How creative thinking + genuinely caring can = magic.

Ever hear the story about how flour companies clothed over 3 million people?

Running a business means constant pressure to meet payroll, pay bills, keep the lights on and somehow try and scale into 'the next big thing'. We set KPI's for growth and chase monthly revenue targets. Hustle, hustle, hustle! Go, go, go!

But what if we stopped chasing the dollar sign for a minute and used a bit of creative thinking to try and genuinely make a difference to the people we work with? Like, how can we actually help our clients?

We need to start putting our customers - real people - first. Companies talk about B2B and B2C, when we should actually be talking about H2H (human-to-human). Why? Because businesses are people. Whenever you do business you do it with other human beings. This means there's emotions involved. And us human beings can be sensitive little things. Sometimes we need someone to come along and actually add value to our lives. When businesses (people) realise this, that’s when the magic happens.

Here's a really nice example...

During the Great Depression in 1930’s America, times were hard. Like, really hard. There was no money, no work, and it was one of the toughest times in history for millions of people.

Flour was a staple household item that housewives used to make bread to feed their families. For many people, flour was only just affordable, but it was essential in order to survive. At the time, flour came in large cotton sacks.

Flour manufacturers saw that women were turning these flour sacks into dresses, underwear, towels, curtains, quilts, diapers, dish cloths, and other essential items out of pure desperation. And remember, this is a time when 'finding a hack' was more a survival tool than a Silicon Valley trend. So they started packing their flour into sacks with pretty patterns on them. Families greatly appreciated this, as times were extremely hard, and in turn, bought more flour from those companies.

An early example of how genuinely caring about your customer not only helps make their lives better, but creates brand loyalty too.

The sacks came with bright, colourful designs. Due to the tight budgets of struggling families, flour sack clothing was very common, so many unique designs were printed on the sacks. Besides the pretty designs, there were also pattern lines indicating where to cut, and instructions printed on the sacks that taught people how to cut and sew the sacks in order to turn them into dresses, shirts and other useful items. The sacks even came with instructions on how to wash out the ink of the company’s printed logo and the ink of the instructions too.

By the end of the Great Depression, it’s estimated that flour companies had clothed around 3.5 million women & children in the United States.

Someone at the flour companies was clearly paying attention, and decided to think creatively with their customers' best interest at the centre.

That’s why creativity matters. And that’s why tomorrow’s marketing budget should look nothing like today’s.

---

About Electric And Analog:

Electric & Analog is a brand, content and design studio based in Sydney, Australia. We deliver meaningful ideas in the form of brand identities, websites, apps, films, social strategy, content creation, commercials, books, campaigns and objects that fuel growth & increase awareness.