Steak Dinner

insight

One of the challenges that we face as advertisers is that people have an inaccurate, preconceived notion of what it is that we do. Specifically, we're not in the business of quick fixes with brilliant ads that make you a million dollars overnight.

Great advertising isn't all sizzle - it's steak. By that I mean that great advertising isn't just one big campaign idea that you thought up at 1:30 am after a night of brainstorming. Great advertising comes from careful planning and consistent application of a plan.

Seth Godin wrote a post about this, called "Gradually and then suddenly". It's one of the best blog posts I've read on business in a long time and I strongly encourage you to read and think about what it means for your business.

Having read that, if you're still looking for a quick gain, call us. We might be able to deliver that for you. Sadly, it won't be the gain you could have had. It'll just be a temporary sales blip and it won't build your brand. If those terms sound good to you, then let's dive in.

But if that seems 'off', if it seems crass and unsophisticated, then with some patience, allow us to walk you through the right steps. Allow us to help you move gradually, over time, into a sudden explosion of success.

We'll help you build something much greater than a blip in sales. You'll build a relationship with your audience. You'll no longer be selling to customers, you'll be providing for your friends. And those friends will value their relationship with you and your products.

That's steak. And that's what we prefer to offer our friends.

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P.S. If, perhaps, you think that this is new-fangled advertising talk, let me take you back 50+ years to 1963 and the words of David Oglivy, regarded by many as the 'Father of advertising':

Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image. If you take that long view, a great many day-to-day problems solve themselves.

Ninety-five percent of all the campaigns now in circulation are being created without any reference to such long-term considerations. They are being created ad hoc. Hence the lack of any consistent image from one year to another.

It takes uncommon guts to stick to one style in the face of all the pressures to "come up with something new" every six months. It is tragically easy to be stampeded into change.

So, "uncommon guts"...who's got em?

Andrew VanderPloeg Guest Blogger, Consultant

Andrew served at Bark for over 20 years before recently taking over the role of Vice President of Marketing & Communications at ShareWord, one of our favorite organizations.