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DON'T KEEP A DOG IF YOU'RE GOING TO BARK YOURSELF.
How To Get The Best Out Of The Consultants You Hire.

Aunt Mary didn't trust her taste so she hired an interior decorator. The decorator interviewed her extensively then brought fabric swatches and pieces of furniture for her reaction. What Aunt Mary did, as soon as the decorator was out the door, was call her friends, one by one—Aunt Mary has swarms of friends—and she polled opinions. One nay vote, one negative innuendo, and the decorator was summoned to take the object back and submit a new one. Then the jury would reconvene.
    Eleven bedspreads were ordered and returned—eleven!—before the decorator stopped wringing her hands and threw them up instead, then walked off the job.
Rule #1: Hire someone whose expertise you trust. Interview. Check references. Pay attention to what your gut says about personal chemistry. Be 100% behind anyone you hire to be an expert for you. Then take your hands off the wheel.
    This rule, and the others that follow, apply to whatever consultant you hire—marketing mavin, architect, or rocket scientist. You are buying what he or she knows.
Rule#2: Don't build your foundation on quicksand. You are going to give your consultant some guidelines. Once he or she grasps those guidelines and is working within them toward the goal you've set don't change your mind—and all the rules.
Rule#3: Call in all the voting members at the beginning: Anybody who is going to have a voice in the project, should be in on the ground floor. If they haven't spoken at the outset, let them forever hold their peace. It is your job to see that they do.
How many engineers can hang off the end of one pencil? We used to ask this post-copy-session question. Engineers brought in to check the technical accuracy of copy, would soon overleap their bounds and start commenting on matters of style and suggesting wordy revisions. A copywriter's pencil gets mighty heavy with all those hangers-on.
Good clients, Good ideas. In an ad that said only this, a Boston agency that we would gladly credit if we could remember which one they were, paid tribute to their clients after sweep of the Hatch Awards. They recognized that it takes intelligence to keep your hands off the creative. The Hatch sweep is proof that it pays.
If you love something, set it free. You hired your consultants. Don't weigh them down. Set them free to perform what you hope they can do.
   David Ogilvy remembered how he had just finished presenting his agency's first creative campaign to Charlie Kelstadt, Sears Roebuck chairman, when the comptroller walked into the office. Kelstadt introduced Ogilvy and indicated the campaign spread before them. The comptroller looked at the copy and took out his fountain pen.
   "Put that thing back in your pocket," the chairman growled.
   Don't keep a dog if you're going to bark yourself.

HOW TO WRITE A TAG LINE.
Make Sure Your Slogan Really Tells.

Does your company's name leave your customers or clients clueless? If your name doesn't say something revealing about your business, consider adding a tag line, subtitle or slogan that helps folks get a handle on what you do.
   Here are some company names that can stand alone without help from a slogan:

Gilway Technical Lamp
Montgomery Electrical Service
NECO Engine Centers
Drake Cabinet & Remodeling, Inc.

   Here are some company names that need explaining:

The Acme Company
G&H Co.
Johnson Sales Co., Inc.
Howe Sound (While this name looks, at first, not to require a line of explanation it badly needed one. Howe Sound was not an audio company at all, but a firm that happened to be located next to a body of water called a "sound." Made things confusing.)

   Here are some company names that use explanatory tag lines to make their business plain to their markets:

The Cheshire Group, Inc.—Corporate Communications
Indian Springs—Pure Bottled Water From The Lakes Region
Nelson & Goffridge, PC—Certified Public Accountants

   Here are some actual companies that have made failed attempts at explanation:

Hallmark Health—Caring where you live.(Is this an assisted living facility, a physician's referral service, an HMO or none of the above?)
Crocker Sales Co., Inc.—Quality since 1919. (Did you correctly infer that Crocker sells spas and hot tubs? Does anyone really care that Crocker has been around since 1919— especially since spas and hot tubes were unknown way back then?)
Tighe— Another Load from Tighe. (Is this a warehousing and distribution outfit or a fertilizer company? The motorist caught in heavy traffic behind a Tighe truck may wonder if and when the load will drop.)

   Never assume that everyone knows your name and what you're about. Make sure your slogan really tells.

MERGERS WE'D LIKE TO SEE.
Seen On The Internet.

MORE SIGNS OF OUR TIMES.
From The Advertising Department of the University of Texas.

• In a Tacoma Washington men's clothing store: "15 men's wool suits—$100—they won't last an hour."
• In a Los Angeles dance hall: "Good clean dancing every night but Sunday."
• Safety information in America West Airline seat pocket: "If you are sitting in an exit row and cannot read this card, please tell a crew member."
• On a display for "I love you only" valentine cards: "Now available in multi-packs."
• In a Maine restaurant: "Open 7 days a week and weekends."
• On a delicatessen wall: "Our best is none too good."
• In a Pennsylvania cemetery: "Persons are prohibited from picking flowers from any but their own graves."
• On the wall of a Baltimore estate: "Trespassers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law—Sisters of Mercy."
• In the vestry of a New England church: "Will the last person to leave please see that the perpetual light is extinguished."