Emil Mogul (1960), ad executive, quoted in James B. Simpson, Contemporary Quotations, 1964, Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou Press, p. 84.

#3 – That’s where all AE should be.

Designers and Production folks really hate it if their AE is an air head who merely acted as the client’s mouth piece.

Equally frustrating is the blur type who cannot value add and merely serve as a co-ordinator between the agency and the client.

If you are an AE reading this, read Mongul’s words again and decide where you are now.

David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1971, New York: Ballantine Books, p. 68.

This is a good one from the great man.

I’m just thinking if I have the guts to repeat these words to clients who tried to hold our designers’ hands to create their advertisements.

There were times I really, really wanted to give them a piece of my mind but I just bit my tongue and be nice. And I didn’t feel nice at all.

My ex-boss always said we should be cool and civil even though the client is a perfect bitch with sharp claws. It’s business, it’s not personal.

If I dislike client interfering into areas they were not familiar with, can you imagine how the creative folks feel? I couldn’t even imagine.

]]> http://www.marketingagencytalk.com/marketing/190/advertisers-should-not-compete-with-your-agency-in-creative/feed/ 0 http://www.marketingagencytalk.com/marketing/166/marketing-quote-13-you-need-to-sell-you-and-your-ideas/ http://www.marketingagencytalk.com/marketing/166/marketing-quote-13-you-need-to-sell-you-and-your-ideas/#comments Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:51:53 +0000 MAT. http://www.marketingagencytalk.com/?p=166 Understand that you need to sell you and your ideas in order to advance your career, gain more respect, and increase your success, influence and income.
Jay Abraham

This quote is especially interesting as I was sparring with a friend over lunch earlier. I said a founder of a company has to be a great salesperson. She disagreed instantly. She declared that though she is the CEO of her company, she believed that her strength is not in sales. She preferred to leave that to her sales director and the sales team.

I told her sales is everywhere, in fact, omnipresent. Everyone is a salesperson from birth. A conversation like what I had with her is a sale. If she bought what I said, she is a buyer and I am the seller. No matter where we are in life, each and everyone of us is a salesperson. A baby cries or smiles to get attention and the parents will scramble to satisfy the little tot’s needs. In the workplace, We have to market ourselves in a job interview to land ourselves a job. We have to sell ourselves to qualify and justify why we deserve that promotion better than Tom and John. To have a life partner, we have to convince our significant others to believe that we are the real deals. The list goes on and on and on like the Energizer Bunny.

Basically we need to market and sell ourselves as long as we are breathing.

~ Bruce Barton

co-founder BBDO (Batten Barton, Durstine and Osborn) Agency

I believe many people in the advertising industry acknowledged, understood and embraced the wisdom whole heartedly shared by Bruce Barton. We did it with the clients’ interest at heart and in mind.

However, many chose to believe that we are desperately trying to milk them dry in the hard time because we are not making enough when almost every Tom, Dick and Harry has tightened the purse string. We are professionals in the advertising arena and we make no apology whatsoever to earn our keeps through our consultation, creative works and production supports. However, to imply that we act like scumbags to elicit money immorally and unethically is unacceptable.

In good times, everyone is jolly and is in a high spirit to indulge himself/herself by splurging on feel-good product/services. In bad times, everyone is worried about not making ends meet and they started to count every dime before deciding to make a purchase. If a marketer stops marketing and advertising at bad times, they are simply telling their customers and prospects that he/she is not worthy of their consideration. Out of sight, out of mind, out of consideration. When good times come, these same marketers will find it much tougher to woo back the customers they have lost in the period of silence.

However, how to market and advertise if you are a small business? How to do so when there is a global slow down? Well, Calvin Warr has written an interesting post with an equally interesting title call A 500lbs Gorilla will Beat a 100lbs Human Anytime … that adequately addressed the questions. I agreed with him that small businesses should avoid the gorilla at all cost.

~ Edwin Land

I so, so, so disagree with this statement.

Coca Cola has a winning formula.

McDonalds is a fast food joint successfully run by kids.

Nike is doing it’s stuff everywhere.

Nokka connects people around the globe.

Fedex lives to deliver.

Let’s not talk about whether the acids in Coca Cola will wreck havoc in your tummy and if McDonalds’ burgers and fries cause obesity. Let’s not debate if Nike really has a winning spirit, if Nokka is the best or if Fedex’s overnight delivery rate is at 100%.

Let’s just discuss this: Should these wonderfully successful companies stop marketing and advertising because they have already proven that their products and services are good?

My humble opinion is they should carry on marketing and advertising, and step up if they can. Why?

So that consumers know more about their products’ and services’ goodness. That will allow the consumers to make an informed decision.

So that they can continue to sell and make a profit and feed those thousands and thousands of people in their payroll and thereby keep the economy wheels moving in these hard times.

Like John D. Rockefeller said, “Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.”