Smart Small, Big Dumb

Hi,

Most marketing advice really really sucks.

We studied marketing for years. Then we started businesses. Tried to implement what we learned in school.

It was an unmitigated disaster.

Didn't get clients. Hardly got anyone to even look at the ads.

The ad salesman said: "Yeah, you should run it very often. Veeeeeerrrrrrryyyyy often."

Made sense. The guy got paid every time the ad ran.

Took a while to figure out that in school they teach you the strategy that companies like Coca-Cola use right now.

Just blast your ad and hope for the best.

Only issue is that Coca-Cola has a $600 million ad budget. And yours is probably a little less than that.

If you water a strategy down by a factor of one million, it doesn't tend to do as well.

Also, Coca-Cola has 10,000 people in their marketing department. You have one. Which is you. And you also have to do everything else!

So the real question is: 'how do big companies get so big?' You don't go from zero to a $600 million budget without doing something right... right?

After a whole lot of research, they all roughly use the same formula.

They don't start out running mass media 'brand awareness' ads. They start out hammering home a USP and using mostly direct response ads.

Coca-Cola started out using coupons, forcing distribution, and selling a whole lot of sugar water as a result.

Turns out that big dumb companies start out as small smart companies. Then they hit critical mass, the board of directors takes over, HR comes on, middle management entrenches itself, there's unlimited budget — and the stupidness begins.

If you're not at that level yet, you probably want to make sure your ads have some ROI. That means being specific, targeted, and direct — not spraying your logo everywhere and hoping for the best.

Talk soon,

The AKW Marketing Team