Consider It Solved

Read the campaign story

Emerson introduced Consider It Solved in 2002 through DDB Chicago. Contemporary coverage describes a unified corporate presence for independently marketed businesses, following an earlier identity initiative.

Business publications and airport placements supported the customer-problem proposition. These facts establish communication intent, not universal problem-solving capability or advertising-caused growth. Related divisional expressions are grouped once. The distinction matters: a recognisable corporate voice can make an offer easier to approach without demonstrating that the underlying service has changed.

Editorial interpretation: the audience’s problem can be a more useful organising principle than an internal company chart. A buyer may know what needs to improve without knowing which division sells the relevant component. A shared proposition can reduce that orientation burden. However, the promise becomes credible only when the next interaction helps the person reach appropriate expertise rather than presenting the same organisational complexity under a simpler headline.

Editorial interpretation: reassurance can be powerful in a technical category, but an absolute-sounding phrase deserves careful follow-through. The communication should make it easy to distinguish confidence in a process from a guaranteed result. An adaptation can show how a team investigates, scopes and responds to a problem without implying that every request will be solvable. The operational journey after the advertisement is therefore part of the strategy, not a separate administrative detail.

Organise the first choice around the customer’s task

Map the questions a prospective customer brings before deciding how to describe the portfolio. Use their language to create a small number of routes, then connect each route with the appropriate team or information. Do not merely rename departments with friendlier labels. The test is whether someone unfamiliar with the company can identify where to begin without already understanding the internal structure or technical product taxonomy.

Make reassurance procedural rather than limitless

Explain what the organisation will do next: assess the request, clarify requirements or identify a suitable specialist. These are bounded commitments that can support confidence without guaranteeing the final outcome. Avoid letting the broad brand line override important exclusions or safety requirements. A useful promise reduces uncertainty about the process while remaining honest about what cannot be known before the problem has been properly investigated.

Measure the handoff as well as the message

Track whether the campaign sends people to the right explanation or team, not only whether they recall the corporate name. A unified identity can create additional confusion if the routing behind it remains fragmented. Review misdirected enquiries and repeated questions as evidence about the communication. This connects creative evaluation with the practical work required to make a broad portfolio feel easier to use. Review the handoff with the receiving team, because a clearer public invitation can expose gaps that the campaign team cannot fix through wording alone. Assign ownership of those gaps before inviting more enquiries.

A small test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: prototype a problem-led information page for a fictional facilities-support directory, comparing it with a conventional list of departments.

Measure correct routing, time to find relevant information and assumptions about guaranteed resolution. Ask participants to explain the next step in their own words. A confident response is useful only if it matches the actual process and preserves appropriate uncertainty.

Stop if the promise discourages specialist review, implies unlimited capability or routes a safety-critical issue into an unqualified self-service process.

• Use invented low-risk requests and no real operational intervention.
• Show what each route can assess and what it cannot guarantee.
• Provide an explicit escalation option for uncertain or unsuitable requests.