How We Think

As one of our UX designers so eloquently put it, the guiding principles for UX design is about getting the user from point A to point B as easily as possible, creating a pleasurable experience, making the journey intuitive, improving the user’s interaction with your brand and delivering on the user’s expectations.

UX is involved, insightful, learned and complex – so where do you start?  There are UX best practices abound, far and wide. Best practices that are always evolving through a combination of art and science supported by different approaches, insights and technologies available. And although best practices provide great strategic guideposts for planning and design efforts, they are not always a cookie-cutter blueprint for success.

One of the most magnificent, dramatic, bold and unusual art exhibits in Boston’s history was installed this week. It’s not hanging in a gallery or a museum, it’s hanging 300 feet in the air, spanning three skyscrapers across an entire city block, high above the Greenway in the heart of downtown Boston.

The Janet Echelman aerial sculpture is unlike anything Boston has ever seen.

KHJ took on the pro bono assignment to create an advertising campaign that would create a sense of excitement leading up to the artwork’s installation.

I was at a BBQ this weekend. All of a sudden an elderly woman started choking on a piece of lamb. I’m talking serious choking here, the blue faced, Heimlich Maneuver isn’t working, OMG she’s gonna die kind of choking. Fortunately for her, a lot of doctors were there that day. At least 3 or 4 came running over to help. Somehow, they managed to dislodge the stubborn meat and get her breathing again.

It was one of those moments when you really know what your skills and talents are worth. As an advertising copywriter, I couldn’t help thinking, all I was qualified to do was write the obituary.

We’ve all been there: you’re trying to come up with a big idea, but nothing’s happening. You just sit in your chair beating your head against the wall, combing through old award books, desperately willing an idea to come. Meanwhile, the deadline is looming. Other teams working on the same assignment seem smug, cocky. You sense they have the goods, and a little piece of you dies.

Once when I found myself in this situation, an art director I was working with suggested we go for a walk.

Each year the Diagnostic Marketing Association (DxMA) hosts its creative communication awards ceremony recognizing the best of the best in diagnostics advertising, marketing and promotional programming. This year, KHJ has once again won bragging rights by placing:

One of the principles KHJ Brand Activation was founded on almost three decades ago and that we have lived by to this day is the need to tie marketing into sales… the idea that marketing exists only to support the sales effort – whether to build awareness and precondition the market; to open the door for the sales force; or to provide the sales tools needed to have a successful conversation, nurture the relationship and drive revenue.

Seems like a “duh!”? Well, not for everyone unfortunately. Too many agencies or marketers operate in a silo, not meaningfully collaborating with their sales team to truly understand “voice of customer” pains and needs. That leads to the “broadcast” of marketing messages and communications that are not in tune with the market … and to the creation of tools that the sales force has no use for (and doesn’t use – we know because we ask them).

If this is a no-brainer for you and you are there already, well done. But as a marketer, how closely are you working with … your human resources group?

This month KHJ is rolling out phase two of a brand campaign we created for Commonwealth Care Alliance, a not-for-profit care delivery system that provides patient-centric solutions for beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid. As I think back over the year since we first began working together to bring their brand to life, I continue to be struck by the sameness of the healthy, active people featured in typical health care advertising and can’t help but start to hum that old R.E.M. song, “Shiny, Happy People.”

A friend and fellow General Mills alum recently commented on an Ad Age article titled “How General Mills Is Creating a Content Factory” featuring General Mill’s CMO, Mark Addicks, who gave the keynote speech at the recent Ad Age Digital Conference focusing on the importance of content creation. While I agree with my friend’s assessment that Mark is a brilliant marketer, as are most of the folks at General Mills, I am not quite sure I agree that content creation is a particularly new idea.

When I was at General Mills in the late 1990s, we celebrated Betty Crocker’s 75^th birthday with various promotions and the unveiling of a new portrait. For those who aren’t familiar with the story, Betty was“born” in 1921 to offer personal answers to consumers’ questions about baking. In 1924 she introduced the country’s first radio cooking show, called “The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air.” In 1950 she introduced her big red cookbook, officially named the “Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook,” which can still be found in most kitchens. I know I have one I use regularly. In the more recent past, she not surprisingly launched her own website, www.BettyCrocker.com.

With the Affordable Care act gaining traction as current data suggests as many as 9 million Americans have signed up for health insurance through exchanges, hospitals across the country are preparing to take a hit. With a new paradigm for healthcare delivery that has fewer patients needing hospital care at the same time hospitals must be staffed and ready to care for anyone who needs specialized hospital care, organizations are squeezed. How can a hospital negotiate lean balance sheets and lean staff with the requirements to provide safe, cost-effective care that assures optimal outcomes and patient satisfaction?

KHJ’s offices are in Seaport Place – the Seaport West tower to be specific, on Seaport Boulevard. We eat lunch at the Seaport Café in the Seaport Hotel, located on Seaport Lane. We’re next to Seaport Square and a block from Seaport Center.

 We work in the Seaport.