Why Creativity Never Equals Success

Everyone is creative. Some people are even more creative than others.

But don't get carried away if you're trying to market your business.

The problem with creativity is when it's held as the benchmark of success.  Creativity does not equal success. Being able to produce uniquely does not equal revenue. It doesn't even guarantee appreciation:

I think this table and chairs are interesting and creative.

But are you going to buy them?

Let them into your life?

If the objective is to sell, the creativity vested in Gargantua's card table here isn't successful. 

Will the creativity lead to art museum visits? Yes.

Will it lead to sales?

No.

Because you have no use for this furniture. It isn't designed for your life in any practical way.

Most branding is like this furniture: It's really only good for the giants.

Large companies rip percentages out of the market at the expense of their competitors with better branding, and they spend wildly to do it - in the hundreds of millions.

I'll define branding as any activity designed to remind the public that you exist.

Branding may lead to sales with a company or product that is already known, well-enough regarded and highly profitable to a large number of consumers. 

But that kind of loyalty isn't built overnight. It takes a very long time.

We've all started using the term 'branding' when what we mean is 'selling'.

To gain sales you must craft practical, time-sensitive facts of interest about how your product will help your target client. If you can be creative when you do that, good for you. But don't let creativity cloud the sales message with a lofty idea about how you want to show up in people's heads.

That's the corporate language of giants.

Instead, create a relationship. Use your creativity to tell the people you want to help exactly how you will do it, and what they will get from you.

Then you've channeled your message in the best way possible, by creating clients who know you exist.