A financial institution tosses up a billboard with this gripping headline: “Ready when you are.” Makes you want to drop everything and move your accounts, doesn’t it? This is the laziest kind of marketing: the notion that any old message will work as long as people see it. Instead, it makes you easy to ignore and impossible to recall. If you’re going to spend money on media, say something worth reading or hearing — ideally something that says why someone should go to all the time and trouble to switch to you.
