Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

One thing we’ve all had friendly disagreements about is what, exactly, a cloud looks like. I say it’s a puppy crouched down to play, you say it’s a scorpion ready to strike (which says a lot about our personalities, by the way). Things in the sky are like nature’s Rorschach ink blots—a group of stars look like a crab or a bear, or at least did to someone at some point. So what do you make of this?

Maybe you see a downward-looking Easter Island head, or a stylized outline of New England, or an unfortunate Tetris piece. But probably you didn’t see this:

The reason Thomas Lamadieu’s work caught my attention is not because it’s a playful use of negative space. Rather, I’m intrigued by how a set of given parameters (in the physical sense), became the foundation for something so wildly different and interesting. It’s not that there’s obviously a woman sitting in that space (as with the arrow in the FedEx logo), but it does make sense how one grew into it, imaginatively.

We’ve been talking about structure around the office lately, and how to make it work for rather than confine us. Deciding that a certain amount of time will be devoted to creative endeavors is a great idea, but we’ve noticed that often our internal projects get brushed aside because they’re not “urgent,” and so get put on the backburner for a while. It turns out that a while can easily turn into forever, as we’ve all discovered at various points when we take a look back and see the detritus of unwritten stories, unplanted gardens, DIY projects that never get off the ground, blogs left to die—the list goes sadly on.

Perhaps a solution to this common quandary is to install some hemmed in space into the week and just go for it. Dig into those projects (and only those projects) during that time period, which is to be considered inviolate. We’re going to try it out and see how it goes. In the mean time, here’s once more sky drawing for the road. I don’t know about you, but what I see when I look at that space now is an opportunity to expand.

It’s March, and we’re all a little mad, of course, but it’s not the NCAA kind of brackets I mean here (although, that said, Harvard?!). The brackets I want to draw attention to are the ones we use, often without knowing, to confine our perception and judgment. These brackets can spell trouble for the creative and critical processes we rely on both in work and play. (In the instance above, we bracket the boxes labeled A and B within their immediate surroundings, and usually fail to see and believe that they are, in fact, the exact same shade of gray.)

If you’re ever tasked with evaluating a number of things (pitches, positionings, creative concepts, and the like) you probably assume that you keep an open mind throughout the process and maintain a pretty even hand. Well, a recent study shows that’s probably not the case (sorry!). When researchers evaluated data on decisions made in over 9,000 business school interviews, they found that judgments were affected not so much by who came directly before, as we might expect, but on the overall strength of the entire day, which is, of course, completely irrelevant.

A lot of factors go into how we evaluate ideas and people, and many of them are external to the ideas and people themselves—that’s just life. But imagine someone is an absolute star in the making, but interviews last on a day full of qualified-to-good candidates. What happens? According to this study, our plucky up and comer will likely get scored low simply because of the mental brackets placed around that group of candidates. Interviewers, for a number of possible reasons, are reluctant to give high marks after giving several others high marks (or conversely, reverse all of the above, and a sub-par candidate could be recommended because of a number of preceding low marks). Now, replace “candidate” with anything you’re in charge of making a call on.

Often at fault in these situations is the gambler’s false belief in the law of small numbers, otherwise known as, “they can’t all be heads.” We tend to be suspicious of streaks in what we suppose to be a random series of events—we notice and question it when a coin lands head side up 15 times in a row. By the same token, if we read three strong proposals in a row, we might “correct” for our judgment and double down on the next one, which, when we see it for what it is, is a mistake in judgment.

Surely this is beginning to ring true, at least to some extent. If you’re not prepared to admit that you’ve probably misjudged some things in your professional life, let’s lower the stakes and say it’s just wine on the docket. Have you ever been to a tasting where you liked every single wine? Probably not. And yet, it’s entirely possible to like five wines in a row, without having low standards or a pathetic palette. We just assume a certain ordering of quality will emerge in any set of people, objects, or ideas.

Why should we care about this? Because many decisions we make are folded into arbitrary subsets created by the confines of a day, a meeting, or an attention span.  If we bring these brackets with us to new ideas or viewpoints, we can easily miss out on something good, or even revolutionary. This is not to say we can’t allow experience to inform decisions, but we should be open to the possibility that a streak of seemingly great ideas might really be great. In the end, some brackets are determined for us, but other times, we can, and should, expand them as broadly as possible.

Also, happy March Madness to you!

photo credit: Steve Rhodes

We’re big on finding insights in unexpected places, so when Explore posted this the other day, I took note. Follow the link and you’ll find a gem: David Foster Wallace’s English 102 syllabus from Fall 1994, a course he taught at Illinois State University (more detail here). He sets up the class as a deep dive into literary analysis–deeper (and bolder!) than usual because he assigns a wholly different set of books than might be expected.

Rather than have his students go through the “usual” lit crit process with classically “literary” works, Wallace assigns fiction with more commercial appeal. Stephen King’s Carrie, for example, and The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. But in the syllabus, our dearly departed DFW warns students against taking his list of popular fiction as a sign that the course will be easy. As they would soon find out, by having them engage with an unorthodox set of texts, Wallace is asking them to stretch and refine and practice their normal modes of thinking. And in doing so, he sets his students up to mine new insights and hone their method.

Around here, it seems that when our way of work is put to the test under weird circumstances, we’re often able to see its full potential that much more clearly. What are you doing to challenge your process on a regular basis?

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Gwen McCarter, Strategist

The PARAGRAPH Project is a marketing research and strategy firm based in Durham, NC. We are, at times, a strange brew. But this is what works for us — and inevitably, it works for our clients. The types of people who work at PARAGRAPH are strategists, anthropologists, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, negotiators, students and builders. Herein lies our value.We are able to look at problems from many different perspectives and apply this diverse point of view to solutions for our clients. After all, if we conduct the same research in the same ways as our competitors, what advantage do we gain? By using old research methodologies in new ways and inventing new methodologies unique to each client’s research objectives, we quickly explore more territory to find insights often overlooked. We believe creativity is the missing link between useful information and actionable inspiration.

I admit, the first time I heard Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop” (featuring Wanz and some explicit language) I was charmed—it’s just so catchy and silly. A few weeks later when I heard it on a local hip hop station, I got to thinking a little more. Not about the mixed reviews or questions of authenticity it’s raised, but about the issue at the heart of the fairly ridiculous song and video: can conspicuous conservation overtake consumption and become the new cool?

Of course conservation is not a new idea in this country: Teddy Roosevelt put it squarely on the national agenda, while Jimmy Carter called the American energy policy a “moral and spiritual crisis” all the way back in 1979. So why have we continued on this prodigal path for so long, and what has all this got to do with a goofy hip-hop song? Well, a lot.

The prescience of great leaders is transcendent and powerful. But the consumer decisions made constantly, by everyone, are what will ultimately change things. Fortunately people know this already; pledging to buy nothing new for a year is becoming not-uncommon, while others take it in the other direction, and throw less than one bag of garbage away in a year. For our part, PARAGRAPH’s office is a tiny specimen of sustainability, with its LEED-Platinum certification.

This is great, wonderful even, but it’s still not particularly cool. While I would hardly consider myself the Arbiter of Things Cool, I’d say Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are in the ballpark. I don’t mean cool like “that’s cool, you’re doing a Fulbright in Gabon,” or “I think solar panels look cool!” I mean cool to middle and high school kids who have no time for a thing that’s going to draw negative attention, or to people who have zero interest in sizing up their carbon footprint.

So perhaps by way of humor and send-up of champagne-Rolex-private-jet cultural aspirations, conspicuous conservation can become less ironic hipster and more noticeably stylish and cosmopolitan.

Ultimately it’s a matter of changing perspectives and values. As these guys say: One man’s trash is another man’s come up.

I was nine years old when Kurt Cobain committed suicide, and while Nevermind was one of the first CDs I purchased for my teenaged self, it’s because of Nirvana’s roots that I’ve stayed interested. Their sound is their sound and it turned the world upside-down, but I like their music for the same reason that I went to Fugazi shows in high school and why I find myself re-watching SLC Punk at least once a year: They captured the raw sentiment of a particular time and place in a genuine way.

What I find intriguing about the recording of In Utero is the fact that the album was an attempt to get back to the punk ethic that fueled Nirvana before Nevermind catapulted them into pop stardom. In Utero by Gillian G. Gaar is a pocket-sized volume that’s part of the larger “33 1/3″ series, which offers analysis for the rock geek on some of the albums that have continued to captivate long after their initial release, and it touches on just that subject.

The story told by this little book is a testament to the power of tapping into what’s already out there–what’s already bubbling up in one subculture or another and what could, at some point, hold mainstream appeal. When Nirvana first appeared on the Seattle scene, they served as a natural leader for an alienated generation just waiting for a voice to get behind. It wasn’t a desire for commercial success but the need for self-expression that made their music and its intent resonate so deeply with people’s moods and contribute to what could already be felt in the air.

Some of the most successful, lasting, iconic brands have grown into authentic champions of a movement in much the same way, articulating what people are feeling but haven’t yet found the means to express. What do you think will be the next group to need a rallying cry?

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Gwen McCarter, Strategist

The PARAGRAPH Project is a marketing research and strategy firm based in Durham, NC. We are, at times, a strange brew. But this is what works for us — and inevitably, it works for our clients. The types of people who work at PARAGRAPH are strategists, anthropologists, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, negotiators, students and builders. Herein lies our value.We are able to look at problems from many different perspectives and apply this diverse point of view to solutions for our clients. After all, if we conduct the same research in the same ways as our competitors, what advantage do we gain? By using old research methodologies in new ways and inventing new methodologies unique to each client’s research objectives, we quickly explore more territory to find insights often overlooked. We believe creativity is the missing link between useful information and actionable inspiration.

Lately, there’s been nothing short of hyperbole surrounding a few notions of Michael Jordan. He’s turning 50. OK! He’s being compared to Lebron James (and vice-versa). OK! I see this as a result of a slow news cycle — I mean, football season is over. I get it. But examining the vignettes associated with MJ’s birthday this past weekend, I was able to glean a point of inspiration that was perhaps less obvious than a career of clutch performances. Or was it?

Once upon a time, Jordan was king of basketball and the world was his oyster. The Chicago Bulls had just completed a three-peat. Nike was cranking out Air Jordans (and had been for some time), selling them all over the world to a culture of hypebeasts. The merchandising of Jordan was unprecedented and would forever reshape the world of sports marketing.

And then Michael retired. We know now that he came back (for another three-peat!), but at the time it was unexpected and almost unbelievable that he would walk away, and he made it sound so convincing. For many, it was time to shelve a multitude of basketball memories alongside ten versions of the Air Jordan and wait for the next big thing. But that was before the team behind Air Jordan had a say in things.

Photo courtesy of Nike

 ”I started designing the Air Jordan XI during Michael’s first retirement — I kept saying he would un-retire. People at Nike gave me a hard time, so I wanted to show those assholes that we could make the best Jordans ever. The XI was the first basketball shoe to have a carbon-fiber plate in the sole and patent leather. By the time I showed Michael, he’d started playing again.”

~ Tinker Hatfield

And so it began. Again and again. Hatfield and his design team worked on engineering a shoe they had every reason to believe might never be produced. And per Tinker’s quote, they didn’t aim low. They aimed to create the best that had ever been designed. Many still argue that the XI is one of the most pivotal Air Jordan designs in the line’s illustrious history.

So instead of hanging it up, the designers stuck to their guns and innovated their way to a new solution worthy of production. And as it turns out, it was also worthy of un-retiring. Years later we see multiple athletes now signed to the Jumpman line with shoes and all sorts of gear being churned out for the inner athlete in all of us. One could argue a lifetime of clutch performances, or designs, has risen from the dust of Jordan’s first retirement.

Some compelling stats about the seemingly “doomed” Air Jordan:

+ According to UBS, Jordan Brand sales increased 89% year over year in 2012
+ The Jordan brand controlled 58% of all basketball shoes sold in the US in 2012
+ LeBron James is the top-seller among current players with shoe deals — Jordan still outsells him 6 to 1

Looking at this story of design and gumption, one might assume sticking to one’s guns can often pay off ridiculously well. That’s true. But it’s duly noted that it doesn’t always work out so well — see any list of other athletes who received shoe contracts that lost money for the labels. It would also seem that we never know where new opportunities will surface. All of this seems to point to instinct. Trust yourself. Trust your vision. At its origin, the allure of  the Jordan brand was all about the shoes. In the end, it became a full line of unexpected offerings, a full-fledged brand. Take a look at espn.com from earlier this week.

They call it XX8. So instead of poking holes in the process, I’m happy to imagine the scene when the team said to one another, “It’s time to fly.”

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  Dave Alsobrooks, Partner

The PARAGRAPH Project is a marketing research and strategy firm based in Durham, NC. We are, at times, a strange brew. But this is what works for us — and inevitably, it works for our clients. The types of people who work at PARAGRAPH are strategists, anthropologists, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, negotiators, students and builders. Herein lies our value. We are able to look at problems from many different perspectives and apply this diverse point of view to solutions for our clients. After all, if we conduct the same research in the same ways as our competitors, what advantage do we gain? By using old research methodologies in new ways and inventing new methodologies unique to each client’s research objectives, we quickly explore more territory to find insights often overlooked. We believe creativity is the missing link between useful information and actionable inspiration.

Data Romance is a band I recently came across from Vancouver, BC in Canada. It is not an innovative and headstrong market research and strategy firm based in Durham, NC. That’s OK. If I had to pick a city other than Durham, perhaps Vancouver would be it, if for nothing other than Stanley Park and CinCin. But if I had to work somewhere else, I’d be hard-pressed to choose being in a band. I like my routine. My guess is it might be more fun to join Data Romance for a tour than to sort a spreadsheet. I’m sorry. That wasn’t a guess.

Data Romance, the band, just released an album today. Initially, I was enamored by the concept of “data romance” as a musical entity. What could this mean? Should I be interested? More specifically, their cryptic name is paired with a grayscale Venn diagram on the album cover. Officially interested. As it turns out, I like their music, too. They’re a The XX with a DJ. Or maybe Björk as a consultant. And that’s to say I like them, so there’s no disrespect in this amateurish review. I encourage you to check them out, starting with today’s release.

Where am I going with this? Even though I don’t live out every day sifting and sorting plumes of data, it’s possible that I (and perhaps you) are both able to have more of a romance with it. For me, this is a mindset. Embracing data and the insights found within is a seductive craft for all of us. But too often we just want the insight, and not the data. To be honest, we should probably hold ourselves accountable to decipher data on our own terms. It’s our point of view that people are waiting to hear. A romancing of this process, of this data, can help us overachieve on a regular basis.

It’s clear that data will be how you, I and everyone else knows what to do with ourselves in the future, both near and far term. Yes, we should already be analyzing data to understand our customers and their behaviors. And, of course, most of us are. But we don’t often frame it (data) in terms of being romantic. At least I haven’t yet approached it in such a way. Data is time-consuming and cumbersome. It’s my hope this perception might change.

Maybe, if we (data and you and I) were to strike up a romance, it would all change. Can you imagine a place where data romance is a two-way street? I suppose it could work that way — I love data, and subsequently, data starts to love me back.

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  Dave Alsobrooks, Partner

The PARAGRAPH Project is a marketing research and strategy firm based in Durham, NC. We are, at times, a strange brew. But this is what works for us — and inevitably, it works for our clients. The types of people who work at PARAGRAPH are strategists, anthropologists, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, negotiators, students and builders. Herein lies our value. We are able to look at problems from many different perspectives and apply this diverse point of view to solutions for our clients. After all, if we conduct the same research in the same ways as our competitors, what advantage do we gain? By using old research methodologies in new ways and inventing new methodologies unique to each client’s research objectives, we quickly explore more territory to find insights often overlooked. We believe creativity is the missing link between useful information and actionable inspiration.

Many of us love how-to guides. Whether it’s how to have a more productive work environment, be more creative, or be more decisive, these tips can give us a little jolt of can-do spirit when the going gets tough. We at PARAGRAPH even produce pieces in this vein ourselves if the inspiration strikes us. (See here and here for some infographic-y examples.)

Lately, though, it seems that the media landscape I encounter on a regular basis has become saturated with advice, so much so that it’s become a cottage industry. And the time may have come when we should probably think about how much we’re talking as opposed to how much we’re doing.

The rub comes when we spend proportionately more time thinking about improving the way we as individuals work than we spend actually “doing things.” I’m no stranger to the seductive power of yet another helpful discussion on what sort of ambient noise I want while working or how long I should try to focus on knocking something out. But I do draw the line somewhere. (My personal favorite is the sort of guide that claims to help avoid procrastination, yet whose direct effect is to lead us to procrastinate further. Like this fantastic New Yorker piece that I got sucked into for hours, days.) For people like me who usually have twenty things floating through our minds at any given time, there is the very real danger of this how-to addiction fueling a self-perpetuating cycle of distraction. (Maybe I need to start carrying the torch of single-tasking.)

To atone for my own tendency to get sidetracked, and hopefully to inspire others to act in the ways I aspire to do, I’m offering this worksheet. Although it’s intended as a prompt to figure out which projects are worth pursuing, it’s also a means to remove mental barriers. I personally find that all my excuses for procrastination are ripped away when a project’s nuts and bolts (and its appeal — or lack thereof) are staring me in the face.

Download below, print yourself a copy, and dig it out the next time you need that extra nudge to dive into something. Probably more importantly, use it to think through whether a given opportunity is really something you want to devote yourself to. After all, if it’s more doing that I’m advocating, it had better be the important things that we decide to do.

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Gwen McCarter, Strategist

The PARAGRAPH Project is a marketing research and strategy firm based in Durham, NC. We are, at times, a strange brew. But this is what works for us — and inevitably, it works for our clients. The types of people who work at PARAGRAPH are strategists, anthropologists, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, negotiators, students and builders. Herein lies our value.We are able to look at problems from many different perspectives and apply this diverse point of view to solutions for our clients. After all, if we conduct the same research in the same ways as our competitors, what advantage do we gain? By using old research methodologies in new ways and inventing new methodologies unique to each client’s research objectives, we quickly explore more territory to find insights often overlooked. We believe creativity is the missing link between useful information and actionable inspiration.

Just the other day, Durham moved up in the ranks of Forbes’ best cities for business. We jumped 17 spots, up to no. 14 this year from no. 31 in 2011 (look here and here). For those of us who have lived and worked here for some time, this news may come as no surprise. And here at PARAGRAPH, we’ve talked previously about why our fair city has become such a draw for creative, smart, forward-thinking minds.

But there’s one problem with rankings of this sort: While they give our city well-deserved attention, they paint only part of the picture. Sure, these accolades cite all the on-paper, measurable reasons why you (yes, you!) should bring your life and livelihood to Durham. Lower costs of living and of doing business, higher rates of job growth, more educational resources–the stars are all aligned. But Forbes fails to capture what living and breathing and thinking and producing in a place like Durham actually means on the ground, how those shreds of context end up influencing not only the way we grow our business but also our ability to generate good ideas.

Some may wonder what North Carolina has that can compete with the always-humming atmosphere of big cities like New York. In that sort of setting, direct stimuli seem to be at your fingertips every minute of every hour of every day, and (on the face of it, anyway) there appears to be little need to worry about where your next idea will come from. It’s already out there, waiting to be encountered on an afternoon walk across the Williamsburg Bridge.

But what matters most isn’t the sheer volume of stuff going on around us or the collective effervescence that a cityscape can foster. What seems to really count is what you (yes, you!) are able to extract from a space. The bustle of urban life may promise unrelenting inspiration, but unless you’re already switched on, that raw content can go to waste. At the same time, the relative quiet of small-town life can feel absolutely stifling, but there’s a catalyst around every corner if you’re willing to keep your eyes open.

In short, there’s potential for doing good, creative work wherever you live. More than the latent potential of any one location, I’m convinced it’s a matter of how you choose to interact with your surroundings.

It took me up until three years ago, when I moved to Durham, to start believing that.  Even though muses can come in both beautiful and ugly packages, I always thought the latter worked best, and I figured the disarmingly twisted face of the big city was the only place to find things that would spur me to work. I had no doubt that momentous work and personalities did in fact emerge from perfectly pleasant settings where utter triumph and defeat seem to occur rarely if at all. But, so I thought, why put your neck on the line unless there’s something wrong with the status quo that you just can’t stomach? Said otherwise, I thought there had to be something at stake. There needed to be something in my face that left me with no choice but to do, create, act, change. Without a counterpoint, there could be no point.

That last sentiment is something I still agree with wholeheartedly. It’s just that I no longer think there’s one mecca out there where everyone who’s doing anything of importance should be.

I’d be surprised if I’m towing this line all by myself. In our attempts to live full-time in a place of urgency and creative wildfire, many of us keep so busy that we work ourselves into a state of distracted pseudo-productivity, so overstimulated and mentally fragmented that we aren’t able to cobble together anything worthy of an audience. Or, we try to carve out the down-time and white space that will help us bounce back fresh from the frantic nature of the lives we feel compelled to lead. As with anything else, there needs to be balance, but that’s easier said than done. For me personally, the pendulum will always swing back and forth between city and country. Between my three-year-old self running around shirtless in the expansive backyard of our semi-rural Florida home to the three years I spent tracing the streets of Boston, feeling intoxicated just from the buzz of the city around me. From one extreme to the other, I need to switch gears every now and then to stay sane and feel renewed.

But by some stroke of luck, Durham has also turned out to be a place where I can strike that balance without having to run haphazardly over the world. It’s not very often that I feel so anxious that I have to get away for a change of scenery. Here, I’m not crippled by a constant bombardment of tragedy. At the same time, this is not a picture-perfect place where no battles are won or lost, where nothing is at stake. This is a place where real people grapple with real issues, and those people inspire everyone who comes into contact with them.

Right now, at least, the slower-paced life I have in Durham lets me get into a rhythm of work that I can sustain.

Which locale works best for you?

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Gwen McCarter, Strategist

The PARAGRAPH Project is a marketing research and strategy firm based in Durham, NC. We are, at times, a strange brew. But this is what works for us — and inevitably, it works for our clients. The types of people who work at PARAGRAPH are strategists, anthropologists, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, negotiators, students and builders. Herein lies our value.We are able to look at problems from many different perspectives and apply this diverse point of view to solutions for our clients. After all, if we conduct the same research in the same ways as our competitors, what advantage do we gain? By using old research methodologies in new ways and inventing new methodologies unique to each client’s research objectives, we quickly explore more territory to find insights often overlooked. We believe creativity is the missing link between useful information and actionable inspiration.

In my time, I’ve always enjoyed making things. When there’s an idea or inspiration in mind, it’s hard to leave it there. Without making them, ideas never make it to the real world. A few years back I found myself landing in the idea business, and everything changed. Or so I thought.

At The PARAGRAPH Project, we help all sorts of clients from retailers to manufacturers to advertising agencies by bringing them good ideas. We do our homework to know a client’s business and understand their problems as best we can and then turn our knowledge into ideas. That could be a social media strategy or a brand positioning or a creative brief. But in the end, they’re just ideas. We don’t hammer the nails. But if you’ll recall, I like hammering the nails! And that’s OK. What I’ve come to realize is that artifacts are the currency of the idea business.

Without artifacts, no one knows how much effort went into crafting a positioning
of the 3 most perfect words. Ever.

Without a physical representation of an idea, no one recalls the tingly inspiration
that shot through the room during the big reveal.

Without something to hold onto, understanding is as shallow as the thoroughness
of your notes.

I recently heard an example of this idea in action. The Carolina Panthers are an NFL franchise based in Charlotte, NC. I grew up playing football and I lived near the Queen City, so I admit I’m a fan. Sam Mills was an immensely popular player for the Panthers and eventually became a coach for the organization. He was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in his early forties. During the Panthers’ lone run to a Super Bowl and his own personal battle, he gave an inspirational speech imploring his teammates to “Keep Pounding.” It became a battle cry for the organization and was solidified as an unofficial team slogan as Mills and Mark Fields, another Panther player faced a similar battle at the same time.

Fast forward to 2012 and Nike has taken over the production of uniforms for the NFL. In a unique gesture, they are inscribing the inside of all Carolina jersey collars with the phrase, “Keep Pounding.” Every time a player puts on his jersey, the idea, the inspiration and the legacy of Mill’s speech will be brought to life all over again. In a very commercialized environment, dripping with endorsements and contracts beyond the imagination of most of us, the inscription serves as an inspiring artifact that captures and perpetuates a powerful concept.

Those of us in the idea business need artifacts to do our good work justice. And they should be as beautiful, inspiring and (of course) strategic as any of the ad campaigns they later spawn. An idea is a beautiful thing. And a terrible thing to be wasting away in the ether of a random conference room. Consider translating your ideas into more than voiceovers or even slides in a conventional deck. They’re your ideas, so you most likely have a vision of what they look like, right? And a desire to see them as something more than a PowerPoint slide, right? Your clients will appreciate the specialness of deliverables that do more to inspire and energize their teams. And they’ll also be even happier to sign the check that’s coming your way.

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Examples of artifacts we’ve created to capture our research and our ideas.

Not every creative brief involves assembly. But sometimes it can help jumpstart the creative process. This antique physician’s bag was a creative brief helping inspire a design firm in the creation of  a website and identity collateral for a clinical research organization.

A series of magazine covers we created captured the diversity and specific thoughts of a panel of women bloggers to help a retailer develop a year-long strategy for engaging customers.

We are all unique. To bring different targets to life for a client, we captured our ethnographies in “personal geographies” that illustrated how these people navigated their own world of health, nutrition and fitness.

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  Dave Alsobrooks, Partner

The PARAGRAPH Project is a marketing research and strategy firm based in Durham, NC. We are, at times, a strange brew. But this is what works for us — and inevitably, it works for our clients. The types of people who work at PARAGRAPH are strategists, anthropologists, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, negotiators, students and builders. Herein lies our value. We are able to look at problems from many different perspectives and apply this diverse point of view to solutions for our clients. After all, if we conduct the same research in the same ways as our competitors, what advantage do we gain? By using old research methodologies in new ways and inventing new methodologies unique to each client’s research objectives, we quickly explore more territory to find insights often overlooked. We believe creativity is the missing link between useful information and actionable inspiration.