Mfcttrf

Study after study shows people respond best to things that evoke emotional responses:

• https://medium.com/@FlorentGeerts/research-shows-the-most-effective-advertising-focuses-on-emotion-6b442b0d5572


• https://appliedpsychologydegree.usc.edu/blog/thinking-vs-feeling-the-psychology-of-advertising/


• https://www.aaaa.org/wp-content/uploads/legacy-pdfs/4A%27s-Measuring%20emotional%20responses%20to%20TV%202007-03.pdf

But still most companies are very conservative. Its a blue shape with a stock image. It reminds me of this line from the movie Ocean's Eleven

Don't use seven words when four will do. Don't shift your weight, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, be funny but don't make him laugh. He's got to like you then forget you the moment you've left his side.

How can we as designers convince corporate B2B clients to take more risks? To stand out instead of trying to look like "everyone else in the industry."

In my experience, you can't change mindsets without proven results from changes made by others.

It's the same as whether or not a business sees "value" in a professional designer.

There are a buh-zillion business out there with someone untrained using Photoshop and creating their marketing materials. That works for them.

They won't change that mindset until it is proven that a trained professional actually does result in better Return on Investment (ROI).

This means testing. Same product/service, same copy, two (or more) entirely different marketing approaches.

Many knowledgable companies will test marketing and then have cold, hard, ROI data and they can see what actually works better. However, for many smaller or budget conscious companies, testing isn't something they are willing to explore. So....

Often it's a leap of faith on their part initially. And really, that's generally the best you can hope for.

Either that or some personal connection a business owner may have to someone who does understand value in something - who can then sway the owner. As an outside entity, it's nearly impossible to convince a business owner that marketing could be improved by being "different" than the "herd".

By all means present something different than their "norm" with your opinions and reasoning, but 99% of the time it'll be shot down. There will be that 1% that is willing to take the leap though.

All this is much easier if you have an established relationship with a business over a period of time or via past successful projects. If they've been happy with your work, and then you present them with something which is outside the customary purview, there's a greater chance they'll listen.

As a solo designer versus an entire marketing department, you're pretty much open prey, as any kind of argument will get twisted and turned internally. Somebody will always say its too this, or too that. Or they haven't seen that before. What if they miss out on some sales? Eventually they'll figure out its just too risky to go with a radical design. After all, their business may just be doing the same thing as their competition (in terms or actual business activity).

So unless the business is really radical in scope, or the owners very open minded, most likely the design will just end up looking like "everyone else in the industry".

Consultancy type design studios will (sometimes) have a strategy-first approach, presenting clients with the benefits of this or that direction, getting the client warmed up for a calculated risk before actual designs are shown.

I guess one useful argument is to actually show how common a generic visual can be. Provide overwhelming examples of similar work done by other brands and the possibility of this being similar to all that other stuff. Make the "look like everyone else in the industry" sound like a drawback.

The Gangnam Style video has 368 million views.

Google chief business officer Nikesh Arora revealed that “Gangnam Style” had brought in $8 million from all of its advertising channels.

And this is just for Google, I have not any info about other communication channels.

If someone from any industry tells you this, you can do absolutely nothing. If you are interested in keeping the job, accept it and try to involve your creativity even in small doses. But you cannot inculcate values to someone who only sees results and whose parameters are within the cited example. Which is just an example, a bit exaggerated to better understand this answer, but situations similar to this I have lived a lot.

To show an opposite position, there are the quite controversial opinions of the last years of Oliviero Toscani, the former Benetton photographer. When asked about the current situation of the company at creativity level he said:

How did you find Benetton 17 years later?:

Bad, because since Luciano (Benetton) retired, the company has been managed by sales representatives, creative agencies, marketing specialists ... stupid people. -

Actually he has many interesting opinions which can be read here:

Ad agencies are really making an effort not to be creative. They’re all the same, they want to please everybody

If you want to have real success, you should listen to what the marketing research says and do the opposite

Of course, this kind of opinion can only be formulated by him from his position, someone who created, motivated and provoked the entire world during a decade. If any of us stands in front of a client and proclaims that the marketing agents are stupid, we fly out from one of the office windows.

Nor is it that Toscani is the paradigm of truth, but at least he's someone who thinks freely and sometimes rightly. What's that reason, I guess the fatigue we all have about what we have seen and seen and seen.

How can we as designers convinces corporate B2B clients to take more risks? To stand out instead of trying to look like "everyone else in the industry".

This is a very old new dilemma. Actually very old, the novelty is put by new technologies and social networks. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. they have created quite painful communication standards but they reach an exaggerated number of people and have acceptance. Can be someone creative and propose to a client that he/her company has no participation in social networks? Perhaps, but it is quite difficult to manage.

When I was young, I thought that as designers we had the obligation to visually educate people in a creative way by proposing really innovative pieces and trying not to fall into mass communication standards.

But as a young man one is very idealistic. Over the years I have become much more pragmatic and aim for a balance, as in everything. I return to what was written above:

• My client only thinks about money and results and I only think about
  innovating in creativity. We both want to make money, but the
  designer also wants or needs to feel comforted with his/her work,
  something that the client will not see anywhere. Where's the balance?
  Accepting the client's proposal, clarifying the weaknesses regarding
  visual communication and try to find the "areas" where to develop our
  creativity.

_{Excuses for the bad grammar}