What If There Were No Advertising?

Most of you are so quick to think that advertising doesn’t work for your business so, I have a question for you. What if there were no advertising available in this world?  What would you do?

Let’s hypothesize a bit on this….

Your first thought is that you might tell all your friends about your business and ask them to tell all of their friends.  This is a simple strategy but do you know enough people to sustain your business and do all of your friends need the service you provide?  What if they have another friend that has the same business? How will they choose?

Or maybe you’ll create flyers about your business and hand them out to people you don’t know.  Oh wait, that’s advertising and in this world that option doesn’t exist.

You could put a sign up in front of your business or on a road leading to your business, but wait… that’s advertising and they call those billboards so nope, can’t do that.

You can get together with a bunch of other business owners and host an event to talk about your business and showcase.  Ah that’s called a tradeshow, and it’s also a form of advertising.  Can’t do that.

Oh, I know…. another business owner in town has the answer for multiple businesses to promote their products and services to the community.  He’s going to make a pamphlet where a bunch of businesses can put their name and pictures in it to promote to the readers of this publication.  But wait…that’s a magazine and those aren’t allowed in this world.

Do you see where I am going?  If there were no advertising channels for you to promote your business and services you’d end up having to create them yourself or go out of business.  Everyone is so quick to judge and point the finger that their advertising dollar isn’t working for them but if you think about a world with no advertising, it’s frightening.  Many of you would not be in business.

Advertising is NOT a four-letter word.  It’s not a necessary evil.  It’s a service, a means to an end, and a solution.  It’s purpose is to help business owners grow and gain new customers outside of the realm of people they could ever reach just by themselves. It’s not be the sketchy take-your-money-and-run-monster you’ve contrived in your head.