Advertising is the cost of being boring

This is from Gaping Void (which if you don't subscribe to - you should do!): 

"This is a piece that we originally did for Andy Sernovitz over at socialmedia.org, and we still love it because it's such a simple thought, and useful to every business, large and small. As Russell Davies, the UK ad executive says, "A brand's first job is to be interesting."

Once you are interesting, every contact with every customer, supplier, and stakeholder becomes easier. When you look at how commodity products and services are differentiated from their competition, it always comes back to the successful ones being more interesting - usually in an unexpected way.

Yes, quality matters. Yes, price matters. Yes, all the stuff you learned in "B" school matters. But what matters most to your customers is that you are smarter, quirkier, cooler, and more determined than the next guy. Once you are able to project these human traits to the world, customers and prospects are drawn to you.

This is for the guys who still think that the only way to market is through explaining product benefits and price advantages. Because being more human and showing that you are different, with personality and purpose, is even more important."

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- Simon