Friday May 23 6:58 AM
Figuring out your marketing message is a lot like taking a photograph. There's your subject in the middle, which looks different from different angles and in different light but it is the same subject regardless of how it looks. There are more interesting or flattering photographs you could take of your subject, but ultimately the angle you want is the one that describes your subject most completely and honestly. Lego makes little plastic blocks. They don't sell little plastic blocks, they sell the picture on the box of the various things you can make. This is the angle from which they chose to frame their product. They could have just had photos of the blocks in random piles on the outside and it would have been just as physically descriptive. There's no rule that says you can't make what you want out of the legos in the package. But without a starting point to frame the message to us, we're unaware of the possibilities.

There are a few problems with Lego blocks, not the least of which is stepping on them in bare feet. "Hey, man," I hear you saying, "didn't you just get through telling us about describing your subject completely and honestly? Why don't they put that on the box?"

Yes, dear, that dress does make you look fat.

Lego is not lying, or trying to obscure what they sell. They are not so much hiding their deficiencies or inflating their benefits, rather they are framing the discussion to focus on your creativity instead of your feet. They are motivating you to buy the plastic blocks as a means to an end, not as the end in itself. They are selling you your own creativity as pictured on the outside of the box, embodied in fire trucks, cars, spaceships, and houses, and the ability to reconfigure those things into whatever you want. The picture on the box is just a starting point to get you thinking.

Patrick Smith, the pilot over at Salon's Ask the Pilot described two airlines with successful marketing messages:

Looking globally, one notices that the highest-ranking carriers, year after year, are Southwest and Singapore Airlines. No two airlines could be more different, with business models at opposite ends of the spectrum. Southwest is effectively the Wal-Mart of the skies, while Singapore offers superlative perks and amenities, even in economy class. Yet they both excel at making their customers happy. At first this seems perplexing, but when you think about it, it's simple. The key to any carrier's success is nothing more elaborate than giving people what you promise.

This is true for the success of any business. If you tell people they're going to be pampered, you'd better pamper them. You can herd them like cattle if they're expecting that as the tradeoff for the cheapest flights. In both cases you're photographing an airline, but the angle is different. Both are successful because both show their market how their market would like to see themselves: in the former, bragging about how luxurious their flight was; in the latter, bragging about how cheap their fare was.

When I tell you that 3232 Design offers agency-quality design at small business prices, it is likely that you recognize the high value of design and are probably willing to pay well for it, but you simply can't afford to burn money. 3232 Design is the economy class of Singapore Airlines. It isn't the cheapest flight, but you can afford it. And you get a little heated towel to wash your face and hands before each meal.

Tell people what you're going to give them, then give it to them. That is the subject of your marketing message photograph. Walk around your business until you find the angle that not only doesn't make it look fat, but shows its pretty face. Then take your picture.

It's also not lying to Photoshop out the zits.