The Importance of Process
Process — we talk about it a lot in business, whether it be creating a process or following it. At Odvod, part of our name – MEDIA – even describes our process (see the “How” section of our website). But, what happens when process is not followed? What are the consequences, and what really is at stake?
Now, I assure you, the following scenario, although real, did not happen to us, but I’m sure we can all think of instances when a project deviated from its designated process and we had, or tried, to steer it back into the right direction.
When it comes to marketing campaigns and projects, large or small, for public or private sector companies, the creative process follows a typical route:
- Understand the background and goals
- Come up with concepts
- Present the concepts for feedback
- Tweak/finalize the selected design
- Final signoff
After signoff, the final product is unveiled to the world and delivered with the appropriate context or background information.
For larger scale projects, there is more back-and-forth between certain stages before final signoff is achieved, but the process is the same.
In this specific scenario however, preliminary concept designs were leaked to the public by an unauthorized source. The public, not knowing the supporting elements of the design and without an understanding of the scope of the entire project, immediately jumped to first celebrate, then criticize the concept and the firm behind it. From picking apart the creative elements to scrutinizing it for its “simplicity”, little did they know the concept they saw was just a small, premature piece belonging to one of many draft concepts, not yet finalized and supported a much bigger initiative.
Despite efforts to salvage the project, the public’s mind was set and there was no going back – and sometimes you can’t. The client, seeing how the project had taken such a downturn, decided that it was not worth going against public opinion and scrapped the entire project.
Moral of the story? Process is in place for a reason, and following it benefits you – the client – the most. It is our job, as your marketing department, to strategize, market and communicate your products and services to your audience, but if a project fails to deliver simply because process was not followed, resources and efforts are wasted and nobody wins.
