Here’s the 9^th in our series of quotes from David Ogilvy and it’s one that is almost a mission statement for Whitney Woods - “The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.”

 We are in a niche industry. The manufacture of pop-up and interactive products for advertising and marketing is a very limited market and each player has a different idea of what can be achieved. From our point of view, we like to get the job right. We want our customers to like us and to say nice things about us. In order to do this we like to have ultimate control over every aspect of the job from the initial quote and telephone discussion with our potential client through to packing and shipping the finished goods. That’s why we don’t use call centres. That’s why we don’t put out telesales work to 3^rd party agencies and that’s why we make everything right here in Lancashire. Many of our competitors send out work to other countries to take advantage of cheap labour but that won’t do for us.

 We believe that we are on the right track and one look at our Testimonials page will confirm this belief. OK, things do go wrong from time to time but we strive never to make the same mistake twice and we learn from the experience. This also applies to product development and if we can improve on our designs then we do so. Paying attention to detail makes a big difference to a job. Even the positioning of a coin slot on a charity collection box makes a difference to its final appearance, making sure that the joins are hidden from view. The same applies to adding holes to a pop-up cube to create a pen holder and adding overlapping flaps to hide gaps. Providing a product and service that we can be proud of matters more to us than being able to add 2p to the profits by saving on quality control!

We are looking at quotes that have been attributed to David Ogilvy as topics to prompt discussion. All the quotes were found online amongst a plethora of others which makes me wonder what makes a person’s opinion worthy of becoming quotable. Here is one that I find quite contentious; it is obviously dated but is it really a quotable opinion? Here it is – “It is flagrantly dishonest for an advertising agent to urge consumers to buy a product which he would not allow his own wife to buy.”

 You can look at this in a few ways – at face value; to think, “What a control freak”, to be annoyed at the assumption that all advertising agents are male; to assume that if you don’t happen to have a wife, then who gives a toss what you urge consumers to buy? I cannot say that I am altogether in agreement with Ogilvy’s sentiments. I would be quite happy to let our products be used to advertise many things that I wouldn’t necessarily expect my wife to buy just because an ad was persuasive. Examples of stuff that I wouldn’t necessarily want kath to buy might include cosmetic surgery, body piercing and body marking, football boots or a lawn mower – (particularly as our back garden is terraced and flagged!)

 Whilst we are not an ad agency, we do keep a close eye on the content submitted for print on our products as would any publisher. However, I would be perfectly happy to receive artwork advertising a reputable Tattoo and Body Piercing Business. You might expect the advertiser to choose one of our more active and unusual products to promote the service – maybe a Flicker Card.

 Another example that I mentioned earlier was Cosmetic Surgery. I would have no qualms about accepting artwork publicizing a qualified and reputable practice, though my tongue is firmly in my cheek when I suggest one of our “before and after” products such as a cover dissolver where the first picture shows someone with a big conk and the second picture shows the same person with a perfectly formed hooter! And whilst my tongue is in my cheek, what about those football boots? Whilst I don’t think that Kath will make the Waddington FC “A” team, I reckon that a Jumpinjax would be ideal as an advertising product showing a top pair of Adidas boots kicking out the little football cubes.

Continuing our series of blogs inspired by quotes from David Ogilvy, what about this one as a topic – “The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.”

 The key here is the actual type of information that you impart. I recently attended one of Andy Chemney’s seminars at Ignition during which it was pointed out that many commercial printing companies seem to concentrate more effort in giving you the technical spec and capabilities of their plant list than showing examples of the quality of the actual print. The point is that your customer is much more interested in the benefits that your product can offer than how it achieves those benefits. That is why we are always telling you how your promotions and campaigns will benefit from using our products rather than plumping for a less inspiring choice.

 Our own advertising efforts are always printed on our own products but we always remember to spell out the advertising benefits of using these products. Our Happy Dogs card combines humour with the message that a pop-up card can increase awareness and response well in excess of results that can be expected from a leaflet. Our Starburst Card Carrier explains how the product can help to extend brand awareness and enhance the gift card experience to make the most of opportunities offered by plastic cards. Another example is the flicker card which explains how to make the most of the marketing opportunity presented by sending a company Christmas greeting card.

 In each instance it would have been easy to fill the available print area with info about our production facilities, premises and details of how we operate – none of which would have given you any idea of the benefits of using our products.

Here’s another quote from David Ogilvy and it’s one that gets me going! “Set exorbitant standards, and give your people hell when they don’t live up to them. There is nothing as demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second rate work.”

 That’s what it’s like at Whitney Woods. We’re always learning and always trying to improve and the better we get, the more enjoyable the work becomes. There’s less hassle, fewer problems and more satisfied customers. The boss doesn’t accept second rate work and the quality maxim breeds nothing but good habits, good service, good work and good customer relations.

 The thing that gets us going is when our interactive marketing products are overlooked in favour of a boring leaflet or booklet. There’s nothing wrong with leaflets and booklets – but you should see some of the mediocre tripe that businesses put out in an effort to gain custom. You need look no further than the stack of mail that landed on your desk this morning to see some of the mundane efforts that are sent in the name of B2B direct mail.

 When you take a look at some of the stunning examples of B2B promotion that have been produced by marketing professionals on our own interactive marketing products you will see why we despair at the other stuff! Take the Delta starburst as an example – produced in the shape of a pansy to match their product. Or the Cinderella Jumpinjax which attracted record attendances to the show. The very effective Synectics  cover dissolver is another great example of good B2B marketing. When you see these, how can you settle for something second rate?

“It strikes me as bad manners for a magazine to accept one of my advertisements and then attack it editorially - like inviting a man to dinner then spitting in his eye.” – David Ogilvy

I know where Ogilvy is coming from and yet I also know that he would have had another point of view had he been the publisher, ad manager or editor of the magazine. No reputable publisher wants his or her product to suffer through mediocre content. I don’t suppose it matters in top shelf tat but I can imagine quality publications hoping to maintain a certain standard.

 However, it’s not an easy one to call. We are obviously very grateful for the business and whilst I would never be critical of content directly to a customer I have sometimes been inwardly disappointed with some of the efforts that have come our way. However, I can imagine that it is not necessarily the fault of the creative professional. I have been in unenviable positions myself where you are caught between a rock and a hard place.

 For example, you might persuade your client that the best way to advertise his product’s growth in popularity is to illustrate that growth by way of an extending product. However, instead of allowing you to be creative and show a person with extending arms and the headline “Sooooooo Big”, your client wants to fill every available millimetre with technical specifications. From my point of view, it’s not the best use of a brilliant opportunity.

 We like to enjoy our work and we always get a big kick out of it when our customers come up with top class ideas that really combine well with our products – the NHS condom scheme extender card; the SGP Blast Off Sideshooter and the Wiley Bobbing Duck are good examples. As for Ogilvy’s opinion; yes, we agree, it is bad manners to attack a customer’s work and so we adopt another maxim: “the customer is always right – even when he’s wrong”!