In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal.
William BernbachRead
A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it's bad.
Interpretation
Effective advertising can amplify the shortcomings of a poor product, leading to its quicker failure.
William Bernbach's quote highlights the power of advertising in influencing consumer perception. A well-executed ad campaign can draw attention to a product, even one that is subpar, thereby accelerating its recognition as inadequate. This underscores the idea that marketing is not just about promoting quality, but also about the consequences of poor products being exposed to a wider audience.
In practice
During a marketing seminar discussing the impact of advertising on product success.
In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal.
Don't confuse good taste with the absence of taste.
You cannot sell a man who isn't listening; word of mouth is the best medium of all; and dullness won't sell your product, but neither will irrelevant brilliance.
Properly practiced creativity must result in greater sales more economically achieved. Properly practiced creativity can lift your claims out of the swamp of sameness and make them accepted, believed, persuasive, urgent.
In this very real world, good doesn't drive out evil. Evil doesn't drive out good. But the energetic displaces the passive.
Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling.
People don't buy drills they buy holes
Personalizatio n wasn't supposed to be a cleverly veiled way to chase prospects around the web, showing them the same spammy ad for the same lame stuff as everyone else sees. No, it is a chance to differentiate at a human scale, to use behavior as the most important clue about what people want and more important, what they need.
A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is - it is what consumers tell each other it is.
People rarely buy what they need. They buy what they want.
Virality is not an accident. It is engineered. And that's why growth hackers beat traditional marketers.
The headline is the 'ticket on the meat.' Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising.
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