Subject: message for Roy Williams

 
Dear Mr. Williams,
 
I never thought I would send a guru a note, but here goes.
 
A good friend and I have had wonderful discussions over the years (he is in radio sales) and my career has focused on marketing and customer operations.  My friend participated at the Wizard Academy and glowed when he told me about his adventure with you.  He gave me a book – Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads.
 
I am currently wrapping up a position with a large Canadian media company in my home town and will be looking for another career step because I chose not to move to Toronto, Canada.  In the course of my work I have always been intrigued by the art and science of targeting and the link between marketing spend and results.  I have always been a proponent of the belief that marketing is not just the advertising but the sum of all communication and customer contact (the brand) from the customer’s perspective. 
 
I also read The Wizard of Ads (I was now completely hooked and bought copies for my whole creative team), and the combination of your tomes plus Made to Stick and POP! made me realize what you have said throughout your books regarding the skill required to craft wonderful messages.  The power of the message itself is an absolutely critical success factor to any marketing program.  I think this was always in the back of my mind, but never being “creative” I never allowed this to come to the fore front of my beliefs and leadership to my teams.
 
As I read articles from Philip Kotler (he is also a guru) and review the insights of the Copernicus Group (research and strategy), their collective relentless focus on research and understanding your company and your customer base, it dawned on me that they have not realized the importance of the message itself.  You are so correct when you say that a company can have a great deal of targeting and the perfect media mix but if the sales people cannot sell… the ROI is terrible and marketing gets blamed.
 
Thanks for your clarity (I’ve got my 12 and 15 year old sons reading some of your work to help them write more effectively) and your sense of truth and values about life.  I also just read Tuesdays with Morrie and true happiness is not realistically based on personal material wealth.
 
I hope that I will be able to visit the Academy at some point in the near future. 
 
Cheers!
 
tk