An old fable, in ancient Greece
A traveler once met an old man on the road and asked him how to get to Mount Olympus. The old man, studied the traveler carefully and replied by saying, “If you really want to get to Mount Olympus, just make sure that every step you take is in that direction.”
This old man happened to be Socrates. In the moral of this story we know that to reach a destination, you must sacrifice all other possibilities.
I happen to learn that most successful businesses are sacrificers in their market.
Every advertising campaign has a destination, it has a goal. And every destination is reached by a series of accumulative steps in that direction.
When a business is engaged in creating advertising and marketing campaigns, it must first set itself a worthy ideal to aim for, become definite in its purpose, and hold unwavering faith that the results will and must proceed from the right actions.
Behind every great result, there is a sound and correct action. Behind every great effect, must be a great cause.
Behind every great advertising campaign, we find that a definite motive, backed with a sound and organized plan in attainment is present in the mind of the business leader.
Be it to collect leads, to increase appointments, to increase awareness, to bring in more sales, more calls. It must become clear on what it wants first, and that is a clear, definite agenda that it hopes to achieve from its advertising efforts.
The next step will be organizing its resources and formulating a plan towards the attainment of this objective. There must be a focus, a target to shoot at, if not how else do we know what is considered a ‘successful campaign’?
What is a successful campaign with no measurement of success?
A sound advertising plan will be to keep this end result in mind in all activities for this client. For he knows, nothing else matters than to focus on end-result. Like the captain of a ship, it must drive its passengers safely onshore, not just any shore, but a particular destination, which has been pre-determined before the ship can leave the docks.
A pilot does not land his plane in any country, he too must first have a goal, which is the destination location. Only when the goal is established, the route can be planned, and the efficient team is brought together to work toward the attainment of such a goal.
From the goal to the end result, there is always a delay of time. Time is the great connector between advertising efforts and results. Beautiful results are the fruits of powerful efforts. A beautiful garden is the result of hard-working, masterful work which precedes.
There is a root cause to every problem and that is the disbelief in their attainment of business success. During this time of growth, businesses must not pull the seeds off their own crops, or the fruits will not bear.
An advertising account is like this tree of life, the longer it grows, the better it can grow, providing the right efforts. But if you dig up the seed before it can fully grow into a tree, the result will always be a failure.
The attainment of a beautiful result
We know that the acorn precedes the oak tree. So if you know what seed to plant, you know which fruits to expect.
So we shall hold unwavering faith in its attainment just like how the gardener is sure that his crops will spring off bountifully when the season comes. The gardener doesn’t sit back in his home one day and becomes doubtful and starts suspecting that his corn seeds might start growing into strawberries, or his strawberry seed growing into corn.
For he knows the end result, he is sure of the type of crops he will harvest in due time.
There is no doubt that he will receive a bountiful of corn if he planted corn and a bountiful of strawberries if he planted strawberries.
But he cannot plant corn and expect to harvest strawberries.
The same goes for any advertising effort. If the goal is sound, and the plan is sound, the fruits will bear for your business.
There is no doubt that proper results always proceed from proper action.
If the intent is wise and sound, the action is proper, and the end result must also be successful. Just like by looking at the fruits, you shall know what seed it derived from. So when you plant the seeds you will always get the same fruit. The law is reversible.
A business that doesn’t actively invest in its advertising has nothing to harvest when it’s time to reap the rewards.
For those who had invested abundantly in the spring, taking care of their efforts throughout the summer, autumn can bring rewards that let us rejoice, that our branding and advertising efforts had finally paid off.
The difference between a business with a successful advertising account that produces revenue and profits, and another inadequate account is massive efforts in the right direction, the direction of a definite end goal of their advertising.
But what if backed by solid advertising research, structure and campaigns, a brand still fails to be consistently profitable?
If I were to follow my preceding example of planting seeds that will bear its sort of fruits, then we know that every effect lies behind a very definite cause. If proper advertising research, structure, and campaigning did not improve a brand, and we find that the advertising efforts are sound and practical, then it might just be the substance of the business.
If the business is unable to produce results after solid advertising efforts, it might not have created the substance to create demand in the market, a bad product with good advertising will only accelerate its downfall.
This is because advertising expands the business, together with its strengths and weaknesses.
Good advertising on a bad product accelerates its downfall.
At this point, the business owner might have to ask themselves a few questions.
1) Have there been consistent sales prior to any advertising?
2) Is there a market demand for my products?
3) Do I believe in the services or products I am selling?
Chances are that you will find the answer a definite “NO.” in one of the questions. Then you might want to consider the way you handle your business.
In summary, advertising works provided it is guided by principles. A brand that gets shown to millions of people definitely enjoys more sales and profits over time than a brand that doesn’t market its services effectively.
As Emerson once said: “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.”
Well, if you indeed have a better mousetrap, better to announce to the world where you are and how they can get to your doorstep. You will do a great service to those in need of you by becoming convenient to reach.
