In today’s market sales are king and image is everything. Put simply, you want the phone to ring, you want traffic in the door and you want your consumers to resonate with the brand your company embodies. You want them to connect. While sales and branding are both vital to the success of any company, on both sides of the advertising and marketing table we often feel forced to choose between the two. We can either focus our efforts and our dollars on direct response advertising to drive sales OR we can invest in branding – but we can’t do both. More often than not, branding is the first to get nixed. Sadly, that choice can often undermine all of the communications efforts being put forth by the marketing team.

Those who have been in the biz a while remember the infamous ad for McGraw-Hill Magazines. A stern looking executive stares at you from the page and the copy reads:

I don’t know who you are.
I don’t know your company.
I don’t know your product.
I don’t know what your company stands for.
I don’t know your customers.
I don’t know your reputation
Now-what was it you wanted to sell me?

The headline looming at the end? Sales start before the salesman calls.

So, the million-dollar question is – how can you NOT afford to do both?