Creative fits him to a T. I was curious as to why he chose the words content developer to replace his longstanding identifier, copywriter. “Because that’s what people are searching for these days,” was his reply. Perhaps. But who decided the phrase content developer or content provider were desirable traits?

Content is merely that which takes up space. It is value neutral at best. My attic and basement are full of content, but I doubt if anybody would be interested in my providing it to them.

I would prefer that creative people promote themselves as providers of substance. It is a much more salient word. It implies heft. It implies value.

On the website of graphic designer Kurt Pakan, www.pakan.net, of which I am a contributor, we describe what we do this way:

We are, at heart, makers of creative substance. Not merely content, but ideas.

Isn’t that what people are looking for from the creative community? To me, that’s a far more promising descriptor than I provide content.

Creator of substance may not score as well right now on a google search as content provider. But if more creative people began to think of and define themselves as such, it would gain traction. I believe it is far more appealing that content provider.

Give it a try and, when people seek you out, you can wow them with your substantive creativity. Prove to them that you are eons ahead of the mere providers.

~ written by Charles P. Myers, Copywriter at Large

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Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. This idea sounds counter to everything you’ve ever been told or shown. By slowing down, I’m not talking about productive time elongated to suit some creative fancy as the solution. By slowing down, I mean developing a larger mental picture of your business — why it was started and where it is going.

Simply put, by slowing down enough to remember the really good and perhaps altruistic motives attached to your particular business or industry, a communications professional can create an optimistic and personal way to talk about your company.

Such a professional can help your company articulate its brand promise with clarity and brevity. This can then be used as a unifying point for creative development. This is where the storytelling begins.

At PAKAN, we recommend you slow down enough to have a workshop with all key leaders in your company. It creates an opportunity to really hash out a clear direction. This is invaluable to content and brand development.

Slowing down at the front end minimizes short-term, reactive thinking. It allows us to build a solid and more pervasive brand foundation which will work for the web, mobile, social, print, outdoor, or wherever your customers are. This will help you build a solid, long term, recognizable brand. After we are clear on the big brand issues, you will see how communications can then speed up.

We encourage you to resist the idea that you don’t have time to really think about your brand/business position, and that you’ll do it later. That doesn’t make much sense.

How many times do you get to make a big first impression?

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