When I got a margarine account, I was under the impression that margarine was made from coal. Ten days reading the literature taught me otherwise. If you are too lazy to do this kind of homework, you may occasionally luck into a successful campaign, but you will run the risk of skidding about on what my brother Francis called ‘the slippery surface of irrelevant brilliance.’ Your next chore is to find out what kind of advertising your competitors have been doing for similar products, and with what success. This will give you your bearings. Now comes research among consumers. Find out how they think about your kind of product, what language they use when they discuss the subject, what attributes are important to them, and what promise would be most likely to make them buy your brand. If you cannot afford the services of professionals to do this research,