You can manipulate statistics to prove just about any point you want to make in your copy.
Business Management
A radio commercial for a financial services firm talked about how their
investment advisors could help ensure financial security for “older
senior citizen folks.”
A TV commercial for Zone Pilates said the product is “277% more effective.” This begs the question: 277% more effective than what?
It seems to me that large corporations have a decided edge in optimizing their Web sites for search engines over small business in general and solo practitioners in particular.
The business editor of our local daily newspaper e-mailed me about a story on marketing during a recession. Economists
are divided as to whether we are officially in a recession, but most
agree the economy is in a troubled state, to put it mildly. My
advice was that, during a recession, companies should be more flexible
and accommodating in matters of price, terms, delivery, service, and
sales.
Many members of the new generation of online marketers — bloggers, SEO
specialists, social networkers, viral video producers — loudly and
frequently proclaim that old-fashioned advertising … derisively
referred to as “disruption marketing” … is dead.
Lord Kelvin, inventor of the Kelvin temperature scale, once said, “When
you can measure something in numbers, then you know something about it.” Nowhere does his lesson have more meaning than in advertising.
My late friend, the accomplished Michigan ad man James Alexander, once
told me: “I can work with a client who is ignorant. I can work with a
client who is arrogant. But I cannot work with one who is both.”
One of my greatest pleasures is to read trade journals, newsletters,
and business magazines at home or during lunch (like many of you, I
don’t have time to read them during working hours). But
according to an article in BtoB (3/10/08, p. 28), I may soon be denied
that privilege, as magazines discontinue their print editions and make
their content available on the Web only.
Decades ago, there was a terrific restaurant in NYC with no waiters: the Horn & Hardart Automat. All
the food was displayed behind glass windows. To order, you inserted
your bills and coins in a slot, pushed a button, removed your sandwich
or pie, and put it on your tray — no waiting, no being ignored by busy
wait staff, no tipping.
