No Parking on the Dance Floor of Your Mind
Are your ads letting the imagery and the story-logic do the persuading and selling? Or are they relying on whacky creative that’s actually counter-productive?
Naming the Disease
Nobody knew bad breath was a destructive social ill until Gerard Lambert pointed the blinding spotlight of his ads at the dangers of halitosis as a means of selling Listerine.
Money Follows Talent, and Talent Follows…
“Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products...”
7 Elements of Successfully Selling Services Online
Products have product pages, but what do services have? Leaving these elements out of your copy is a fatal mistake.
Learning from the Legends — MacManus and The Penalty of Leadership
Too often inexperienced copywriters and advertising clients want to persuade with copy points — with information being pushed at the reader.
90% of Local Advertising Summed Up In 2 Slogans
Optimizing a purchase demands more time, energy, and attention than anyone can spare for 99% of purchases. Instead, people simply want their needs filled and hoped-for benefits granted at a reasonably fair price. “Satisficing.”
What Advertising Can’t Do
Creativity worshippers tend to feel that while nothing works for sure, anything might work, so long as it’s rilly, rilly creative and the lightning strikes in their favor.
Building a Legacy Business Isn’t Normal
The further down this path you go — by building a business empire and a legacy — the more you’ll find that the normal ways of thinking and acting simply won’t do.
The Eternal Sunrise of Market Dominating Companies
When you’re searching for ways to level up your company, where are you looking hardest? Too many leaders strain and stare at the horizon for what’s going to change, hoping to leverage those changes.
Fair But Not Reasonable — “Getting” Customer Expectations
Millions of businesses have done alright by meeting reasonable standards and offering fine-print-laden guarantees. But that’s not the way of empire builders and market-dominating giants.
Transactional vs. Relational Customers: Are You Attracting the Wrong People?
Given the disproportionate amounts of revenue and profit generated by Relational buyers, you might even expect an over-abundance of messaging aimed at Relationals. But that’s not what you find.
Bonding vs. Branding: What’s the Difference?
All bonding is branding. But most branding isn’t bonding. Bonding requires commitment and proper execution. But it's worth it. Bonding blows the doors off of regular branding.
Advanced Branding for Ugly Duckling Businesses: Self-Disclosure & Human Connection
Think about the amount of times you chose a service provider — insurance salesman, realtor, lawyer, massage therapist, auto mechanic, plumber — based on the merest puff of a connection.
The Enduring Power of Demonstration Ads
I grab my copper scrubbing brillo and… ditch the Seventh Generation and instinctively and inexorably reach for the blue Dawn. Why did I just do that?
ESOV & FFA: Two Reasons 2021’s The Year You’ll Build Your Empire
Yes. 2021 will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to blow the doors off with rapid growth. Here’s why.