Voice of the Customer
Customer: Lane Press:Pages Magazine / Task: Advertising Campaign
What the client needed
The great news about being a press dedicated to printing magazines is that you get to have some real rainmakers as your customers and their magazines are premium(indeed enviable) examples of editorial and design. The basic idea of a voice of the customer campaign is “prestige by association.” The ad is designed to portray the supplier as someone who understands customers’ needs, wants and preferences and thus it is not hard to make the clear offer that you understand and can meet the expectations of potential customers.
My part of the project
Portrait photography belongs in the hands of professionals. Period.
I can make specific requests, recommendations and I get to vote up or down on the results (sometimes) but really the outcome is in the hands of the woman/man with the camera in their hands. As with most people, magazine editors and owners tend not to be high end fashion models. Rather, they make good photography subjects because they are intelligent and focused and they understand what a good photographer can do for their portrait (thus they cooperate).
The request in this case was a portrait that was up close, personal and a fairly tight shot as we wanted the subject to be peering through the frame of the page edges. The other elements were (1) their position (2) their magazine (3) their reasons for recommending the press and (4) the brand promise.
There will always be voice of the customer ads because we as consumers trust other consumers more than our suppliers. Suppliers know and use this because they know that they can never actually own their own brand. Their brand is, and always has been, owned by customers, employees, other suppliers, etc. We can massage, curate, care for and direct our brand, but will always be what someone else thinks/feels about us.
