Falling to pieces!

When I was just a kid – yes my memory is still that good – my Grandmother was something of a jigsaw expert. In fact I think she may have graduated with at least a ‘Masters’ in the subject. She could put a jigsaw together in no time and she had a system. On one of the many rainy days in the North West of England she would carefully tutor me in the gentle art of creating pictures from a 10,000 piece puzzle. She may have been well into the autumn of her life but she was one mean hombre when it came to attacking this age old entertainment package.

She used to become very disturbed when pieces were found to be missing and I remember her well worn curse, “How in God’s name do people expect me to get the picture when we’re missing all sorts of pieces?” Gran’s probably doing jigsaws with her angels right now, but in remembering her I’ve found a direct application to her system and her curse.

Just the other day a business contacted me and asked if we made television commercials? After referring him to our website he called back to enquire if we could “put one together” for his business. “I know where I want to go, so I’ll be able to show you exactly what I want” he added. “Certainly” I replied, “Do you have a strategic plan?” The silence was so dramatic that I thought we had been disconnected. After what seemed like an eternity he asked,
“A what?”

My Grandmother who, by the way was born in the 1880s, would have been horrified. Here was a prospective client handing us a box with a pretty picture showing us where he wanted to go and inside was one small piece of jigsaw marked ‘Television’.

Marketing is not a one piece jigsaw, in fact it’s a maze of disciplines which make up a complete picture. You can’t build the pretty pictures with one or two pieces. If you’re fair dinkum about success then you have to realise that Granny’s old saying is perfectly tuned for the new millennium. You simply cannot expect success unless all the pieces are there and put together so they all match to create the end game.

Our team in the strategic division exist to help build the jigsaw. To take all the pieces and create a beautiful and meaningful ending. Like Gran’s method, it has a system and when you use it you finish up with a clear and very detailed representation of what was first depicted. Thank’s Gran for helping me to put it all together!