Robert Stevens, founder of Geek Squad, has been quoted saying, "Advertising is a tax for having an unremarkable product." This aphorism has a ring of truth: haven't we all seen products that we know to be mediocre widely advertised and more broadly used than they really should?

The corollary of this thought, however, is less palatable. "If I have to advertise, my product must not be very good." The best brands don't need any advertising because they are self-evidently good.

This isn't really fair. Countless ideas die on the vine, thousands of products go unsold, and it isn't because they are bad. On the contrary, human ingenuity produces more and more interesting, useful and innovative products or services every day, fuelled by advances in technology. For every instant best-seller that passes through the market by word of mouth, untold thousands languish in obscurity.

Advertising serves to spread awareness and to educate the consumer about new possibilities in the marketplace. Take the original iPhone, for instance. Far from taking off, it sold only a tiny fraction of what the later models would sell, and that was with a huge interest from the tech press and media at large. Apple needed to convince the public that a smart phone was something useful and desirable, and this process took years and several iterations of the phone to catch on.

So considering the overwhelming density of new products and services available, all companies need to give their offerings the strongest boost possible, with excellent writing and sharp imaging. With that it may stand a chance in the modern day's dynamic market.

If you know your product really is unremarkable... see the above aphorism and start spraying money. Joking aside, who wants to make and try to sell anything less than a great product that a team can get behind? It is better to go back to the drawing board and improve a product than waste money on a lackluster offering that the market will see through within half a year.