Company Blog
Mirror Mirror…
by Adam Zack — April 2, 2015
“When I look in your eyes I see a reflection. And that reflection is me, and I look mahvelous, dahling.”
– Billy Crystal (as Fernando Llamas)
Being in retail all my life (literally – my dad worked grocery night crew at Market Basket when I was born.) I have made mistakes many times over by doing the most economical thing as opposed to doing things right. I hired a repair man to fix our ice machine that saved me $100 over the qualified technician, only to find out later that he fixed it by sticking a pencil into the leak, only to cost us over $400 later to fix it right. I thought I could replace a defective electric socket myself to save the cost of having the electrician do it, only to short out all the scales that were on the circuit. Until I learned better I always used the newspaper graphics department to design my ads. After all they were FREE! and I had a budget to meet. Or I would have the radio station write my ads because their service was FREE! I’d have the magazine publisher create my ad because, of course, the service was FREE! Until one day someone pointed out, not demurely, that my ads SUCKED! After indignation and denial wore off and I got over the bruised ego that this verbal ass kicking had given me, I actually looked at some of my wonderful FREE! ads side by side. They weren’t so bad, were they? They related my purpose, right? They reflected the image and message I paid large amounts of hard earned money to deliver, right? I looked at my reflection through these ads, and well, they did not look mahvelous, dahling. I was actually embarrassed. I was a cutting edge, superior quality and service store that was very well respected, and I was doing a really crappy job of communicating that visually outside of my stores.
I still had a budget to maintain (what grocer doesn’t?) so I changed my path from quantity to quality. The decision was made for consistency of message, format and look. Instead of taking the shotgun, closing my eyes and pointing it in the general direction of my target, I evoked my inner Tonto and learned how to use a bow and arrow and how to actually identify my target.
So this was easy with immediate gratification, right? Umm, not quite. But did it work? Yes it did. And can I look in the mirror now and admit that I got what I paid for? You bet, dahling.
Read More: Well Designed Ads
Filed Under: Company Blog
Couldn’t have said it better myself!!!! Nothing is ever FREE – and to put your brand, brand message and/or brand promise into a category of things I don’t think I need to pay for is dangerous thinking. At the end of the day…you will get what you paid for……ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh where branding is concerned – FREE is a 4 letter word!