Can it be too creative? You betcha! The Creative Process.

Can it be too creative?  You betcha! The Creative Process.

The “Starbucks Syndrome”.  Walk into any Starbucks and look for a medium drink on the menu and see if you can find it.  You can’t because it doesn’t exist.  You can get a tall, venti or grande but you cannot find a small, medium or large.  Starbucks does not use common terms to describe their sizes and it is part of their niche — you see Starbucks wants to be perceived as being special and therefore cannot be described in ordinary terms that we have all grown up using.

Yeah, but it works doesn’t it?  Sure does!  Well if my product or service is special, using special names that most people don’t will make me unique too — right?  Not necessarily — Starbucks is a global brand.  The company, until recently had “coffee” in its logo.  So when you walk into a Starbucks you know what they sell — mostly coffee and coffee drinks.  So having funny names for the drink sizes is ok and works for their well-established brand.

Back in my reality — I work with many local businesses and they all want to get noticed and have “top-of-mind” recognition.  However, people are busy and there are thousands of businesses competing for their time and attention!  Remember — we are all human and there is only so much space in our heads so you may only have a few seconds to get their attention — hence — a bullet-proof creative process.

Here’s the rub — a lot of businesses think that they must be really creative to stand out — you know, like Starbucks.  They want to have funny names for things and think that it will create interest in the product or service they have.  Most of the time it is too obscure and because they are small businesses and do not have a multi-million dollar marketing budget to educate the customer — therefore, it just goes unnoticed and flops.

Remember — if it ain’t easy to find — it ain’t gonna get found!  People are just too busy.  My advice is to keep it simple!  This will get them to see what you have to offer and you can wow them with your product and service.  That will do more to build your business then some name that nobody understands.