What is the better design?

The problem for marketers is that at the end of the day, our integrity as marketers is often compromised because the client is paying the bill and even though we may challenge them on what we think the market will be more receptive to – they ultimately have the say.

I have been in a room where a client who markets to a male demographic (heterosexual) between the ages of 25 and 45 years who wanted to have a pink logo because it stood out and he had seen a logo similar when he was in the US. Now, you and I know that this is completely and utterly not going to work for this market, but if the client wants it, they get it. The campaign failed and it was a case of ‘we told you so’ but it certainly did not do anything for our own satisfaction or theirs. The client was mature enough to know that the fault was all theirs and we were happy to walk away from the account because we believed so strongly that it would not work – but they begged us to stay and asked if we could ‘humour them’. More money than sense.

Who interprets what is a good design and what is not? What is a great design, and what won’t fly? Is blue better than yellow? Is what sells not necessarily the best design on the block?

Mellissah Smith, in Atlanta.