In an article on creative marketing, Jeff Hayzlett, former chief marketing officer at Kodak, says your marketing should build tension. What does he mean by that?
First, let’s put the quote into context. Here’s what Mr. Hayzlett had to say about marketing and tension.
If you’re a marketing leader in your organization, you should be creating tension, he says. “Shouldn’t we be causing tension in the operation…getting into healthy debate?”
What does he mean by that? You certainly don’t want tension between you and your clients.
The tension he is talking about here is the tension caused by offering your customers a choice. A good example of this tension is the Pepsi Challenge. When Pepsi blindfolded people and put two cups of soda in front of them then asked them to choose which one tasted better, they were creating tension. What if the majority of the taste testers chose Coke? Or what if no one chose Pepsi?
But people did choose Pepsi and Pepsi was there to capture that on video. And they made a successful marketing campaign out of that.
Are you building that kind of tension in your marketing message? You should be.
You don’t have to trash the competition to build tension. You just have to offer your customers a choice. Make it creative and give them reasons to choose you – then present that tension as your marketing message.
