In the midst of channel surfing, I ran across a Barry Manilow interview on PBS' Tavis Smiley show last week. I stopped to hear their discussion about the creative process.

Who knew Barry was an old ad guy? I didn't. He wrote the jingles for State Farm ("Like A Good Neighbor) and Band-Aid ("Stuck On Band-Aid") and cashed in a whopping $500 paycheck each time. (Who says you can't make a good living doing this stuff?)

What you don't see in this clip is Barry talking about arranging his song "I Made It Through The Rain" for a performer on American Idol. He asked the singer who was she singing to? She responded "to the audience." It wasn't the answer he was looking for. He wanted to know if she sang to one person, who would that be?

"God," she answered. That lead to a completely different musical arrangement and the singer got a valuable lesson on reaching your audience.

That insight is applicable to our work and talking to your audience. Don't just work with "young adults 18-24" or something as homogeneous as "African American" on the creative briefs. Where's the deeper insight? Develop a look and voice that makes the audience feel as if you are talking to them specifically, even though you are trying to connect with thousands more. It's better to use the right lure and catch the right fish, rather than just casting a net blindly and sorting through the catch, hoping you caught what you're hunting. A lot of marketing companies claim to be very targeted in their work. So how do you explain the off-the-mark executions?

To get that right voice and look, a simpler start begins with really listening to your target audience. They will tell you how they like to be talked to. And don't guess at what they want. That leads to stereotyping and being condescending – basically, turning off your audience.

The whole Tavis/Barry talk on creativity and the music industry was insightful. So if you can spare 30 minutes, watch the interview here. (No one will catch you viewing a "Copacabana" sing-a-long, but I'm sure you know more Manilow songs than you are willing to admit.)