There Are No Dull Subjects

Every business in the world from the small one or two person operation to the gigantic industrial complex, has something of value to sell, and its degree of creativity can be measured by the way in which it tells its story to the buying public.

An advertisement, whether it's pasted on window of a small retail store, appears in four colors in a quality magazine, appears on a Web site, or airs on radio or television, is the company's salesperson.

Its purpose is to attract favorable attention and move enough people to act over a given period of time to make it a profitable endeavor. Unfortunately, most advertising, like so many things in our world today, is not very creative.

In my years working for a large Advertising Agency and as an independent consultant, I've found that in most small businesses the job of handling advertising copy is done by either the owner or someone else who is least likely to handle it effectively.

These people usually know nothing about advertising and they simply scan the ads of other businesses in the same field and just copy what they do, changing little more than the name and address of the business.

I've often heard business owners and upper level managers make ridiculous statements such as, "No, I've never tried the newspaper" or radio, or television, or the Internet, "and it didn't work for me." They say this as though it were the fault of the medium.

The purpose of the medium is to expose the message to a certain number of people for a certain amount of dollars. It isn't the job of the medium to sell products or services; the medium's job is to take the message to the people. It it the job of the message to do the selling.

The secret to successful advertising is merely the knack of saying pertinent things in a fresh and original manner.

For example, look at all the new housing going up all over the country, they don't exactly present themselves in a fresh and original manner. They all look alike; there is little that is original, charming or different about any of them, and so you don't really see them. The only way you can remember them is by their street or unit number.

We're all engaged in trying to sell something to others, perhaps it's ourselves. So if you own a business, no matter what the industry, and sales are not what they should be, maybe you need to put a little more creativity into your sales story.

The success of your advertising depends upon the degree of your creative ability.