How to create effective marketing? It’s simple use your magic!
December 2, 2019
By Ken Gasque
Magic is the most powerful tool you have. Use it! And the most powerful tool for creating magic is a pencil. It is a magic wand when it is used to define goals, and create paths to reach those goals, and to illustrate a new concept, and to visualize new brand images, and to achieve dreams. Marketing magic begins with a pencil in hand. It’s that simple.
1. The magic is in the thinking the pencil generates. Art teachers teach ‘thinking happens when you put pencil to paper.’ It’s true. It’s the simplest tool available to you, it allows you to concentrate on the opportunity and not the technology. Writing it down makes it happen. It’s magic.
2. And you get more solutions faster. Designers are taught there is more than one solution to every problem. Keep writing, sketching and doodling until there are a number of plausible solutions…the first idea is hardly ever the best idea.
3. Brainstorming doesn’t work, brainsketching and brainwriting does. Group discussion of ideas isn’t the problem. The problem is with everyone talking. And with one or two people who want to dominate. The solution is brainsketching and brainwriting. Have group members put their idea in sketch or written form on Post-It Notes without authorship. Then let the discussion begin. It takes less time and you get better ideas.
4. It’s a plan, a map, a guide. If you are going to write a story you know you need an outline to start. A sketch does the same–sometimes called brain mapping. Sketches are anything visual, stick figures, even cutouts from magazines and newspapers work. Cut and paste. Anything that helps you visualize your idea works. It helps to clarify your thinking; it makes sure you have included all of the elements and makes completing the project easier and more gratifying.
Some quotes on making magic
“Sketchbooks are not about being a good artist, they’re about being a good thinker.” Jason Maria
“Great designers have one thing in common: their design process is centered on ideas; ideas that are more often than not developed on paper.” Jean Moroney
“Our hands offer a unique pathway to our brains. Using a pencil or pen to write appears to allow the brain to trigger different storage mechanisms. Ideas emerge…it’s magic.” Kristen Bigness
About Ken Gasque
Ken Gasque is a brand developer, marketing planner and designer. Ken works with small companies and Fortune 500 companies who recognize the need to differentiate their products and services to stand out in a cluttered market. Ken is a highly visual, outside-the-box-thinker on advertising, branding and marketing—his work reflects his belief that “We buy with our eyes.” Ken writes and lectures on his experiences using magic building brands (good and bad). www.gasque.com
