Creative companies are floundering on a commodity based pricing model. One that pays for process not outcome.
Which is ironic, because a lot of people tell me that it is the process that is broken. That creativity is most powerful in an environment free of restrictions and rules.
Which means that many creative companies live within a model that pays them for a process which they believe hurts the creativity that they are hired to produce.
Which is like being a doctor who believes he is giving poison to his patients. But takes their money anyway.
The good news is it’s not true.
Creativity is borne from restrictions. Of media. Or space. Or time. Those challenges being the fuel on which inspiration depends.
And applying rules to the process ensures not the process but the outcome. The power of creativity being time and context sensitive.
Small solace to those committed to fighting only their most immediate problems. Shrinking margins, increased competition, a lack of respect. All of which are the by-product of a broader issue.
Why do companies really pay for creativity?
The marketing industry - and its dependent, advertising - has one purpose.
To create a relationship between a business and its customer.
If what you’re doing is not doing that, why are you doing it?
And if you are doing it, why are you not being paid for doing it?
Because there isn’t a business in the world - that you want as a client - who would place more emphasis on your hourly cost than on your ability to help them create relationships with customers.
The cost benefit of which moves beyond the office of procurement, and into the office of the chief executive. A position that has never been filled for very long by anyone whose strategy is to save their way to success.
That you can create those relationships cost effectively is a requirement - the customer who comes at a marketing price tag of a million dollars per, being neither reliable nor scalable.
That your value will far exceed your current pricing methodology if you do so is a given.
Step 2 in The Guide To Valuable Creative Business is, therefore, as simple as this.
Be aware this weekend of how much is being spent by businesses trying to create a relationship with you.
And how little of it is impacting you.
