The Sizzle or the Steak?

Typically, I get up early, do the morning routine, and plant myself in front of the keyboard, and try to solve some sort of gamer dilemma or another (in the form of the Razorwise Report) before I dive into the day’s regular writing.

Today, I’m going to shake things up a bit, and ask you guys a question, but I’ll get to it in my own, rambling style.

The question, you already see, is the subject of the post. Let me, however, break it down for you just a bit, so you can gain some perspective.

Various companies work hard to tell you what they’ve got coming up and how fantastic all they’re stuff is going to be. That’s cool. I’m down with marketing, and I realized how important commercials are for the end consumer when my lifestyle has become commercial light (I watch Netflix, record things on DVR, and listen to music on Pandora). I appreciate the Zen of not being constantly bombarded with commercials, but I realize how intrinsic ads are to our culture, and find I miss things sometimes. It’s interesting. After a point, however, a lot of rah! rah! about a product translates into white noise for me, and goes from being a value add to a negative. There are times when I do NOT want a product I may have otherwise wanted because I am so sick of the commercials, I want the company to die a slow death. (Be honest. We’ve all seen some TV ads like this. Local attorneys are especially notorious for the bad ads.)

A company like ours has to make a conscious decision. Do we focus on the sizzle? The noise? Make you crave what they’re cooking? Or do we focus on the steak? And make sure we don’t send it out of the kitchen until it’s well done and properly seasoned?

You already know which side of the debate we lean on, but it’s a new year, and we always like to get feedback from our friends and fans, so hit us up on FB or Twitter or our forums, and let us know what you think. Until next time, I bid you, dear reader, adieu!