Peter GriffinTo steal a phrase from Family Guy, “You know what really grinds my gears?,” the paragraphs account service people put on creative briefs to a) try and beef up the document and to b) try to provide the creative team with more information about who they are trying to target. They, unfortunately, only accomplish the former.

For example:

“Sally is a 29-55 year old home maker with 3 kids and a loving husband. During the Christmas season, she is busy buying gifts, preparing the home for entertaining guests and cooking. After Christmas is over, she takes a break from all of the hubub of and escapes to the malls where she scoops up some cheap boxing week sales. She cherishes and looks forward to these outings and they are what keep her going during the holidays.”

These useless paragraphs are whipped up off on a whim by account management personnel more fixated on getting it done than getting it done right. It’s unfortunate as that part of the brief can be so very important if done well.

Instead of focusing on all the blah details of some made up woman’s life, why not get into her motivations for her actions? What is it that will convince her to go to your store vs. her usual one once she sees the ad? How will her life be made easier by giving you her money?

The bottom line: Tell me something about this target market that will help me. Not just what you came up with sans-research.