The Portrait of Today’s Client

I had the honor of working on both sides. I was both the client and the agency. The first time I was agency and it was difficult. I couldn’t understand why we had to do things the way the client or his wife said, or how his competition did. I wanted to give the client something original, he wanted what was already on the market. That irritated me, but over time I began to understand more of this big WHY?

Then I got on the client’s side. I felt like being pulled into opposite sides. The director wanted things to move as fast as they can, get the offer and the proposal as soon as possible. He did not understand why he had to pay both for the creation and for the execution. “What creation?” I’ll give them the creation they can work on the execution”. And the agency was telling me things were not that simple, they need more time, that creation isn’t made on the spot, that they won’t work without a 50% payment in advance and I have to understand they have other clients.

Today I’m in the middle.

The interesting part with the client vs. agency debacle is also present in other parts of a business. For example, my brother works directly with the clients in a travel agency and a lot of problems he encountered with his clients, I also encountered with mine. My mom worked as a saleswoman in a shop, the problems she encountered with the clients were the same as mine. My best friend works in IT and his problems with the clients are my problems with mine. The portrait of today’s client is somewhat the same general one.

Colours that “paint” the portrait of today’s client:

1. Time – “I want it yesterday”/”I want it now”/”did you do it?” /”why is it taking you so long changing a color and taking that letter out?”
2. Cheapness – “over there it was cheaper” – over there will always be cheaper!
3. Information -“my secretary showed me this social media stuff”
4. Specialization – “do it how I say, I’ve also read about marketing”
5. Distrust – “I showed your proposal to my wife yesterday…she said she’d like to see how it looks in a stronger red. Can you do it in red?“

And if these problems we have to deal with regarding our clients persist for so many years, why haven’t we learned anything from them? Why are we still fighting them? Why do we still want to change them? Why haven’t we found a solution yet? I believe there are solutions without compromises and without breaking our principals. The idea is that I think whoever found the solution doesn’t have to deal with these “colors”.

In conclusion:
Every portrait is different, but the colors are the same. The painter chooses how to use these colors!