The FCB Grid: What It Is and How It Works
If you’ve only used keywords to understand how to market your product, you’re not tapping its potential. Lists of keywords tell us what people want. They don’t tell us why. Boredom, fatigue, illness and hunger ... people buy for a reason. Maybe you think of these ideas willy nilly as you type, but how can you engineer them without fail? With the FCB Grid. Also called the Vaughn Grid, it’s a tool that was designed by the Senior Vice President of Foote, Cone and Belding way back in 1980. Since then FCB has grown to a more than $9 billion dollar company with clients like Cox Communications, Seaworld, AmTrak and Air New Zealand; they’re responsible for the Lord of the Rings on-board air safety video, and the Bilbo Baggins luggage carousel. To understand the FCB grid, I spoke with creative director Bruce Bendinger, who is the author of the Copy Workshop Workbook, and who has introduced concepts to students of copywriting and marketing the world over.