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.
David OgilvyRead
Why should a manufacturer bet his money, perhaps the future of his company, on your instinct?
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of data and evidence over intuition in business decision-making.
David Ogilvy highlights the necessity for manufacturers and business leaders to rely on solid evidence and data rather than mere instinct when making critical financial decisions. The statement reflects a fundamental principle in the business world: reliance on instincts can be risky, especially when the future of a company is at stake, and thus, decisions should be backed by research and proven insights.
In practice
In a business presentation discussing the importance of analytics, you could quote this to stress the need for data-driven decisions.
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.
Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.
Some manufacturers illustrate their advertisements with abstract paintings. I would only do this if I wished to conceal from the reader what I was advertising.
Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.
The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.
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.
When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
In a world where companies increasingly know about their business in real time, it makes no sense that public reporting mostly follows the old quarterly schedule. Companies sit on vital information until reporting day, at which point the market goes crazy.
When you start a company, it's a singular focus. You have the wind at your back.
A visionary company doesn't simply balance between idealism and profitability: it seeks to be highly idealistic and highly profitable. A visionary company doesn't simply balance between preserving a tightly held core ideology and stimulating vigorous change and movement; it does both to an extreme.
Business plans are the tool existing companies use for execution. They are the wrong tool to search for a business model.
Strategic management is not a box of tricks or a bundle of techniques. It is analytical thinking and commitment of resources to action. But quantification alone is not planning. Some of the most important issues in strategic management cannot be quantified at all.
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