Here is a marketing question for you. Am I doing my job if I just give you what you ask for?

Some of the most effective marketing campaigns have been those that push us to see beyond what we already know. For instance, the Nike brand is one of the most recognizable throughout the world. But before 1988, Nike was primarily a shoe company for runners. No one saw their brand as anything beyond the shoe rack in sporting goods stores. They decided they would expand into sports apparel beyond running shoes, taking advantage of the fitness craze of the late 80s. So the Nike logo was added to warm up suits, T-shirts, baseball hats, shorts and socks. So why would anyone wear a shoe logo on a hat? It was the "Just Do It” marketing campaign that pushed us to see the Nike brand as more than a shoe. All of the sudden, it was a social statement about getting past obstacles in life that keep us from achieving victory (Nike is the Greek word for Victory). The Nike logo was licensed to other products beyond sports apparel. It was used on everything from school backpacks to calendars, from footballs to computer cases, from notebooks to jewelry. The campaign helped Nike become the worldwide leader in shoe sales and sporting wearables and their revenue increased 1100% in the next ten years!

Most of the marketing requests we get from customers come from what I like to refer to as the Land of What is Already Known. In other words, we are asked to create something creative that is nothing more than a duplication of what has been done in the past or a copy of what the competition is doing. If you are in charge of marketing, it is your job to challenge that kind of thinking. Why? Because marketing has a duty to capture the attention of a target market and that is hard to do when the target has already seen your attempts to market to them somewhere else. Good marketing pushes the target to look at you with fresh eyes.

Can you go too far with marketing? Yes! You can both offend people and push too far into the absurd in a marketing campaign. There is a line between forward-thinking genius and poor taste. If you are in charge of marketing for your company, you need to understand where that line lies and stay just an inch behind it. The sales of your products and services depend upon people taking notice of your brand. Marketing campaigns that push us to see beyond the Land of What is Already Known cause us all to take heed of the promoted brand. Use this to your advantage.

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12 of the Best Marketing and Advertising Campaigns of All Time, by Lindsay Kolowich

Image by Artur Rosa