I recently read a fascinating new book, “The Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty”.
The book is particularly of interest to me, because in the early 1980s, I worked for David Koch as advertising manager of his equipment manufacturing company Koch Engineering in NYC. It was my second job out of college after a year with Westinghouse in Baltimore.
Koch Engineering was headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, but David preferred Manhattan, so he had a small satellite office in NYC and that’s where I worked.
One day, we had a meeting to review the preliminary design of a new 40-foot trade show booth, which for us, was a big deal.
As you might expect, everyone had a different opinion. Some liked it. Some hated it. Some said it was too white. Some said it was too tall. And the room buzzed with argument.
Finally, David silenced us by asking in his powerful baritone voice, “Do you know what a moose is?” (David is six-foot-five and has an imposing physical presence.)
We were silent. Had he gone nuts? What the heck was he talking about?
A second later, he answered his own question: “A moose is a cow designed by committee.”
We all got the point and quickly approved the design in front of us, which as ad manager I was responsible for.
Today, this issue comes up all the time. If you are a marketer or business owner, should you solicit an opinion about the new billboard or magazine ad your agency has just presented a design for from everyone and his brother?
Or should you make the decision alone, or perhaps with a little feedback from one or two trusted advisors, whether your spouse or your sales manager?
Recently, a client I wrote for showed my copy to, it seemed, more people than there were on the Titanic.
I asked him why he felt the need to do so.
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He said that the more opinions you get, the better, because everyone’s opinion is valid.
But is everyone’s opinion valid?
Aren’t some people more qualified to comment on a website for a CPA firm or an ad for an industrial mixer than others?
I do not play golf. Is my opinion of your new golf club ad as valid as yours, or Tiger Woods’?
Here are the people whose opinions on copy I value most: my client, who is typically the marketing person for the product, her top subject matter expert, who is typically the product manager, editor, or publisher, or maybe a design engineer or formulating chemist, and her compliance officer, who can tell us whether our copy is legal.
Beyond that, the more people you involve in the copy review process, the greater your risk of violating David Koch’s advice and creating a moose when what you want is a cow.
By the way, David has become a controversial and famous figure in the decades since I worked for him.
I can tell you that he is an extremely smart engineer and businessman. He was also a good boss and a nice guy. Bottom line: I always liked the guy.
When I went to work for him, he was running for vice president of the United States on the libertarian ticket with Ed Clark.
One of David’s product managers, MM, whom I directly reported to, told me David really didn’t want to be VP of the USA all that much. He wanted to support the libertarian party. And as a candidate, a loophole in the election law allowed him to contribute an unlimited amount of money to the campaign.
At Koch Engineering, the company was innovative in several of its B2B marketing tactics, which I will tell you about in my next essay. They don’t think of themselves as marketing guys. But they were actually pretty good at it.
Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.
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