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Advertising is the price “we” pay for being un-original
June 3rd, 2010 by Mike Knutson
After cleaning out a desk drawer this morning, I discovered a small piece of paper lying on the floor. I assumed it must have escaped the horde of papers that had accumulated in the drawer since I last cleaned it three-or-so years ago. Over time, I’d placed most of the papers in the drawer thinking they were too valuable for the dumpster. Apparently not. They all ended up in the garbage — except this escaped piece of paper with just one phrase written on it:
“Advertising is the price companies pay for being un-original.”
I couldn’t remember when or why I wrote these words down. But they certainly spoke to me today. They came after Becki fielded a phone call from a gentleman from Arizona. He has an interest in rural community development, had discovered the ReImagine Rural blog, and wanted to stop in next week to see our community and chat. Upon hearing this, I said to Randy; “Isn’t blogging more effective than any advertising the Rural Learning Center has done in the past?”
The phrase also made me think about my recent post on community branding. Although I still maintain that a community brand is a worthwhile investment, this phrase highlights that communities who engage in innovative and interesting activities don’t need to invest as much in a brand awareness advertising campaign. If innovative, original things are happening in your community, word of mouth advertising will take over.
And finally, the phrase connected with some advice I’ve recently shared with a colleague who is helping her community create a tourism development strategy. It’s been my experience that people get too stuck on the idea that advertising is the key to tourism. Advertising helps, but you have to offer a great experience first. For example, take a look at the Barn Quilts of Sac County. The quilt designs community members showcase on historic barns creates a unique experience that attracts visitors to the region. And because it’s unique, they’ve received a lot of free publicity. (Just Google the project if you want to see how much publicity.)
Where did the phrase come from?
The more I thought of the phrase, the more I kicked myself for not writing down who the phrase should be attributed to. Thank goodness for Google. A quick search and I discovered that Yves Behar used it in a TED talk titled “Yves Behar on designing objects that tell stories.” I’ve embedded the video of his talk below.
In his talk, Behar tells us that the phrase inspired him to start his own design company. I doubt Behar has thought much about how the phrase applies to rural communities. But based on my recent experiences, I’d have to say it applies to a lot of situations.
Tags: advertising, branding, Iowa, marketing rural communities, Sac County IA, TED
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Rural | Comments (
1 )
June 4th, 2010 at 11:37 am
I think Yves Behar made a very good point when talking about keyboards and the Num Lock key that I think all communities and companies can learn from. He said of company managers, “They didn’t really want to change the legacy stuff; they didn’t want to change the insides. They were really looking for us, the designers, to create the skins. To put some pretty stuff on the outside of the box.” To me, that often is what advertising is.
If you don’t have a quality product, no matter how much pretty wrapping you put around it, you will never have a successful product. The same goes for a community. If your community does not have something of quality for your visitors, then all of the advertising and pretty things you wrap around it are useless.