venus_designs
09-29-2005, 08:03 PM
Hi, I'm new to this forum, just found and wish I had known about this before!
How do I handle a Marketing Director with no marketing experience?
I'm a freelance AD/designer with my own biz. I have a medium-sized start-up lending company client with big aspirations and I did a ground-up ID design for them a year ago including logo, marketing kits, stationery/cards, advertising and trade show booths, flyers, brochures, etc. I worked with the clients very closely to define a very consistent look and brand image and a lot of people have complimented the work very highly. And, they are adding new divisions to the company, so I planned ahead to create branding that will work as a system as they expand.
A few months back, they hired an exec's sister as a director of marketing for the company and in the short time I've worked with her she's made many changes to the design of everything, most of them small stylistic changes -- but also changing the tag line, redesigning the business cards and changing the way phone numbers and web urls are written. Now she has more "ideas" of things she wants to change. Her changes don't make much sense, I try to explain to her why we made certain style choices at the beginning and the importance of consistency -- but to no avail. I think she just wants to change things to make her mark. And I have to walk her through everything, she doesn't understand printing, web design or advertising and makes bad decisions against my advice. I'm beginning to dread getting phone calls/emails from her.
I've suggested we do a brand review -- figure out what's working and what's not, make more global changes all at once. But the company is only a year old and honestly, they'd be better off just sticking with what they have since they aren't changing the overall look and feel. However, that's not my say and they are willing to do a review and revamp of the brand and all the design work.
How does one handle an ignorant client like this? How can I possibly get her to understand a larger strategy and should I bother? I've sent her a sample of another corp's brand manual so she can see how it should be done and I've suggested we do a brand manual for their company (they did not want to do this before, due to costs.)
How do I handle a Marketing Director with no marketing experience?
I'm a freelance AD/designer with my own biz. I have a medium-sized start-up lending company client with big aspirations and I did a ground-up ID design for them a year ago including logo, marketing kits, stationery/cards, advertising and trade show booths, flyers, brochures, etc. I worked with the clients very closely to define a very consistent look and brand image and a lot of people have complimented the work very highly. And, they are adding new divisions to the company, so I planned ahead to create branding that will work as a system as they expand.
A few months back, they hired an exec's sister as a director of marketing for the company and in the short time I've worked with her she's made many changes to the design of everything, most of them small stylistic changes -- but also changing the tag line, redesigning the business cards and changing the way phone numbers and web urls are written. Now she has more "ideas" of things she wants to change. Her changes don't make much sense, I try to explain to her why we made certain style choices at the beginning and the importance of consistency -- but to no avail. I think she just wants to change things to make her mark. And I have to walk her through everything, she doesn't understand printing, web design or advertising and makes bad decisions against my advice. I'm beginning to dread getting phone calls/emails from her.
I've suggested we do a brand review -- figure out what's working and what's not, make more global changes all at once. But the company is only a year old and honestly, they'd be better off just sticking with what they have since they aren't changing the overall look and feel. However, that's not my say and they are willing to do a review and revamp of the brand and all the design work.
How does one handle an ignorant client like this? How can I possibly get her to understand a larger strategy and should I bother? I've sent her a sample of another corp's brand manual so she can see how it should be done and I've suggested we do a brand manual for their company (they did not want to do this before, due to costs.)