Jim Odney,
Shultz's Creamery
& Former owner of Odney Advertising

If your husband proposed to you and said we're going on our honeymoon to Pig Island as opposed to saying we're going to Paradise Island, what would be your image of that island? It really is as simple as that. I think you'd be more impressed if your husband said, "Honey we're going to paradise."

Image is critical to any company whether it's the name or whether it's the outside of the building. It says something about what kind of product you make. There are countless examples of that. If you look at Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble, these are brands that have been around for many, many years and yet one is more successful than another even though the quality may be determined to be at parity. It's the marketing that differentiates with a combination of the name, the package that contains the product and the advertising that presents the product.

If you build it they won't necessarily come unless you tell people about it.

One of the best examples of how marketing contributes to a product is Coca-Cola. In doing research for his book, John Pendegrast, the grandson of the developer of Coca-Cola, he was interviewing one of the company executives. He said I wish I had the formula for Coca-Cola. He (the executive) said, "What would that do for you?" He pulled it out of the drawer, and said, "Here you go. Now what are you going to do with it?" He (the executive) said, "This isn't about the formula. It' s about the countless millions we've invested in our brand." Coca-Cola didn't become Coca-Cola through that original recipe. It became Coca-Cola through advertising and marketing.

I think that really speaks to what one needs to do to be successful. It starts with a great product. You certainly can't start with a poor product and expect good results, but you certainly can't expect the kinds of results like Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Kraft without an investment in advertising. So I would suggest anyone getting into business, you better make a proper investment in advertising.

I owned an advertising agency for years, and I dealt with managing budgets and working with marketing directors that had budgets. This is not an expense. Marketing and advertising is an investment. If you make an investment, you can expect good results.