welcome to the 14th Floor!
SO WHAT'S A "14TH FLOOR SOLUTION"?
It's a metaphor for a creative solution to a difficult problem. It derives from the dawning of the skyscraper era, when building owners had a tall problem: No one wanted to occupy the 13th floor. As a result, owners were forced choose from leaving the floor vacant, using it for storage, or cutting rental rates drastically. Either way, it was a very costly problem. . . until one day, when someone - we wish we knew who - had a brilliant solution: Just call the 13th floor "the 14th floor." Problem solved, with very little cost or inconvenience!
Our PHILOSOPHY
Too many companies avoid innovation and instead take what they think is the easy way out: pursuing a "me too" approach. But "me too" inevitably leads to mediocrity that leaves them no choice but to cut prices - and profitability.
What's almost as inexcusable is having a truly superior and innovative product or service and failing to market it properly. Customers no longer beat a path to your door just because YOU know you have a better mousetrap. You need to PROVOKE them to ensure they're aware of your solution and why it's special and deserving of their loyalty.
Our OBSESSION: PROVOCATIVE MESSAGING
Per the late great innovation guru Clayton Christenson, 95% of new products fail. And numerous studies show that many products - even truly innovative and superior ones - fail due to ineffective.
We've developed a proven approach to what we call Provocative Messaging that has two simple but powerful components:
- A Customer Promise
- Clever Executions
And as our clients will attest, Provocative Messaging gets attention, gets engagement and gets results.
Our SECRET SAUCE: CLEVERAGE
To be "clever" is to be both "smart" and "creative." To us, "smart" means making a customer promise that's unique and highly desirable, while "creative" means communicating that promise in an eye-catching, appealing and memorable way.
We've always believed - and extensive research confirms - that if your messaging is clever, customers will be more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that your technology, your customer support, and other things you provide are clever, too.
In other words, clever messaging has a halo effect that leverages the impact of everything else you do. We call that Cleverage.
How clever is that?
our only team is OUR "A" TEAM
At most agencies, much of the work on your business will be done by junior people. That's great for their training. It's not great for you.
On the 14th Floor, every word of every strategy, website, ad, brochure, social media post, video, trademark, news release and more is created by our Founder and Chief Elevator Operator.
He even created our firm's name and his title. The fact is, some people think that name and title are silly. But we've learned that if you try to appeal to everyone, you're probably not going to appeal to anyone.