Quote

Madison Avenue is full of masochists who unconsciously provoke rejection by their clients. I know brilliant men who have lost every account they have ever handled.

David Ogilvy

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David Ogilvy
Age: 88 †
Born: 1911
Born: June 23
Died: 1999
Died: July 21
Businessman
Businessperson
Economist
Writer
West Horsley
Surrey
David MacKenzie Ogilvy
Full
Unconsciously
Lost
Avenues
Ever
Provoking
Every
Clients
Masochists
Men
Rejection
Provoke
Account
Handled
Accounts
Madison
Brilliant
Avenue

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If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out - either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time.
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Remove advertising, disable a person or firm from proclaiming its wares and their merits, and the whole of society and of the economy is transformed. The enemies of advertising are the enemies of freedom.
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Why should a manufacturer bet his money, perhaps the future of his company, on your instinct?
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My motto has always been: Only first class business and that in a first class way
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If you have a truly big idea, the wrong technique won't kill it. And if you don't have a big idea, the right technique won't help you
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Set exorbitant standards, and give your people hell when they don't live up to them. There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second rate work.
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Training should not be confined to trainees. It should be a continuous process, and should include the entire professional staff of the agency. The more our people learn, the more useful they can be to our clients.
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Why do eight out of ten new consumer products fail? Sometimes because they are too new. The first cold cereals were rejected by consumers. More often new products fail because they are not new enough.
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The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.
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Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.
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Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don't think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.
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If you can’t advertise yourself, what hope do you have of advertising anything else?
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I don't believe in tricky advertising, I don't believe in cute advertising, I don't believe in comic advertising. The people who perpetrate that kind of advertising never had to sell anything in their lives
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When you advertise fire extinguishers, open with the fire.
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What you learn is more important than what you earn.
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The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.
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You can't save souls in an empty church.
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Can advertising foist an inferior product on the consumer? Bitter experience has taught me that it cannot. On those rare occasions when I have advertised products which consumer tests have found inferior to other products in the same field, the results have been disastrous.
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The worst fault a salesman can commit is to be a bore...... Pretend to be vastly interested in any subject the prospects shows an interest in.
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Make sure you have a vice president in charge of your revolution, to engender ferment among your more conventional colleagues.
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