Back when Comedy Central first went on the air, the Smothers Brothers hosted a Young Comedians show. They did bits in-between the new comics. One running gag throughout was Tom’s (presumed) lack of understanding of the idea of a rhetorical question. Dick asked, “How many man-hours do you think it took to build the railroad that opened up the West?” Tom tried to come up with an answer, until Dick explained, “It was a rhetorical question…you don’t answer it…you just think about it.”

At the end of the show, Dick pulled out a 35mm camera, ostensibly to take pictures of all the young commedians. After snapping a few pics, he opened up the back of the camera and pulled film out of the canister, exposing it, as if it was a Polaroid instant-film camera. Dick sighed, and told Tommy that he’d ruined the film, explaining that 35mm camera film has to be developed, and if exposed to light, it ruins the pictures.

Tommy smiled, and said, “No…it’s a rhetorical camera…you don’t need pictures.”

It was a funny bit, and it points out the dilemma here – the title of this post is – and isn’t – a rhetorical question.

The straight answer is that, like everything else, marketing is worth what you are willing to pay for it. Maybe more. I read a brilliant quote today by Joe Whitley, where he opined, “If you think advertising doesn’t work, consider the millions of Americans that now think yogurt tastes good.”

I’m experiencing something of a paradox right now. I have a friend who’s after me to do some design work for their company. They sell advertising-related products, and for them, design is not a profit center. Therefore, they treat design as a necessary evil, much like radio stations treat copywriting and production for spots. Radio stations sell air – not creative. My friend’s company sells products – not creative. So when she approaches me for design work, it’s within her company’s worldview that assigns value to their physical products, and treats the creative process as if it has little value.

This creates a conflict for me, on a couple of levels. First, I am essentially competing against myself, at least in theory. If companies like hers simply didn’t offer design work, forcing their customers to go elsewhere, then their customers would have to seek out companies like mine. But they don’t. They either do the design work in-house, or farm it out to anybody willing to do it for the bargain-basement rates they are willing to pay. Keep in mind, they aren’t marking the work back up to what I consider graphic design shop standard rates – they look at it as a cost of doing business. (In some cases, I’m not even sure if they are charging the customers for the work.)

That begs the question, what’s marketing/advertising/design really worth? If I can get $X,XXX for a corporate identity, is it worth it? What if I’m competing against the guys that take the Earl Scheib approach, who’ll design that logo for you for $99.95?  Obviously, as a full-service design shop, I go the extra mile, and give my customers not only the logo, but layouts for everything from business cards to letterhead, and a style guide to teach them how to use the logo without violating their new corporate identity. But how much is that worth?

My dad used to play with a symphony orchestra. The conductor once told him he was the highest paid member. My dad knew better. It was a union gig – all the sidemen earned the same hourly wage. The conductor said, “No, as a percussionist, you’re paid the most per note.” My dad thought about that for a minute, and replied, “Yes, but if a second violinist misses  a cue, nobody notices. If I miss a cue, everyone does.”

It’s a matter of perspective. Some people judge merit based on how much they pay. (Neiman Marcus makes great gobs of cash of people that believe the NM bag indicates an automatic guarantee of high quality.) Some people judge merit on how big a bargain they received. (You paid how much for that logo? Huh. I paid half that for mine.) Then their are the clients that actually look at the work, and judge it on it’s own artistic merits.

The problem is that there is no standard for any of this. I’m usually willing to help a friend that needs a break, but when it comes to cutting my own throat, I’m less enthusiastic. So the question remains…what is marketing worth?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 4:44 pm and is filed under advertising, design, marketing, media.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.