Ah Friday has arrived. Breathe it in everyone. Can you smell the weekend on the horizon? At my place it smells a bit like fresh dirt and compost as we are beginning the season’s gardening, but I can live with that and more importantly my tomatoes can thrive with that. So before we dive into all that must be cleared away before the end of the day, let us start with a morning writing prompt. Are you ready? Thought so, You had that ready look on your face. Let’s go then!
I’m not sure about the situation. But I like Frank. He seems like he is up to something. A very big corporate something. No clue what, but I like him and that is a great way to end a week of prompts.
Friday, May 6th: Which one did the public respond to more?
“Which one did the public respond to more?” He asked. The marketing team bowed their heads as though in prayer as they thumbed through the black binders they each carried. Some of the marketing team were male, some female. Some had been with the firm a while and some were fresh from talking their degrees, but they all moved as one singular organism.
Frank found it disconcerting. He always thought of marketing as creative types but if the office had any artists they were well and truly hidden away. He was certain there were some, he had seen the art they created. But those people were never sent to him. The marketing team was not creative. They would never dare to have an independent thought. They would never consent to to anything that did not ride the median.
As he watched them flip pages and mutter among themselves in what seemed like their own private language, he was certain that in the end they would come up with something that avoided any daring changes and rode a safe middle ground.
As one they looked up. The binders remained open. “The public seemed to prefer option C,” the head of their marketing tribe informed him. There was a faint frown of disapproval.
“Seemed?” Frank said, pouncing on the possible dissention.
“Option C came out two points ahead of Option A,” He was told. “With the margin pf error factored in there is little to distinguish between them.”
“Yet you decided Option C was the preference.”
“Yes,” the head man nodded and all of his cohorts joined in.
“I see,” Frank said. And he did see. Option C was a sfe bet. It was doing what they had always done before. There was no change in Option C. He was unsurprised they chose it. He was however quite surprised that Option A came in such a close second. It was a much more radical approach, one he suggested in fact. He expected there to be a few point added to it in trials that he could attempt to use to coerce the rest of the board into allowing further research. Option A was the course he felt would steer the company safely into the waters of the next generation.
He felt a spurt of vindication but he kept it buried deep inside. “You have a copy of the break downs?” he asked.
The head man nodded and tapped his binder. Frank held out his hand. The Marketing Chief blinked in surprise. After a second of thought he closed his binder and slid it across the table. It only moved half way and Frank reached out to bring the binder the rest of the way to him. He settled back in his chair. As he opened the binder and began to scan the pages, he darted a glance at the assembled team. The head marketer looked bereft without his binder.
His fingers were clasped in front of him on the desk and they kept tightening and releasing convulsively. His eyes stayed on the binder as though worried for its safety in Franks hands. Frank tried to show great care as he read down the page and slowly turned it. He studied the facts and figures, He looked at the charts and by the time he reached the end of the binder he had a throughout picture of the testing methods.
“I think we should hedge our bets,” Frank said. There was a collective release. Frank smiled. “Split the team in two and have half focus on Option C and Half on Option A. Then we will run them past a second focus group.”
Ten til Midnight 