I’m speaking to a group of marketers today in the DC area. Just for fun, last night I Googled some of them to look at their calling cards – their website. It’s 2010. The world wide web just celebrated it’s 20th birthday – I expect great things.
I am not kidding when I say that the first 8 sites I pulled had the SAME look, tone and feel….and more importantly they all used SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE stock art. All of them.
Isn’t the marketer’s goal to differentiate? Especially in a crowded, noisy, over communicated market like DC? Can we find no better way to tell our story than with pictures of paid models appearing to love us?
Oh, it’s gonna be a fun day. Stay tuned……
The 2020 Vision of Marketing 
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May 28, 2010 at 3:19 am
Thomas Bowen
…and so…was it everything that you wanted it to be? Did you succeed in business without really trying? Did anyone rain on your parade? Fill us in…how many shiny and happys did you find???
May 28, 2010 at 4:46 am
Denise Wymore
Well, funny you should ask. I showed the websites of seven credit unions in the same market. They all had “shiny happy people” proudly adorning their home pages. When I asked them “why?” one gal said, “Well, because we all want to look like shiny happy people.” Wow. Do we? And by dropping that image on our way-to-the-bank we will somehow be inspired? What kind of sick and twisted logic was allowed to seep into our marketing brains?
Of course I’m not suggesting that we use dull ugly people in our marketing. My point is that we need to find our OWN look. Grab a digital camera and go to your lives, works, worships territory and see if you can’t find some beauty in your surroundings. Find some meaning. Maybe find a cause while you’re out there. It’s too easy to sit at a desk rifling through Getty Images for the shinier happier people.