It’s because like most of us, you’re bombarded with advertising almost everywhere you go, so you subconsciously block most of it out…unless it’s massively creative and makes one hell of a first impression!

Advertising that works can no longer rely on a trusted brand name and informative copy. Today you have to grab peoples’ attention like a starving purse snatcher, and then once you have it, get them thinking and hopefully, talking about your company.

Here’s a collection of ads that do exactly that!

Most every company says their product or service is the best, or the greatest value. Clearly they can’t all be right, after all, that statement is largely based on opinion.

But what about advertising claims that can be proved or disproved by cold, hard facts? For example, if your company manufactures wall murals that you claim will last for 10 years, they better or you could be in for trouble. Do your products sport the popular “Made in the USA” tag? If they aren’t actually manufactured in the USA, you’re opening yourself up to a potential lawsuit.

Seemingly little details matter. Whether a particular food is kosher would be especially important to a practicing Jew. The region that a wine comes from may be a deciding factor for the connoisseur who appreciates subtle flavors that it can impart. Whether a diamond is conflict free may be deeply significant to the fiancée who doesn’t want to support bloodshed and human rights violations. When it comes to facts, there’s no such thing as a “white lie.”

Now, consumers who buy a product or service in California as a result of misleading advertising can sue the manufacturer even if the product was not defective, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The 5-2 decision ended a long battle between consumers and business over the scope of Proposition 64, the 2004 ballot measure intended to end so-called “shakedown” lawsuits against business. The initiative said a person could sue only if he or she suffered an injury and lost money as a result of the false advertising.

The case involved a recent lawsuit against an Orange County-based company that made locksets labeled “Made in U.S.A.”  when in fact, the company closed down an Orange County plant and sent its most labor-intensive work to Mexicali. The company eventually dropped the label after a federal investigation.

Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, writing for the majority, said merely buying a product as a result of a false claim was enough to sue under Proposition 64.

“Simply stated: Labels matter,” Werdegar wrote for the court.

In a dissent, Justice Ming W. Chin, said Proposition 64’s backers on their website  identified the lawsuit against the lockset maker as the kind of “shakedown” suit the measure would prevent.

He said the ballot measure limited lawsuits to persons who suffered injuries as a result of a false claim, and those who sued the manufacturer “did not allege that these mislabeled locksets were overpriced or defective.”

As a result of today’s ruling, all consumers “now have to allege is that they would not have bought the mislabeled product,” wrote Chin, joined by Justice Carol A. Corrigan. “This cannot be what the electorate intended” in voting for a measure aimed at reducing frivolous lawsuits against California businesses.

A tort reform group predicted that the ruling would clog state courts at a time when funding for them is being cut.

What does this mean for businesses in California?

You’re going to have to be a lot more careful with your advertising, making sure you stick to facts and avoid embellishments. The biggest change is that consumers don’t have to prove any damages as a result of buying a product or service, they simply have to state that they wouldn’t have bought it had it not been for the false advertising.

Personally, I don’t see a problem with the new law. If you have to resort to false advertising, your product or service clearly needs to be improved, and if you lie to sell it, you deserve to be punished.

What do you think?

That’s exactly what the residents of a small town in Idaho see every night, and the guy who put it up just may be a marketing genius.

He picked up the sign from a company that went out of business, rearranged the letters, and has had people as well as the media talking about his company ever since.

We’re all in favor of creative ads here at Wildfire Marketing, especially if they ruffle a few  feathers, but this collection of 40 vintage ads certainly cross that line.

Most would be banned today, and would probably even get the creative director, graphic designer and copywriter fired!

Click on the images below for a larger view.

If your answer is yes, it’s time to start over.

In marketing, there is an old saying:

People don’t want a 1/2″ drill bit, they want a 1/2″ hole.

Your marketing should focus on the end result, not the product itself. If you sell life insurance, you’re really selling someone the ability to take care of their family in case they pass away. If you sell pest control services, you’re really selling someone a home that is free of the germs and damage brought by insects.

What do you sell? Now, what are you really selling?

Simply put, you can only improve what you can measure. Anything else is just a guess and you’re throwing money away.

The first and most obvious step is to install analytics software on your website. This allows you to easily determine where all of your traffic is coming from, as well as looking for trends that can provide insight for future marketing efforts. When it comes to your print, television or radio advertising, be sure to include your phone number and website address, but you should utilize a different phone number for each ad, allowing you to precisely track which call-ins were driven by that ad, and utilize a specific URL or landing page, allowing you to precisely track the website traffic driven by that ad.

This can be applied to any aspect of your marketing. The bottom line is that if you want to improve your marketing, you need to measure the effort that you are putting into your campaigns and compare it to the results you’re getting out of them.

This certainly isn’t an end all, be all list of everything that can cause your business to stagnate, but it is an excellent starting point to get you moving forward.

1. Your advertising sucks. It looks just like your competitors’ ads, tries to appeal to everyone and has no call to action. If you want your advertising to work, you need to differentiate your company from your competition, target a specific demographic and tell your prospects exactly what you want them to do.
2. You’re throwing away good leads and wasting time on bad ones. Let’s be honest, not all leads are created equal. Some people are just tire kickers, or worse yet, competitors trying to get information on the inner workings of your company. Others are ready to take action right away. If you’re not utilizing a CRM system like ACT or Goldmine, you can’t keep track of who is who; your prospecting and sales process will be inefficient and cost you valuable revenue.
3. You’re not using what you’ve already built. Chances are you’ve already got a website. If you put a little more work into further developing your site though blogging, SEO and online advertising, you can leverage your previous efforts and reap the rewards more quickly than if you had to start from scratch. The same goes for email or direct mail lists. Use what you have and build upon it.
4. You’re not tapping into your existing clients. You’ve already built a relationship with them, so it would be a huge mistake not to approach them about buying your products or services. Your profit margins will be higher since you don’t have to go through the typical prospecting and sales cycle, and they will generally make a decision more quickly. Keep in mind though, don’t push too hard or you may alienate them.

As promised, here is your starting point. You can easily see a dramatic increase in revenue if you implement these simple suggestions, but there is always room for more. What additional tips or ideas do you have?

If you’re not tracking where your clients/customers are coming from then you can’t accurately tell which campaigns are performing and which ones aren’t, so you are almost certainly wasting money. The only question is how long will you continue doing so? Here are some easy ways to track the performance of your marketing:

• Take advantage of web analytics, such as Google analytics to see exactly where your visitors are coming from. You can tell which search or PPC keywords, links from other websites, online ads and email campaigns are driving traffic traffic to your website.
• Use a separate phone number for each print advertising campaign. When you receive a call on one of these numbers, you will know exactly which campaign triggered it.
• Implement discount codes for your shopping cart which can be used in your marketing materials. These discount codes will tell you exactly which campaign drove that visitor to your website to make a purchase.

Most of your competitors are cutting back or eliminating their advertising. That means that even if you just maintain your campaigns, you’re relative exposure is going to grow, think about the impact if you increase your advertising. Let’s say that your closest competitor cuts their advertising by just 10%, and you increase yours by the same 10%. Right off the bat, you’ll have achieved a 20% increase in exposure over them. Now, when you factor in your typical conversion ratio, you can determine what that will mean to your company in actual revenue. If you’re really smart, you’ll take a portion of that additional revenue and further increase your advertising, resulting in even more revenue. Keep in mind, this example only takes into account your closest competitor. Since most, if not all of your competitors will be decreasing their advertising, your results could be far more substantial than you imagine.

It’s not just a matter of revenue here, though that’s certainly nice. It’s also a matter of increased market share. Market share that will remain yours when the economy picks back up, as long as you continue to do things right.

Something else to consider is that the media companies are feeling the pain too. Many of them are more likely to work out better pricing to keep advertisers like you on board. If their willing to do that, what do you think they’ll be willing to do when you start asking about increasing your advertising with them? When they start mentioning the word “discount” in order to woo you, avoid the temptation to take it. Instead, suggest increased ad space at the same price. A 5-10% might sound good, but 10-20% more advertising for the same price is a better deal, and it’s a win for both you and the media company.

Companies that succeed are the ones that buck the trend and do what everyone else is avoiding. Companies that remain in mediocrity or fail are the ones that follow the herd. Which one are you going to be?

You can’t get get new results by doing the same thing, so if you’re going to have a new logo, website or printed marketing materials designed, heed the advice of the professionals you’ve hired, step outside your comfort zone and take a chance. It’s the only way you’re going to achieve the results you want. This applies not only to design, but also to advertising and even your overall marketing strategy.