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.
Experience has taught me that advertisers get the best results when they pay their agency a flat fee. It is unrealistic to expect your agency to be impartial when its vested interest lies wholly in the direction of increasing your commissionable advertising.
Marketing is a race without a finishing line
You have only 30 seconds in a TV commercial. If you grab attention in the first frame with a visual surprise, you stand a better chance of holding the viewer. People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull. When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire.
Great marketers don't make stuff. They make meaning.
In marketing you must choose between boredom, shouting and seduction. Which do you want?
The work of an advertising agency is warmly and immediately human. It deals with human needs, wants, dreams and hopes. Its 'product' cannot be turned out on an assembly line.
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