Being a bit of a James Bond fan, I recently went to see the latest addition to the Bond film collection. I’m no film critic and I have long been a fan of this secret agent, so in a nutshell, I thought Spectre was great. I found it especially pertinent to our times; impending mergers being used as an excuse to phase out tried and tested ways considered outdated and the notion that technology can replace everything are very modern issues.
It was good to see the old favourites of world domination and revenge still in the story line though.
The script writers were brilliant – and I’m sure the following conversation between the baddie Oberhauser and goodie Mr Bond resonates with anyone in the world of communications and marketing:
Oberhauser: Why did you come?
Bond: I came here to kill you.
Oberhauser: And I thought you came here to die.
Bond: Well, it’s all a matter of perspective.
Oberhauser and Bond’s dialogue clearly shows how the same situation gives different perspectives; a bit like the #thedress phenomenon. For those of you not familiar with #thedress, it originated from a washed-out photograph of a dress posted on the social networking service Tumblr – some saw it as a white dress with gold lace while others saw it as blue dress with black lace. It went viral.
With this in mind, are you delivering the right message for your product or service, or is the target audience seeing something completely different?
You need to make sure your customers and clients are on the same page as you and seeing things in the same way; what looks good in the boardroom may not necessarily look good in the public arena. For instance, the lingerie outlet Victoria’s Secret ran ‘The Perfect Body’ campaign featuring very sleek and toned models. After backlash from many groups that saw otherwise, it changed the campaign theme to ‘A Body for Every Body’.
Just recently, I was discussing images that could be used to create a range of infographics for Rufiji Leprosy Trust as part of its #MyHandsandFeet campaign. The idea of an image of a individual disfigured by leprosy with the strapline, ‘leprosy is curable’ was put forward, however it was highlighted, if leprosy was curable, why was this individual so disfigured by the disease?
When you’re looking at your branding, communications, advertising and marketing, try to view it from all perspectives. Sometimes getting an outside perspective on your business in this department is an advantage; this new pair of eyes isn’t as close to the business so will see it from a different view point and often will bring in new ideas.
It’s all a matter of perspective; the worst thing you can do is to send out a message that you see as white and gold, but customers see as blue and black.
And not wanting to spoil the film if you haven’t seen it, the perspectives seen by Oberhauser and Bond had a different outcome too.