“Think different.”
Ungrammatical: but good advice. 
An entertainingly vitriolic new book and a Spectator magazine online event reinforce its wisdom.
“Thinking Backwards” is an event featuring Rory Sutherland and Matt Ridley that took place on September 1st.
Steve Harrison’s, “Can’t Sell Won’t Sell” preaches a similar sermon from a different perspective.
Their thesis? If you do what everyone else does you’ll get what they get. Less than you deserve.
(I’ll declare my interest: both Steve and Rory started their marketing careers with me at Ogilvy & Mather.)
Many people believe to succeed today you must be “creative”, different and original, ignoring tested techniques that have worked since modern advertising began.
Steve shows how today’s marketers consider selling so beneath them that they’ve forgotten what pays them – which is sales. So being different now means, well, just selling.
David Ogilvy gave the facts simply. “No sell, no eat”.
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If you plan to make a living in this recession you’d better focus on persuading people to buy what you offer.
And a very, very simple formula shows you how. It is Attention, Interest, Desire, Action – AIDA.
However I have always added a C – AIDCA.
The C stands for Convince.
It’s not easy to seize people’s attention, interest them enough to desire your offering, then make them act.
But your hard work is wasted if you don’t convince them. And in today’s fake news jungle it’s harder than ever.
That is why the testimonial is powerful – and essential.
How many have you got? Do you collect them? Are they boldly displayed on your website?
Do I practice what I preach? There’s a glut of testimonials on DraytonBird.com – plus an offer at the top right of a free copy of the wisest and shortest book about advertising ever.