I think it is safe to say that I have pretty much experienced it all in my career, all the highs, all the lows and all the crazy. Recently I found myself thinking about "the traits my BEST clients seemed to all share, but each in their own way", yet they yielded the best and most rewarding process and outcome. I thought I would jot them down and share them with you...
1 / An uncanny ability to articulate ‘exactly’ what issue, problem or opportunities the new packaging had to achieve. After the briefing, I would walk out virtually visualizing the potential solutions.
2 / A firm understanding of exactly what packaging can and cannot do. They never expected new packaging to fix every challenge the brand faced.
3 / They were fearless decision-makers! When they loved a direction, the best clients were never afraid to make the wrong call, never tried to dial the concept or idea down. (When I see fabulous branding and packaging in the marketplace, I give the client more credit than whoever the agency was) because I believe most agencies probably shared great work…but only the client can approve it.
4 / They avoided the phrase “I will know it when I see it”, understanding that’s one of the best ways to terrify your agency. The subtext is “I don’t know what I want so I pray they come in with the answer!”
5 / They knew when to stop! The best clients have never felt the need to keep “optimizing and tweaking” until the train is leaving the station.
6 / Deeply understood their consumer and trusted their gut instinct over all else. I loved when clients knew how to read the research, what points were critical to listen to (even if said by just one consumer in qualitative), and also knew how to ignore the noise. One of my all-time favorite CEO quotes, who had a very finely tuned gut instinct was presented with two 4 inch thick decks of the final pack, each with bang-on Qual and Quant results: “The facts...While interesting, are irrelevant…I don’t like it.”
7 / They killed quickly. They were able to eliminate a concept or design that they knew would never be approved, instead of refining everything to the nth degree before deciding on the one or two to shoot down. These were clients who took the best options “runner-ups” to senior management sooner vs later and not after 6 weeks of multiple stakeholder comments being addressed.
8 / They were straight shooters! No need to insult anyone, but if you do not like anything SAY SO! Don’t try and find little redeeming qualities about a concept or design to try and build off them. But it is equally as critical to be as clear as possible why nothing connected. A fundamentally wrong design cannot be tweaked to success. But also do not get angry if the agency reiterates why they thought it was worth sharing, they may have a great idea or perspective that simply did not execute well the first time around. A constructive back and forth can lead to the answer in the next round. (Sometimes a project can be very, very difficult to crack, and takes more than one run!)
9 / They made room for do-overs. If you see the work and it’s wrong and you believe something went awry in the briefing, set everything aside and engage the agency in an honest and robust discussion about a re-set.
Richard Brandt is the founder & creative director of BrandtBrand– a streamlined and efficient branding & design agency, with a select team of senior talent passionate about the growth of their client's businesses. BrandtBrand.com
