Blake Bauer’s Post

How do you deal with competition in a growing industry with "white spaces"? One of the best books I've read in the year so far is Ogilvy on Advertising (1985) It's a classic book on marketing and how to evoke emotions within a product or service (sometimes the older books are the best) One of my favorite concepts was about positioning your product or service as "Positively Good" vs "Comparing against competition". You don't always have to convince the consumer that your product is better than a competitor's. Creating confidence that your product is positively good can be more effective. Consumers are too busy to overanalyze all the options in a market and just owning mindshare that your product is positively good and why Can sometimes be all the difference Feel free to share this also in your investor pitches when they ask about competition...

Repeat your message until it sticks, refine the message so it stays fresh and doesn’t start to annoy people. And above all, remain patient throughout the process. Read the full article: Advertising Takes Time ▸ Link in comment

I have a book somewhere called ‘What we believe but cannot prove’. It’s a compendium of the views of ‘leading thinkers’ on ideas that they’re ill-equipped or unable to mount a plausible defence for, but feel in their bones that they’re right about. My thing that I believe but cannot prove is that advertising, as we’ve come to understand it, is a busted flush. The currency these days is ideas, emotions, humour and intrigue, and whatever a conventional advertising exec might tell you, everything else is just straightforward information. Most of our purchasing decisions have reverted to needs (after decades since the invention of wants) and in that context, advertising is simply about a functional reminder. We’ve exhausted innovation for now. Everything is about replenishment or maintenance or about the pursuit of a need. We search for things and they’re easy to find. We are beyond clunky persuasion. The game these days is about being genuinely interesting or relevant - and to DO that you have to BE that. It is possible - and very arguably better - to do that with a budget of $10,000 (or even less) than it is to do that with a budget of $1 million. In life we stream now. We don’t need to look at the ad - and if we do, we check the countdown timer and look away. They’re an unwelcome intrusion. All the big brands are big brands. We know them and we don’t need to be reminded. There’ll be other big brands, but the way to the top is via the grass roots - a low-fi and genuinely interesting approach to communication and storytelling that starts with ideas that say more about you (without a whiff of commercial purpose) than any sales pitch will ever do. #persuasion #advertising #storytelling #publicrelations

The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be. - David Ogilvy. Whats the legacy, what am I trying to do with my advertising, with my brand? How can I make an impact? How can I improve conditions. This is what you need to ask yourself when you set on the path of advertising. Quoted from Confessions of an Advertising Man, this gave me goosebumps: Winston Churchill “Advertising nourishes the consuming power of men. It sets up before a man the goal of a better home, better clothing, better food for himself and his family. It spurs individual exertion and greater production.” Why goosebumps? Because this is what advertising is about, from the heart to the heart, action and solutions and creating a legacy that you drive with your message.

DID YOU KNOW!!! "An avg. American sees and hears over 5000 branded messages in a typical work day." Read that again if you own a business, who is also advertising. Your messaging should be so strong and the value you provide should be so distinctive that out of those 5000 brands, you always stand out. Due to the rise of digital advertising in the last decade, it is only getting difficult for businesses to grow. But those who focus on building a BRAND know how to stand out in the noise. Source: MAKE YOUR BRAND LEGENDARY!!!! Wonderful Book by Scott Wozniak

Powerful creative can be 10 to 20 times more sales effective than mediocre creative. Academic research also suggests that advertising creative is the primary determinant of advertising effectiveness. Key Takeaway: Creative advertising is a powerful tool uniquely able to reach and resonate with the future customers who pay the future cash flows that are so critical to shareholder value.

the one thing in advertising is new business its not easy for a single person to go about it it has to collective effort based on the agencies credibility . Some clients move with person whom they trust but thats very few.So the only way to get business is to churn out good work plus strategy.

Recently completed a course on Creative Concepts in Marketing and Communications. Appreciated its effectiveness in tackling marketing problems, though it differs from my usual approach to creativity. I believe in limitless creativity, free from structured methods. As Steve Jobs once put it... for truly unique ideas that make impact you need to - Think different. #Marketing #No boundaries #creative #advertising

Something invisible transforms unknown businesses into craveable brands. Yes, your ad and marketing strategy, design, and copy matter. But there's something else at play. Our brains are wired to like things simply by being frequently exposed to them. The mere exposure effect is a powerful, sneaky cognitive bias that's at the root of why top of funnel marketing is so important. Before you ever ask for a sale, you have to be likeable.

📖 Must-Read Marketing Books! Expand your marketing wisdom with these insightful reads: 1. "Made to Stick" by Chip Heath & Dan Heath 2. "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert B. Cialdini 3. "Contagious: How to Build Word of Mouth in the Digital Age" by Jonah Berger 4. "Building a StoryBrand" by Donald Miller These books transformed my approach to marketing. Which one is on your reading list?