Campaigns and content are produced without first studying the product, the customer, the competition and the evidence.
Great marketing starts with homework. Copy written before you understand the product, the buyer and the competition can only be generic.
Hopkins: "An ad-writer, to have a chance at success, must gain full information on his subject." Ogilvy: "You don't stand a tinker's chance of producing successful advertising unless you start by doing your homework." His Rolls-Royce homework: he spent three weeks reading about the car and found the line that "at sixty miles an hour, the loudest noise came from the electric clock." That became the headline, followed by 607 words of factual copy (Ogilvy on Advertising). Markkula's first Apple principle, Empathy, was to understand customers' needs "better than any other company."
• One-paragraph briefs, no customer interviews, copy written from the internal pitch deck.
Owned — Web copy written from assumptions.
Earned — Pitches sent without knowing the outlet's audience.
Paid — Ads that ignore customer language and reviews.
Analytics — No research inputs documented in the brief.
AI — AI asked to write before it's given any research.
• No brief ships without a scouting report: customer language, product facts, competitor claims, objections.
