During a recent trip to New York, I learned a major lesson in marketing. And no, not from any of the overwhelming number of ads crowding Times Square, but from a small deli. While eating “Ah, There’s the Reuben” at the Carnegie Deli, I realized how the principle of this small deli can be applied to businesses, large and small, across all industries.

The Carnegie Deli stands out from hundreds of other New York delis. It is one of New York’s most popular attractions, yet shockingly, it doesn’t spend any money advertising. The Carnegie Deli has succeeded not because of a great gimmick or creative advertising campaigns, but because of a phenomenal business principle:

Do one thing and do it better than everyone else.

The Carnegie Deli has been recognized for its corned beef and pastrami sandwiches by numerous columnists, avid eaters, and travellers from all over the world.

• While many delis bring meat in from other suppliers, the Carnegie Deli cures its own meat.
• While other delis take shortcuts smoking the meat, Carnegie Deli does it the old-fashioned way to give it the best flavour.
• While other delis manipulate the size of their sandwiches by their methods of stacking the meat, the Carnegie Deli continues to make its sandwiches larger and larger (its sandwiches range from five- to eight-and-a-half inches tall).

The word of mouth created by the Carnegie Deli has generated more publicity than any print ad or billboard ever could.

Put your effort into making sure your one thing is better than your competitors’. The spontaneous conversations you create could become your sole form of advertising.

Are you getting a little tired of your current ads? Think they need a little more oomph, a new layout, or a colour change? Does your logo make you feel indifferent? You might think it’s time to make a change. Refresh things a little bit. Liven things up again. Or, you might want to stop and put yourself in your clients’ shoes.

Just because you’re bored doesn’t mean your audience is.

I’m frequently asked how often creative needs to be updated. “We’re running 30-second commercials on radio station X for the next eight weeks. How often should we change our ad?” “We’ve been running the same campaign in this magazine for six months. Don’t you think we should change it up a little?”

Creative—whether it’s a logo, ad, website, or e-newsletter—does not have a predetermined shelf life. Your creative needs updating if your target audience has changed, if the characteristics of your target audience have changed, or if your message has changed. The question really is: Are you conveying your key messages to your target audience?

Your current creative may be very effective. You’ve heard your commercials on the radio for eight weeks but that doesn’t mean your customer has. And, just because you’ve been looking at your print campaign for six months doesn’t mean your potential client has. I bet the Campbell’s Soup marketing team is tired of red labels, but blue soup cans probably won’t make me load up the next time I go to the grocery store.

Change your creative when it’s no longer effective—not when you’re tired of it.