(Photo Credit “my fair wedding blogs”
I’m a girl and I like random stuff, but one of the more stereotypical
girly things I like are weddings(watching them anyway) and pretty fluffy stuff
and My Fair Wedding by David Tutera
provides just that. There is just something about see a distressed bride
to be go, from bah to tah-da! With the touch of an expert the end result is
awesome, yet the success is just “better”/
altered version of whatever the bride to
be originally wanted, however funky that
may have seemed.
Once while watching this show (although I probably had
something better to do) the thought occurred to me, how many of the “end
results” could this guy actually like, I mean personally? With such a wide variety of people with their own personal tastes and dreams I
am pretty sure as grand as many end results are, not everything is something he
would really choose for himself, if he had his own wedding. To be successful as
a marketing consultant I think it is very important that one separates objectives information, such as sound principles
of a plan/design from the appearances of the project. For example a dress is a
dress but depending on the body type certain styles are more flattering than
others (I found out the hard way if you have the figure of a string bean you
don’t want to wear puffy sleeves unless you don’t mind looking like a jock).
That is pretty solid, however what the dress looks likes in terms of color,
besides the fairly objective clothing styles suggestions, is optional. Your
success as a consultant is not measured by liking everything, as much as to
knowing how to make everything thing work.
What if David decided that every detail had to match his personal taste and
completely ditched everything the brides wanted? He probably wouldn’t be on T.V, have his own business, and might be flipping burgers somewhere, but
even that would fail he didn’t care how customers wanted their burgers cooked. He could be successful in something, if he based
everything on his own taste, but that isn’t as likely.
When I first started marketing as a volunteer, I
confused marketing good advice with my personal taste in design which is easy
to do because visuals are very important in marketing. I found it very easy to push
subjective advice on color and design, along with proven principles and not
even notice which is most important. Instead of saying something like, this ____(fill
in the blank) is the basic principles behind___(whatever) that you should be
concerned about and leaving “trivial” details
in the execution details up to the person I was talking to, as I would give the basics and my own trivial preferences
and insist on it just as much as solid proven marketing concepts, as if how many chocolate chips or raisins
someone wants go in their cookies is as important
as hot the oven is and how long the cookies stay in. Now I see the silliness,
and can focus on what I should be focused on, the objectives needed to make what
the boss/client or whoever wants happen well, not my personal taste (which is
fine to share at times and has its place) and how to get it the plan. That is a
big lesson in marketing, so as it turns out watching wedding planning isn't a
waste of time after all.
I think it's really great insight that you have learned how to distinguish your personal preferences from what a client wants and going with their wishes instead of pushing them away from them. It's so frustrating when I know what I want and someone tries to convince me I don't want it. Usually there's a major emotional component to my choices, so good luck trying to change my mind! A good consultant does just what you said- they work within the constraints of their client's vision, even if that vision is more like a hallucination than a dream!
ReplyDeleteYes, and it is so much harder to "hold back" when you have personal/emotionally mixed up in it as well, like when it's not "just a job" and you are passionate about it and/or personally know the person and want “what's best” for them(I wasn’t even being paid in that example). But what is best is best, and that might mean their best not your best for them, know what I mean? Or maybe I should word it, as wanting the person to be at their best not your best. I like parents could learn a lot from this too, support your kids-not a mini version of yourself.
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