If Ogilvy shrugged

I've often wondered what would happen if all the marketing shortcuts suddenly stopped working.

If the hoopla of marketing as a 2 or 3-letter acronym was gone.

If you couldn’t outsource content, or research keywords. Or pay for advertising or popups or email blasts.

If the only thing you could do was market your products truthfully and honestly and directly...with your words, with your actions, with your reviews.

What would you do if the only option you had was to rely on word of mouth? If the only metrics that mattered were quality, reputation and trust?

I'm not saying that 'modern marketing' (what it's become) won't help you spread the word.

But I am saying that thinking about (permission-based) marketing without these hacks--from the perspective of 'how can we market ourselves clearly and honestly and in a way that resonates?'--is a far more useful strategy to creating a brand that people celebrate.

If you can't hire an Ogilvy (to do it all for you), if you can't game Google, if you can't spam your audience, what would you do differently?

(It's a useful exercise to learning how to market yourself intelligently.)

Because after all, doing the different thing, is often precisely the route you need to take to avoid being 'just like everyone else.'