Ask any renowned marketer about what drives their craft and, if you’re lucky, they might reveal this truth: the most important parts of communication take place without words. Tone and timbre are more compelling than word choice, rhetoric is more persuasive than dialectic, and images are more impactful than text. Failing to understand this is often what disconnects an amateur business from potential customers; Instead of communicating in the ways that work best, these companies will try to argue their clients into submission through plain logic. The simple truth of the matter is that letting the authenticity of the company speak for itself through a simple, direct, and well-designed brand is far more effective than beating people over the head with righteous self-promotion. Where the marketing space is concerned, less is more.
It’s worth noting, however, that limitations of this kind require a more skillful approach. A company’s message must be well aimed if it is to hit a smaller mark. To really connect with impact and clarity takes more than five-dollar words about savings or quality. Part of this process means getting comfortable with precision. Ask yourself: “What’s the real purpose of our business?” “What are our core values?” “What makes our service worth the tremendous effort that goes into driving this company forward?” Although more of a challenge, this strategy of self-ownership and genuine understanding has no substitute when it comes to the pursuit of excellence. Good companies will build a principle around a service. Great companies will build a service around a principle.
One of the challenges of taking a company to the next level, where excellence demands a distilled message, is finding the right marketing partners that will help you get there. With digital design, the end product can be fantastic or it can be a total flop. To get it right requires a digital designer deeply passionate about the quality of their work: someone who thrives for their attention to detail, appreciates the subtleties, and commits to the craft of design. This unique skill means the designer must stay focused, work with intention, and really listen to their clients, transferring what is said (and even what is not said) into a cohesive brand that makes an emotional connection.
Unfortunately, this is where designers and marketing gurus can easily fall into the trap of disingenuous manipulation. Good designers can use deceptive tricks to emotionally manipulate an audience. Great designers know that it’s better not to. Resonating with an audience for your authenticity is more effective than manipulating them. This idea is critical to understand: In order to make the very best work, you can’t fake it. Scams don’t last. Thriving under the test of time means starting with a strong, honest, plumb foundation. In a world littered with rickety scams trying to reap short term rewards over and over, you’ll earn the long-term advantage by starting with a pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful, maintaining authenticity as you grow. Offer people an honest service where they get treated well by a company they actually like and you’ll keep those clients for life.
So we find ourselves with a message that can feel like a bit of a paradox: the trick to marketing is choosing to not use it as a trick. Find the passion and the courage to be authentic with your distilled message, and with a great digital designer, never again will you have to worry about whether your next ad campaign will work. This philosophy of pursuing radical honesty, integrity, and authenticity is what separates Nero from other digital designers. Our strategy of working through the process of brand development with depth and strength of character does more than just manifest the best message: It helps companies better understand themselves. At Nero, we thrive on the challenge of brand development, we aim for excellence with a distilled honest message, and we love hitting the mark of precise digital design. Thanks for your time and may God bless you in your craft.
Yours in strength, truth and honor,
Michael Craighead
