FRESH FISH SOLD HERE How one can learn something from anything

   This is a story about a pamphlet, brevity, eyeballs and a new law office.

   Spirax Topics, by our UK collaborators, was a small house journal dealing with steam engineering. But its cover page always had a topic of general interest. The one I remember most was FRESH FISH SOLD HERE.

   A picture is worth a thousand words. 92% of the people read the caption below the picture. So they taught us at advertising college. 70% of advertising space must be left blank. There should be only one topic, the Unique Selling Proposition. Brevity is the soul of wit. And of publicity. FRESH FISH SOLD HERE?

   When you get over 29,000 views, 800+ reactions and a few dozen comments on LinkedIn, where did you go right? Phone calls and requests to boot. Analysis needed.

   We always ask new lawyers to hang out a shingle. On day one. Let the world know you have arrived. Is a name and a word enough? Obviously, it is. Divya’s new office, announced four days ago, needed a signboard. There was space, so the draft went on and on, a veritable Ramayana. There was the problem of an intruding awning. The distance from the road meant larger letters. Was there need for mention of qualifications? What was a catchy colour scheme? What were we trying to convey? FRESH FISH SOLD HERE?

   All that was needed was a title (Advocate), a name and a telephone number. Black on white, lawyers’ colours. LARGE FONT. Bingo. It worked. And how!

   A UK shop, selling fish, had the signage FRESH FISH SOLD HERE. Three out of the four words were unnecessary. No one buys stale fish. And the word FISH was enough to indicate sale point. Why clutter up a board with letters small and difficult to read?

   Brevity is the soul of a brief, a lesson I learnt 55 years ago. It must be one of the most important lessons I have ever learnt, and one that I use today. My briefs are of maximum ten pages. They win.

   FRESH FISH SOLD HERE