plumbing trades.
Good perfectly described Gerber’s deliverables like good products, good flushing, good styles, and good profit margins.
The “G” in Good also offered memorable alliterations with the G in Gerber. And that led to the creative positioning line that would solidify the entire B2B marketing communications campaign:
MAKE IT GOOD WITH GERBER.
Check out all the Good work here.