Why creative communication can give your brand an edge

“Communication to a relationship is like oxygen is to life. Without it...it dies.” This great quote by Tony A Gaskins Jr. applies to all the relationships that exist in our life. This includes personal and professional relationships. But the relationship between a brand and its customers is extremely unique. This association also needs a clear line of communication but is not as simple as just talking to one another. Here, a one-on-one conversation is not always possible. It’s more like a one-to-mass exchange. So, getting your message across in such scenarios needs a bit of flair and an exceptional spin on the normal conservation methods.

This, in the world of business, is known as “creative communication”. But to understand how this works and how it affects your brand let’s take a deeper look into the topic, shall we?

What is communication?

Communication in the simplest way can be explained as when two individuals or a group of individuals get together in person or virtually and talk about a specific agenda mentioning their thoughts, opinions, and feelings about the said topic. Now, this is possible in normal circumstances, but not in the world of business or specifically in brand building.

Here, the communication stands for how your brand can reiterate its values and goals along with showing the selling points of your product or service to your potential clients. This is called brand communication. And this includes any and all forms of interaction a potential customer has with your brand starting from logo to advertisements and everything in between.

Nat Turner once rightly said, “Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity.” This saying holds extremely true when thinking about brand building. You use various methods of communication to make your vision as clear to your target audience as possible. This makes it easy for people to understand what you stand for and can be good for your business.

But do you know what’s even better than good communication? Creative communication!!

What is creativity?

Creativity is simply a way of human expression in its purest form. It's the interpretation of the world in their own eyes. A data scientist is creative, a bungee jumper is creative, my mom is creative and we all are creative. We as humans are people of curiosity. When we come across something that we haven’t encountered before, we wish to know more about it. And this is why an out-of-the-box kind of thinking can attract the attention of a mass of population very easily as compared to traditional methods.

For example, if you come across a café with a mural on their door, or a creative logo of a witch drinking a coffee while you are attending a comic-con, you are very likely to enter this café as compared to the one across from it that looks standard and plain in comparison. And this happens because the creative café knew how to take advantage of an event occurring nearby and went about it in an eye-catching creative way. And at the end of the day, their efforts would pay off.

As John Powell has said before, “Communication works for those who work at it.” This is exactly what happens in the above scenario. Since the café worked hard at making itself known, it reaped the benefits for the efforts the staff put into it. It of course has to be backed up with a strong product/s like good coffee, but that is a topic for a different day.

Is creative communication a recent thing?

Not really. People have always been creative in their way of conversation to achieve what they want. Such people were and are still known as smooth talkers. This is sometimes taken as a negative trait, but the results are most definitely positive.

One of the biggest examples from history is that of the USA publicizing their nuclear testing to create dominance over the Soviet Union in the battle of a world superpower. After the end of WW2, the US wanted to continue testing the nuclear bombs as the result they had in Japan were beyond their expectations. So to understand the actual extent of what these bombs could do, testing was necessary. But it could not be done on US soil due to radiation. This is why they started searching for a testing site. The reason for immediate need was that Soviet was also testing these bombs and the US wanted to overpower them.

So, the US went deep into the ocean and sought out an island called “Bikini” island. The atmosphere of this island along with its distance from the US and the fact that the local population was used to white people made it the perfect place. But the problem was to get the people to vacant the island.

Imagine convincing local poor people to let go of their houses and land with no further accommodation. This is a difficult task, right? Well, the commander from the US convinced the local residents that they need to give up their island for the work of God. This was of course briefed as a temporary move, but we all know there is no going back to the nuclear sites. Now we are not going to talk about the moral or political or ethical point of view here, but this was a very creative way to have people move without using force.

On top of this, this entire setup was again performed in a scripted manner in front of the cameras for the world to see. This was done especially for the US population to assure them that nuclear testing is good and what the world needs right now. Also, all the testing was made public via radio broadcast and telecast to let the world know what power the US holds and put its name in the superpowers of the world. So yeah, creative communication has always been in existence.

Another recent example can be of the billionaires in the race to reach and explore space travel. A lot of companies have been interested in space travel and it can be the dream of many individuals, some billionaires are making it happen.

Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk are the three names that are being connected with space travel recently, due to either their private exploration or due to their company building the space crafts. These people are using such drastic methods to increase their brand value and also their company’s values. Since they have had successful travels, they can communicate that such travels are possible and can be experienced by anyone.

This opens up great business opportunity to offer such travels as well as colonize people on different planets as an escape plan if Earth was to undergo catastrophic changes. But all this remains undercover but communicates to the population of their power and the potential of what they can achieve. And that is why they are racing to prove who is better and authentic.

Is good communication a need or a luxury?

Good communication channels are something that needs to be created before thinking of doing any major change or launch of a product or service. Though poor communication may not be as disastrous as a natural calamity, it can still be destructive to the company in the terms of money loss and productivity loss.

Suppose you are a brand that makes wedding gowns. A would-be bride comes to your studio and talks to a manager about what she wants in a very complicated and confusing manner. The manager gets some parts of it and explains it further to the designer in a different manner leaving out the crucial points. The designer makes the design on these concepts but does not give clear instructions to the tailor who is going to stitch the dress. All while the manager is assuring the bride that the gown is going to be magnificent and is charged accordingly.

Now, do you think this chain of communication can lead to a gown that the bride wanted? Not really. In the end, she will have something entirely different from her vision and this will mean that you have ruined her day. So you will lose the money because she is not paying for it, lose a client and all their contacts, and get a bad reputation. And this means the further loss of business.

Let’s take a similar case study from the past to understand the result of poor communication better. Sagatec Software Inc. was one of the first to enter the field of office automation. When they stepped into the word processing market, they developed great software with a detailed instruction manual. And though they had good sales initially, the software was deemed “too complicated” due to the confusingly long manual. They had to eventually release new manuals with clear and direct instructions. This rewrite cost the company $350,000, making it the leader in the market and have created a reputation to produce easy-to-use office software.

So poor communication on a one-on-one or one-to-mass level can lead to loss of opportunity, money, and brand value. Hence, good communication is of utmost importance.

But why creative communication?

Well, everyone is going to try and create good communication and a smooth flow of information for the potential clients. And this includes your competitors as well. If you have a monopoly over a niche, then you may not be worried about anyone taking away your clients. But for most brands competition exists. That means all of them are plowing the same field and are picking customers that they can reach. And how do you increase your reach? By using creative communication.

Let’s break down the importance of it, shall we?

1. Triumph your competition

Everyone has competitors. Now if all of you are similarly marketing your product or service, then there is an even chance for your potential customers to select any one of you. But if you are using a creative method of projecting your story and connecting with the customers, there are higher chances of you getting the client.

For example, you are a realtor, and you have a site similar to other realtors of your area. So the tenants or buyers can go to any site and book an appointment. But suppose you get a consultation with a Creative Communication Agency and decide to revamp your site and make virtual viewing possible for your properties, which is then advertised in a creative manner targeting the comfort of viewing to your clients. In such a scenario, there are higher chances of people visiting your site and higher chances of converting such clients. This would mean an increase in business and a win over your competitors.

2. Increase brand value

If you are a carbon copy of every other brand, then there is nothing to remember you by. You will become interchangeable with them. But if you can market yourself in a way that you can connect with the public then they will start associating a feeling with you and this will leave a great impact on their subconscious mind. This means whenever they buy a product or service that you cater, yours will be the first name that pops up in their head.

One of the biggest examples of this is Johnson & Johnson. They were one of the first companies to launch baby products. They had used the visuals of happy babies with happy mothers as a way to market their products. They had left such a great impact on the minds of people that generations after generations mothers were urged to use their products by their own family and friends. The consumers had turned into their biggest marketers. This was achieved only because they were able to connect to people on that deep level using creative communication.

So if you become a go-to brand, you are going to have better success at sales. What more reason could anyone need to start their marketing plan with conscious efforts for creative communication?