One of the most important parts of effective communication is completing the Feedback Loop from the creation of the advertising all the way to the customer. If you read, Overcome AD-versity, you learned what goes into creation of the right message. After all that effort, you want to make sure the message doesn’t get garbled.… Read More: Keeping the Team On Message »
Many times clients have asked us to change fonts, change colour shades, change layouts, even highlight lines. Small adjustments get deemed important. After discussion they become more and more important as people entrench themselves in a position. It allows people to think they have made some impact on a project. We had some devious techniques… Read More: Narcissism of Small Differences »
It is true that you have to have enough money to produce the desired commercial well. But how much is enough? We are often asked how much of the budget should be spent on production versus media. There is no simple answer but there are some clear guidelines. The cost of production is the overhead… Read More: Our Ad Cost a Lot, So It Should Be Effective »
After many cocktail parties, I realized that most consumers see advertising and criticize it as if they knew what went in to creating it. They never think about the process, only the end result. When we look at an iceberg, we remark on its beauty without realizing that nine tenths of it are below water.… Read More: Why Write Another Book About Creating Advertising? »
PART I of V: 5 Advertising Mistakes Retailers Make We have been creating advertising for retailers for years. But we have always wondered why so many retailers insist on repeating someone else’s job. Imagine, people who are notoriously careful with their funds – car dealers who haggle with their manufacturers in a tooth and nail… Read More: PART I: Running Redundant Redundant Advertising »
PART II of V: 5 Advertising Mistakes Retailers Make Recently I had a meeting with an accountant who does turnarounds. He attempts to save companies that are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy by nursing them back to health. I asked him whether some company owners put their ego ahead of the survival of their… Read More: PART II: What’s More Important: Your Ego or Your Business? »
PART III of V: 5 Advertising Mistakes Retailers Make Let’s avoid textbook definitions of GRPs, reach and frequency, CPP and CPM and get to the point. The vast majority of retailers do not have a clue when it comes to buying media. They often assume that because they listen to a particular radio station or… Read More: Part III: Media – Retail Media Buying – Audience vs… »
Everyone gets excited by a big retail contest: there are prizes to be won, discounts to be won, a game to be played. But while consumers consider this kind of promotion to be like a lottery with millions to win, marketers see the event as a massive coupon drop. When you consider that the majority… Read More: You Think It’s a Contest; We Think It’s a Coupon… »
This title is not an equation in Latin numerals. It’s about the size of it. Recently, we were in South East Asia. While there we shopped for clothing and found the sizing of clothing to be quite different from North America. Sure there were S-M-L-XL sizes. But they all seemed to be at least one… Read More: XXL = L The Market Is Expanding »
Hello Berlitz! Hello Rosetta Stone! Het, Duolingo! You think we want to speak Mandarin fluently in 30 days – HAH! What we really want to know is the difference between “hashi” and “gohan” in a Japanese restaurant. What is a glass of “palinka”? What the heck is “chupe de camarones”? Should I order the “murgh cholay”… Read More: A Case for the Berlitz School of Menu »