“Marketing would be a great business—if it weren’t for the clients.” Why, oh why, do clients do what they do? They dumb down our best creative. They delay every decision, then make the wrong one. They hire us as experts, then disregard everything we say. Why is their behavior so maddeningly incomprehensible?
I’ll tell you why: it is because we assume that clients always think and behave rationally. We imagine them carefully and calmly evaluating all available input, then making the choice that is in their best interest.
Economists have a name for this kind of rational creature: homo economicus, economic man. Much classical economic theory is based on the concept that people rationally weigh the costs and benefits of any choice that they make, and then act in their own best interest. And that’s why most classical economic theory is bunk.
In fact, human decisions are based heavily upon emotion, and they are profoundly influenced by unconscious biases we all carry. Nothing else would explain why we overeat, why we fail to save for retirement, or why we splurge on name brands when generics are just as good. Homo economicus does not exist.
I think that we in the agency business make the same mistake when we assume that we are working for what I will call homo clientem. Our clients, after all, are human (or at least most of them are). We should not expect them to act rationally, predictably, or without biases when they are dealing with us. Realizing this may help us treat our clients with a little more empathy, and maybe, just maybe, suggest ways that we could make life a little easier for those people who pay our salaries.
This was brought home to me when my agency recently invited two clients to address the entire staff during our annual retreat. It’s something we do, but not often enough. During their remarks and answers to questions there was almost no discussion of creative, strategy, or even budget. Their concerns—what keeps them up at night—include managing competing priorities, stretching thin internal resources, and staying ahead of their own crazy-making customers. These are real people, facing real challenges.
So what are the differences between the mythical, rational homo clientem that we imagine, and real clients like the two who joined us for our meeting?
Homo clientem represents a business or organization that is itself perfectly stable. Their plans, strategies, and markets never change after they are established. A real client is rarely in this situation. Today’s businesses are in constant turmoil, contending with profound disruption, struggling to keep up with technological and demographic shifts. Little is predictable, and less is permanent. We should not be shocked when our real client changes the rules on us, or appears to forget our carefully structured marketing strategies.
Idea: Build course corrections and alternate scenarios into your planning so you can offer flexibility and still deliver results.
Homo clientem is fully empowered to make decisions. He or she will weigh the evidence, and choose on the pros and cons (ultimately, of course, coming to agree with our advice). A real client seldom is able to operate in isolation, and must contend with a phalanx of bosses, stakeholders, and influencers. A CMO, for example, must answer to the CEO, and, often, CFO, CTO, CXO, and a variety of others all of whom are also irrational, unpredictable, biased humans with their own ideas about marketing. No wonder our real client may seem more motivated to choose in the way least likely to offend.
Idea: Make sure to provide your real client with the business case for the marketing strategies you propose.
Homo clientem is completely confident in his or her choices. If they have been made rationally on the basis of complete information, why not? A real client, of course, is scared silly that the wrong choice—the wrong creative direction, the wrong media buy, the wrong choice of agency—will come back to haunt them. It has been pointed out that the worst case for an agency is to get fired from an account; the worst case for a CMO is to be lose a job, a much more devastating and personal issue. With the average tenure for CMOs falling to near 18 months, it’s understandable for real clients to be extraordinarily risk-averse.
Idea: Use agile roadmapping techniques to provide transparency for your real clients. If they understand the risks, they will appreciate your efforts to mitigate them.
My suggestion? Give clients a break. Homo clientem, the perfect client, does not exist. Do your best to understand the challenges your clients face, and the human frailties that are part of the package.
Marketing can be a great business with the clients, too.
