In December 2016, Anko Reijnders, a Dutch communication expert living in Hungary for over two decades visited SZTE Marketing Club and held an inspiring lecture about creativity. He shared his thoughts on the topic drawing on his huge practical experience in the advertising industry (working at Leo Burnett, Ogilvy & Mather and Saatchi & Saatchi). In the first few minutes he enchanted us with his sense of humour,making a great start for his speech about creativity.

“What should you possessas a marketing expert?” started Anko his presentation. First, you need creative intelligence, which leads your brain to make appropriate decisions.As he said,“If you are talking about creative intelligence, you also should start with the following questions: who, what, where, when, how and why? If you already have the answers for these questions in your mind, then you can speak intelligently about something.”

Possessing typical characteristics of artists can also contribute to become a successful expert. “Let’s see what these characteristics are: passion, enthusiasm, courage and influencing people.”.If you can influence people and also make things happen,you are probably good in working as an artist and/or marketing person. This raises the question: “Can your workbe art? Do you want to make things happen? Do you want to influence people with your work? Do you see your work as a piece of passion?”asked Anko from the audience. Basically, work is a piece of art, so that is why CEOs all around the world are looking for creative forces that will shape the future. In recent centuries, blue collar workers have lost their jobs due to increasing industrialization; nowadays, we perceive that white collar workers also lose their work if they are not creative enough.

Although Philip Kotler was arguing for the importance of McCarthy’s 4P;nowadays, its significance is decreasing.The idea of the 4P was created in the late 1960s, and since then the world and the field of marketing have changed a lot.Marketing has become much more relationship-oriented and focuses more on engaging customers emotionally. The role of the brain is important not only from the medical perspective but also from marketing aspects, sincethe brain is the source of creativity and it enablespeople to discover new things day by day. “But which side of your brain is responsiblefor creativity?”our guest raised the question.”While the left part of your brain cares about you, your things, and thepast and is responsible for the to-do list, the right part of your brain leads your creativity.But, if you want to attract and engage people at your company, you have to use different rules for influencing them.”

“If we want to define somehow the meaning of creativity, I would suggest the following: creativity is all about to challenge (C), to randomise (R), to explore (E), to appraise (A), to test (T) and to evaluate (E)”.When it comes to randomisation, you have to think about the “what if questions”, which makes you different from others. A high proportion of the populationis not able to randomise, while creative people are. During randomisation, you have to apply presumptions and certain conditions that let you trigger new ideas. This also helps you to become a better marketing expert and get out of your comfort zone. If you can leave your comfort zone, you will beeffective in generating creative thoughts as well.A high proportion of the population cannot leave their comfort zones, which hinders creativity.

“Besides creativity, emotional intelligence also plays an important role in marketing. But what does emotional intelligence really mean?”Emotional intelligence is about having a heart to love things, building relationships and in marketing: being a friend of your customer.Its importance liesin increasing today’s market-driven economy.