Why is there a lighthouse on your brochure?
By Francis Moran
Many years ago, our PR agency had a client for which we did media and analyst relations across North America and in Europe. This matched the market footprint of this rather successful company that was in the document-management space. One day, they sent us the latest version of their new marketing brochure. Internal discussions on it had apparently been going around and around in circles, and they wanted our opinion.
I took one look at the brochure and emailed back, asking, “Where’s the creative brief?”
“The creative what?” was the response.
Thinking maybe they used different terminology, I explained that I was looking for some sort of strategic document written at the outset of the brochure-development project that set out its objectives, the target audience and its level of understanding of the situation, intent, key messaging, tone and style, intended action and whatever else would help ensure that the result was both creatively arresting and strategically relevant.
We have no such thing, they told me.
