10 Basic Truths of Advertising, Part 1
America has always sorted its mail over a trashcan, and now just as ruthlessly sorts, filters, and dismisses every other incoming stimuli. Modern life demands it.
Are Your Ads Missing Hope? | Wizard’s Roundtable
You need all four... (1) A Big Idea (2) Nuts and Bolts (3) Entertainment (4) Hope. The last is the easiest to overlook… but it’s the most important.
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?
“How do we modernize our marketing?” [AMA]
There’s a real danger in the word “modernizing” your marketing because we tend to immediately leap towards thoughts like, “Well, I need to be on Snapchat.”
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.
The Best Tool For the Job
That day, my dad gave me the tool I needed to successfully check the pressure of tires. On the same day, he also gave me the greatest tool for customer service. “Aaron, the best way to make better tips is to stop thinking about them.”
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...”
“In your experience what would be the most effective kind of advertising?” – Zoe H. Australia
Variables: (1) The population of your market. (2) The size of your ad budget.
Alsofocuson
A key element of any strategy is choosing what gets focus. When I present a focused strategy, sometimes I get presented with a made-up word: Alsofocuson. As in, “I like the focus, but can we also-focus-on this other focus?”
Logo Change? Consider This First
She walked right up to the wall with all of the options and pointed right to the logos with the red and blue waterdrops on them. My 80-year-old grandma knew the Moen brand because of the red and blue drops in their logo.
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.
Chick-fil-A Let Me Down!
We hold the places we adore to higher standards. Chick-fil-A’s the most beloved fast-food restaurant in America. The Cathy family developed a lengthy list of systems, policies, and procedures – observable behaviors...
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.”
Attention Retention
As children we were told bedtime stories. In elementary school, we found books that we could read over and over. As adults, we still seek a good story. The familiarity of stories has been with us from before you and I could even remember.
Four Winning Retail Strategies for 2021
There is no doubt that the economy and Coronavirus has had a major impact on retail businesses. Here are four things that I am seeing retailers do across the board.