“I don’t know of any other industry in the world that would say the way to succeed is to make a worse product.”
My favourite restaurant in London is Shampers in Kingly Street. I’ve been going there since 1977. I recommended it to a client recently and he wrote yesterday saying how much he and his wife enjoyed it..
Unfortunately every time I go there I am forced to ask myself where I went wrong.
That’s because about 20 yards down the street is an impressive building that is the office of Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty, the advertising agency. It has a sign with a sheep hanging outside for some reason. I rather like the sheep.
Anyhow, it must be a lucky sheep. Hegarty is now Sir John Hegarty, has an organic and biodynamic vineyard in France, and is one of the great and good. I am still writing copy and buying my own wine at an age when I should be lying in the sun somewhere, doing nothing very much.
I don’t know him, but his agency is pretty good, and I certainly agree with his opinions, as expressed to AdNews in Australia, where he he is speaking at a conference.
He thinks the industry’s “product” is in long-term decline.
“I don’t know of any other industry in the world that would say the way to succeed is to make a worse product. And we seem to be in that situation in advertising.
People say to me ‘you’ve been in the industry a very long time so what’s the biggest challenge?’
I think marketers today are losing contact with people despite the fact they have many more ways of communicating with them. Globalisation is one of the problems. We’ve gone for the lowest common denominator.
So many just use a bit of computer graphics of some kind or another because nobody objects to dancing buildings. It sounds wonderful and wacky but it’s not a great idea.
Marketers are at fault. Advertising agencies are at fault.
He also warned about the dangers of data and analytics – he was not against the trend but said the industry needed to be reminded that there is still a role for judgment.
Clients are desperate for salesmanship to be a science. They would love it to be. They would love to be able to say this equals that and this will be the return on investment so let’s do it. But they can’t. In the end it’s a judgment call you still have to make.”
Nicely put. Especially the bit about graphics as a substitute for an idea.
Today I am flying off to the US to speak at a conference in Delray Beach. I hope the sun is shining. I hope I don’t get found out.
“Unfortunately every time I go there I am forced to ask myself where I went wrong.”
I have the answer to that question. But it’s not one you’ll like…
You undercharge.
I know, Dave. I am bloody useless at pricing. But over the years I have formed the view that it is better to reach a lot of people than a few. At my age influence interests me more than money.
Thank you for your insights Mr Bird.
The dreaded pricing question came up in a conversation the other day. My friend, a clever chap who runs his own business, was asking for advice on the very subject.
His idea was to sell many “widgets” to many customers. Now the thing with his “widget” is this…
It comes with a level of support and guidance his customers expect.
If they don’t get this his reputation may suffer. After discussions we decided the best course of action was to have a few different “widgets”. All with different service levels. Entry level, intermediate and advanced.
He can then manage their expectations in advance. So for example if the top level widget is £1 million. It’s going to be far easier to manage if we have 1 person at this level. It becomes much more difficult to manage 10000 people who pay £100.
I know I would rather have 1 person pay me £1 million. This person can then have my total undivided attention.