Research Finally

We are at the stage where we are testing some key messages and begining to try and dovetail the strategic planning process. It has been good, and the big news is that we now have a plan to do some real life research. It is just one small step, but I think getting this little bit of data will allow us to go forward with more ambitious research later.

At this point we are employing a two pronged approach. Prong one is to do an internet based survey to some larger audiences. Prong two is to go back and use an interviewing technique to drill down with some of those same audiences. I'm excited about what it might tell us, but I have a feeling the research is only going to whet our appetites for more, which is exciting to me.

Interesting discussion in the office right now about what creates a great "look". That is more than the science of research, there is some art there and that makes it fun.

Design stage

We have entered into the design stage and the testing of taglines. It is alternately fun and absolutely horrendous. Yesterday in an intial review of some tag lines with the marketing office staff five ideas were quickly shot down leaving us with an empty white board.

It is probably what should have happened, but the creative process generates ideas that I tend to fall in love with and then I can't help but feel some dissapoint when they die. Sometimes the death is quick and sometimes it is slow, but along the way a lot of ideas die.

One of the things that I was reminded about yesterday in leading this process is that I have to model an attitude that lets my ideas die quickly, especially when they obviously don't make sense. I had one tagline I loved. In my head I had the art done, the magazine ads layed out, and programs built around the tagline - but one comment from a staff did a great job of demonstrating why it was a bad idea, and it had to die.

What is equally important for me personally is to understand that ideas get resurrected. They may not look the same, but letting that idea die so it could come back again in another way was the best thing to do. Hard for me to do, but worth it.