Rothacker Reviews

Small Business Advertising

Do you own a small business?  Have you encountered the key to making it successful?  Be that key a person, a book, a Web site, a seminar or your spouse's brother-in-law?  Chances are you haven't had the luxury of striking it rich with one brilliant move.  You've had to build your business through hard work, grit, determination and the ability to filter every Tom, Dick and Harry's opinion as to how you should run your business.  You did say your brother-in-law's name is Dick, didn't you?

Today perhaps you might consider the opinion of David, an advertising man.  He helped a few companies sell their products and become successful.  You might be familiar with some of them; Campbell Soup Company, Rolls Royce, General Foods, Shell, IBM, Merrill Lynch, etc.  In the world of advertising, David Ogilvy was an icon.  David passed away in 1999, but his legend lives on along with his words.  You need to pick up his book Ogilvy on Advertising.  It isn't a textbook, it is a conversation.  I've read the book twice now and I feel as if David and I are sitting in a cherry wood paneled library in two big plush leather chairs looking out over a snow-filled meadow while a fire roars in the fireplace.  He talks to me about advertising and selling products while knocking the residual tobacco from his pipe.

"Wait a minute Dave, the companies that David worked with are all really big companies.  Mine isn't."

Ok, let me guess.  Your brother-in-law knows a printer.  He got you a good deal on printing out a flier.  You mailed a few out.  Or you recently bought Advertising for Dummies.  You are trying to follow it step by step.  Or you know that you should be advertising, so you ask Joe who owns the pool cleaning company.  Joe tells you.  But you're not sure if he understands the difference between pool filters and pepperoni pizza.  Or you listen blindly to the girl who sells ad space for the Neighborhood News cause you'd like to date her.  By the way, just how much business are you getting out of that ad?

The point is your advertising isn't working.  You either have to do it yourself or hire a company that works with small business.  Ultimately you should hire the company.  Either way, David will guide you through the process.  But there is a catch.  This book isn't for every small business owner.  It is only for those with an open enough mind to carry on a conversation with a dead ad guy...albeit a charming and wise dead ad guy.  You see, David isn't only going to enlighten you about advertising, if you're open enough, he'll help you build the very core of your business.

"Dave, I ran over to Amazon and ordered up a copy.  It came yesterday.  Dude, this book is written for advertising people."

Well, yes it is.  Here, grab this can of WD-40 and shoot a couple drops on the hinges of your mind.  Now, shake each leg a bit and straighten out your underwear.  Good.  Listen up.  Yes David's book was targeted for the field of advertising.  Published in 1983, he writes about getting a job in the business, running an agency, how to advertise for foreign travel and how to make TV commercials.  He also writes about how to produce advertising that sells, direct mail, how to get clients, research, competing with Proctor and Gamble, and six legends who went before him in the industry.  It is mostly in the last group where the treasure for small business owners can be found.  But you will only hear David's sage bits of wisdom if you pretend he is trying to help you run your business.

I know, I know, you're too busy trying to run your business to play pretend.  But if you made it this far into my article here, try this out...

You hire someone local to do your advertising.  It could be the girl who sells ad space for the neighborhood paper or someone who will design your ad or an agency geared for small business.  Now, listen to what David has to say about his internal operation:

I never assign a product to a writer unless I know that he is personally interested in it.

As an Advertising Director, he never assigns a product to a writer unless he knows that the writer is personally interested in the product.  Now here's where you have to pretend.  David to you:

Carol, does Bob the guy who is writing copy for your print advertisement, know anything about you or your products?  Matter of fact, does he use your products?

See what I mean?

One last suggestion.  Pick up a copy of David's book from the new and used section of Amazon.  You'll save a few bucks.

That's Different: Sink Positive

Creativity never seems to happen in a vacuum does it?  I suspect that one day, a chap who was environmentally conscious was sitting upon a porcelain chair inside his house.  He began to take a mental inventory of the stuff within this room.  Here is what he came up with.

That's Different: Radiator Mug

From Jeannie Choe at the Core77 Design Blog: The Radiator Mug

Imagine taking something so simple as a mug or glass and coming up with a design like this!

 

Design: Do You Love Your City?

Ben lived in a rather small city of 15,000 people.  He spoke of it as wonderfully designed.  He liked the large streets that made up a perfect grid.  Ben cared about where he lived.  So when the unpaved streets became muddy and wreaked havoc on the merchants, he worked to get the community involved and the streets paved.  But dried mud on the paved streets was also a problem.  So Ben created and distributed a pamphlet that stated the advantages of hiring a street sweeper.  A few days later when he canvassed the neighborhoods, Ben discovered unanimous support.

About this time the townspeople wanted to light their city.  Ben took note of John Clifton's house.  John simply kept a lit lamp outside of his front door at night.  Ben and John purchased a few lamps from overseas.  Ben noticed a flaw in the oil lamp's design.  There were no provisions to draw air from the bottom which would prevent a buildup of smoke and soot.  Ben redesigned the lamp to allow air to move freely through the lamp. 

Wisdom quickly became a byproduct of Ben's life.  He used the street paving and lamp stories to tell folks about happiness and attention to small matters.  He said that dust (or soot) blown into the eyes of a single person or merchant was not much of a problem.  But when dust was blown into the eyes of an entire city, it could shut down the city.  A simple plan to sweep the streets or a small design change to the lamps were examples of paying attention to seemingly small matters.  Ben said human happiness is not so much a result of lucky events that rarely come our way.  Rather, happiness is more often a result of the little advantages that accumulate every day.

He went on to say that if you want to make the world a better place, do something as basic as teaching a poor young man how to shave himself and keep his razor in good shape.  In doing this, you may contribute more to his happiness in life than by giving him a lump sum of money.  He said, money easily gained is often foolishly spent and latter regretted, but a good skill pays dividends for a lifetime.

A few small incidents from Ben's life here demonstrate a remarkable ability to market, to be creative, to design, to pursue happiness and to teach. 

Ben was a pretty smart guy and yes, Benjamin Franklin loved Philadelphia, his city.  Do you love yours?

This story of Benjamin Franklin can be found in Benjamin Franklin by Blaine McCormick.

Design: Paul Rand

Moleskine Notebooks

It was nearly three years ago that the Moleskine product raged through the online world.  We spoke and wrote about the historic black notebooks.  The buzz died and although I've used two notebooks regularly since then, my awareness seemed to wane as well.  That is, until I read this sentence which I removed out of a small informational piece that was packed with the last notebook that I purchased.

Moleskine is a reservoir of ideas and feelings, a battery that stores discoveries and perceptions, and whose energy can be tapped over time.

What powerful and inspiring words!

One could say the same thing about a 1.99 drugstore notebook.  (It used to be Dime Store).  But the hook is that the reservoir is attached to the deep and rich Moleskine history.  This association is Gorilla Glue bond and sinks a grappling hook into our right brain, anchored to our soul.

Okay, now we're at a crossroad.  Either:

• You now exactly what I'm talkin' bout
• You gave Moleskine a try but you see the practicality of the 1.99 drugstore notebook instead
• You haven't purchased a Moleskine

If you're at point one or three listen up.  Use the connection between your heart, soul, mind and Moleskine to develop a keen sense of awareness and observation.  If you step one foot out of your house, make sure you're packin' the Moleskine.  Now, watch this...

Make notes on what captures your attention

As you continue to do this, you'll see more, and often what do see will be below the surface of what appears to be.  So basically you've used an object that hooks the emotion from your body to connect with others, with the land or with objects.  How can not this practice enrich your writing and your life?

Check out what these folks do with Moleskines.

Design: The Need to Possess

dave doesn't wanna be like Madonna.

The line between appreciation of appealing industrial design and the aching desire to possess such design is but a whisper of an impulse apart. 

Prior to exploring the need angle, I must tread into the waters of appreciation.  In the last two years I've read extensively on the topic of design.  Perhaps because I am a relative newbie to this right-brain world, I have yet to understand why some people who choose to express appreciation of a person or their work, do so in the language of tongues.  If they were able to tone down the references to movements in gone-by eras, the invocations of people's names who are only familiar to scholars and the excessive use of plain old gobbledy-gook language, they could increase their audience threefold.  (Unless of course their desire is to only speak to a small circle of people).  Listen to what this person wrote in the forward of a designer's book:

Half a century ago, Raymond Loewy pioneered a methodological axiom he termed MAYA.  It was much maligned by modernists purists as a cynical strategy meant to appease the public with designs that proceeded toward the "most advanced" possible but willfully stopped at the threshold of local market acceptability, and he was criticized for believing that in order to maximize market potential, one must target the lowest common denominator.

Perhaps I am not educated enough to understand this or perhaps I do not fit into the author's targeted readership.  It's a shame though.  Because I am eager to learn and I'm the kind of person who talks (or writes) to folks who have HUGE networks.  As I become more educated in the various fields of design I refuse to engage in this type of rhetoric.

It's amazing what you see when you really look.  What is that that the biz folks say about creating a business plan?  The process of putting one together is of equal if not more importance than the outcome.  I believe if we focus on the hunt, on the search for stuff that we like, documenting and chronicling these adventures as we go, our need to possess would lessen.  Of course this plan might work in reverse and actually increase our desire.  Note to self - "place a hold on any adventures involving above referenced example."

Perhaps if we insert cognition between the acts of appreciating and possessing, we can get things under control. 

My daughter needs to go to college.  I do not need that Rolex.

We need to pay off the truck.  I do not need that Corvette.

We need to eat.  I do not need that rich, leather briefcase.

We need clothes.  Honey, you do not need the diamonds.

Hopefully the process of writing and thinking about the need to possess, will squelch and tone down that need.

"Honey, I need an economic method of transportation.  Preferably one that has two wheels and rumbles a tad."

Design: I Like That!

Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind chiseled away a few layers of built-up callous from my mind.  As children we were devoid of callous, free to play and imagine till our little hearts were content, or at least till mom called us in for dinner.  Dan re-introduced me to the concept of design - one that had been calloused over by school, adulthood and jobs that sucked the spirit and life out of my body.

I do believe that folks who were right-brain dominant growing up were oil and the rest of us were water. We tried to impose our rules of callous, but their slopes were too slippery and we merely fell by the wayside.  They evolved and we became calloused-over androids.  Well, that's a bit harsh and over exaggerated.

So, I'm b-boppin' around now getting in touch and jiggy with my new found inner design side.  I like design.  Then I realized that everything from the universe to a paper clip is designed.  "Holy anxiety Batman."  Time to calm down.  Time to try and reconnect with feelings, however fleeting and whimsical they might have been, about things that had caught my fancy.  Two themes registered.

The Art of Communication - For the last twelve years I have been infatuated with how people communicate.  I like watching commercials, I read all junk mail, I love to review ads and I love reading magazines and books.  I also love to watch and listen to people.  How do they express themselves?  How do they convey their point?  As far as design though, it is both the graphical and contextual parts of communication that I am attracted to.

Stuff - Mostly from the industrial side.  I include furniture and home furnishings with this.  What really makes my heart skip a beat is stuff that is new, different and can make our lives easier.  The Dutch Boy easy pour paint can that came out around 2002, comes to mind.  Imagine, all of those years that we used those standard-slop-paint-over-everything paint cans. 

Both themes revolve around things that are different.  I trudge the world in the cement shoes of status-quo.  How liberating then to cross paths with products designed by folks who are trying to invent a lighter weight shoe that looks good!

I haven't been trained in design, engineering or architecture.  I am not qualified to look at an item and say, "this is good design."  But I can look at an item and say, "I like that!"  And for me I am grateful enough to be able to do that, grateful for less of a callous build up.

"David, why don't you play a little longer.  We've got microwave ovens now.  We can reheat your dinner."

What's Your Design? A Sense of Place

What's your design?  Who is the person that you are today? 
What's your design intent?  Who is the person that you will be tomorrow?

We can define our design by way of our culture, family, education, work, friends, spirituality, leisure activities, sense of place, mind, body and soul.

A Sense of Place

A sense of place is our connection to the land.  We make this connection by what we see; by what we smell; by what we hear; by what we taste; by what we feel; by what we know; and by what we can know.  A sense of place becomes a living and breathing part of us when we become aware that it is there.  It has been with us our entire life.  As a kid did you play: On ballfields, in the woods, in a tree house, on the playgrounds?  As you became older did you: take picnics, go hiking, ride in a boat, cut your grass, paint your house...did you, do you, get in a car, plane, train or bus and go to work?  You've always been out and about the land. 

A sense of place develops when we connect our awareness of the land to our senses and mind.  Do you remember as a kid visiting your relatives on the farm?  Do you remember the smells in the air... of the grass, animals and woods?  Do you remember the 49 Ford parked out behind the chicken coup?  The mouth-watering taste of Aunt Emma's biscuits and gravy?  The whistles from nearby trains?  The smooth and worn down surfaces of Uncle Bob's rocker?  Folks on the farm lived a simple life.  You went back home, back to school and thought about the simple life.  After ten summers of visiting a part of that simple life was a part of you.  A part of Aunt Emma and Uncle Bob's land was inside of you.

Or maybe you lived on a farm and visited with Aunt Anna and Uncle Bill in the city...

A sense of place is embedded in the design of who you are.  You've only to reconnect.  And when you do, you'll be one step closer to creating a sense of place that you will enjoy in the future.

Drink deep of your environment and surroundings today.  Take pictures.  Journal notes on your sense's experience.  Research who and what used to occupy the land you are living on.  Understand that you are an important cog in an eternity of those who've been privileged to use the land.  Care for it, engage in it and leave it a better place for those who will follow you.  To design a sense of place that you will one day look back upon and cherish, is to develop and hone a sense of awareness today.

How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors

How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors, edited by Dan Crowe with Philip Oltermann.

In an effort to answer such questions like, "what gets writers high? and where do writers get their ideas from? and what keeps writers going?" editors Dan and Philip sent out the following inquiry to authors:

Dear Writer,

Can you think for a minute about which object, picture, or document in your study reveals most about the relationship between living and writing, and then send it to us?

Sixty-seven authors respond.  Now, if you "need input," need to have your brain stimulated on an intellectual level with the author's contributions, don't buy this book.  Consider what Amazon reviewer John Page, has to say:

This is one of those books that have been ruined by an over-zealous art director. It's presentation was so overwhelmed by color, fonts, meaningless images and the like that you have fight to hear what it is saying.

The excess of art is so distracting that I wound up annoyed to the point of returning it. If I could just get a pdf of the content I would be happy.

Mr Page's response is a bit limiting.  It's like going to a chic type fashion show and making the comment, "sheesh, all the frills, lace and silk, I could just go to Wally-Mart and buy me some clothes."

How I Write is designed by Frost Design.  The artwork and design in this book are the perfect complement to the author's response.  To read and partake in How I Write is a journey into the world of what could be...most especially to those of us who write. For me it's not so much a window into the lives of successful authors and longing for their brains, imagination or lifestyle.  No, it's a window into possibility.  The possibility that a sentence, paragraph or graphic might illuminate my pathway for another step.  The free prize inside is that while you're riding along on this pathway of discovery, you're riding along in a Bugatti.