McIntosh Marketing Blog

When I say his name, unfortunately not too many people have heard of this legendary giant of advertising.

He has often been called, “The Father of Advertising.”  In 1962, Time called David Ogilvy, “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry.”  Author Kenneth Roman wrote a book about David Ogilvy titled, “The King Of Madison Avenue.” There is no doubt that David Ogilvy still shapes contemporary thought on the practices of advertising and selling even to this day.

While the methods have dramatically changed over time, the basic philosophy has not. Some things about Man himself are timeless. David Ogilvy intuitively knew this better than most people. And because of that, David Ogilvy shaped and developed his craft to near scientific results.

David Ogilvy was not only brilliant and pragmatic in the arts of advertising, marketing and selling, but he also made it his life’s effort to educate others. He believed that individuals and companies could be better served if they were to engage in advertising properly. For a successful company meant jobs, increased productivity, higher sales and earnings and thus a better way of life. He truly served as a business coach, way before the term was coined.

Ogilvy’s advertising philosophy followed these four basic principles:

• Research: Maturing as he did from a background in research, David never underestimated its importance in advertising. In fact, in 1952, when he opened his own agency, David billed himself as research director.
• Professional discipline: “I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance.” David codified knowledge into slide and film presentations he called Magic Lanterns. He also instituted several training programs for young advertising professionals.
• Creative brilliance: David had a strong emphasis on the “BIG IDEA.”
• Results for clients: “In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.”

Here is a video from David Ogilvy. may you listen, learn and in some way find a better way to bring about more prosperity for your company, your family and yourself.

The words we use have so many meanings that they have begun to represent the same ideas. As they have become garbled, we have become confused. And so it is with the two words, marketing and selling. They seem so interchangeable that they have list there important distinctions and how they operate one with another.

In plain English, marketing is senior to selling. Selling is simply one part of marketing.

Marketing starts with ideas, and from there a survey of opportunities, possibilities and needs within a market. Someone had to conceive of the pet rock before it could be sold. Marketing is large and often complex mix of technologies, of which sales is one part. Marketing also includes market research, industry trends, sociology, surveys, design, branding, beta testing, PR, packaging, social media, web sites, copy writing, distribution, pricing and host of other methodologies and branches of business.

I hear many small businesses call their marketing efforts selling and many of their efforts to sell more, marketing. It may seem like I am being anal, but in reality it is important to not only know the difference, but to also understand the totality of what those words mean and represent in terms of action and depth of planning and application.

I have seen people struggle in their sales, not because they were unsociable or had halitosis. They simply had no marketing strategy, as well as basic marketing skills, and thus thought too small. Or in some other way went about their small business venture like Helen Keller driving a car. They were completely able and capable as a person, but yet still blind.  Helen Keller was an amazing person. She changed the world more than most people who can hear and see. But putting her behind a car and having her drive the Hollywood Freeway at rush hour is far from prudent.

While it may seem time-consuming, becoming educated on the techniques and methods are far faster and more effective than being ignorant. Short cuts never build success or empires. In fact, short cuts are just that. They cut things down and your goals come up short.

George Washington Carver once said, “There is no short cut to achievement. Life requires thorough preparation.” Never was this more true in small business, particularly in the fields of marketing and sales.