Book Review Madscam
Book Review Madscam
- Howard Gossage
George Parker’s very strong opinions on advertising are detailed in his latest book (subtitled “Kick-Ass Advertising Without the Madison Avenue Price Tag”). He rants about the way businesses generally do advertising, what’s wrong, and how to do much better (without spending a lot).
First, if your business foundation isn’t strong (poor quality of service or product), fix it. Spending time and money to create an ad only to have more people dissatisfied by your business isn’t a good idea.
To create a good (or great) ad, you need three things: information (your unique selling/value proposition - USP/ UVP), time (to craft), and money (to spread the message).
Some of his questions to help you craft your USP/UVP include:
Are you unique?
Can you positively prove it?
If you’re not unique, are you better at what you do than the competition?
Do you provide provable quality?
Do you provide value?
Are you totally reliable?
Do you give the impression you’ve been around for a while?
Do you have solid and reference-proof case studies?
If you went out of business tomorrow, would anyone, apart from you, your mother, your dog, and your investors give a damn?
“The consumer isn’t stupid, she’s your wife.”
- David Olgilvy
Great ads aren’t full of clichés or say “me-too”. They are edgy ads full of true, useful information (USP/UVP) about your product (or service). They are well targeted. The standard axiom of “it takes 7 impressions to get noticed” are baloney - all it takes is one great ad to get noticed, and hammering a dumb message over and over is insulting to the reader.
Besides discussing when it’s appropriate to create print, radio, television, and online advertisements, he tells how (and who) should create the ads. He’s not a fan of doing it yourself with in-house talent; he strongly believes that you should almost always use a consultant / freelancer (like himself). When creating ads, use “tissue sessions”: a simple idea is shown and you brainstorm the contents with the ad-creating talent.
“I know that half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted.
Unfortunately, I don’t know which half.”
- John Wanamaker
He concludes that you must measure the result of your advertising. When someone new contacts you ask, “Where did you hear about us?”. Use tracking codes or special ad-specific offers to help isolate which ads produced which results. Without measuring, you have no clue if you’re wasting half your money (or more).
Book Review Madscam - To learn more about this author, visit Jay Hamilton-Roth's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
“People don’t read advertising - they read what they are interested in. And sometimes, it happens to be ads.”
- Howard Gossage
George Parker’s very strong opinions on advertising are detailed in his latest book (subtitled “Kick-Ass Advertising Without the Madison Avenue Price Tag”). He rants about the way businesses generally do advertising, what’s wrong, and how to do much better (without spending a lot).
First, if your business foundation isn’t strong (poor quality of service or product), fix it. Spending time and money to create an ad only to have more people dissatisfied by your business isn’t a good idea.
To create a good (or great) ad, you need three things: information (your unique selling/value proposition - USP/ UVP), time (to craft), and money (to spread the message).
Some of his questions to help you craft your USP/UVP include:
Are you unique?
Can you positively prove it?
If you’re not unique, are you better at what you do than the competition?
Do you provide provable quality?
Do you provide value?
Are you totally reliable?
Do you give the impression you’ve been around for a while?
Do you have solid and reference-proof case studies?
If you went out of business tomorrow, would anyone, apart from you, your mother, your dog, and your investors give a damn?
“The consumer isn’t stupid, she’s your wife.”
- David Olgilvy
Great ads aren’t full of clichés or say “me-too”. They are edgy ads full of true, useful information (USP/UVP) about your product (or service). They are well targeted. The standard axiom of “it takes 7 impressions to get noticed” are baloney - all it takes is one great ad to get noticed, and hammering a dumb message over and over is insulting to the reader.
Besides discussing when it’s appropriate to create print, radio, television, and online advertisements, he tells how (and who) should create the ads. He’s not a fan of doing it yourself with in-house talent; he strongly believes that you should almost always use a consultant / freelancer (like himself). When creating ads, use “tissue sessions”: a simple idea is shown and you brainstorm the contents with the ad-creating talent.
“I know that half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted.
Unfortunately, I don’t know which half.”
- John Wanamaker
He concludes that you must measure the result of your advertising. When someone new contacts you ask, “Where did you hear about us?”. Use tracking codes or special ad-specific offers to help isolate which ads produced which results. Without measuring, you have no clue if you’re wasting half your money (or more).
Book Review Madscam - To learn more about this author, visit Jay Hamilton-Roth's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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