More so than you think, whether you heard it on the radio or watched a commercial on television. Working in this business, I have come across a fact that if a 30-second or a minute ad is either over-board ANNOYING or it's got some kind of cute music jingle or catch-phrase -  people will remember the product and the business. Whether they are going out of their way to grab our attention, or not, it's effective  Now let's talk about what is ineffective. Have you ever heard of "word of mouth"? This is what most any kind of business owners fear the most.

I go on Bismarck People Reporting News's Facebook group page quite a bit, I think it's an excellent source of getting the feel of what everyone in Bismarck/Mandan is thinking about in one form or another. For the most part, this is a pretty positive place to be, you'll read about posts from those looking for work, or maybe they lost a pet, and are hoping someone saw it ( which leads to my favorite part when their loved one is found ) Every once a while someone expresses their disappointment about an establishment, in this case just recently, they made it very clear of the restaurant's name, and downfalls, everything from the food to the poor service. maybe this person had good intentions by blasting this eatery to everybody - in return, some of the response posts were negative as well. This all seemed to dogpile on a local business that had no way of defending its reputation. All I'm saying is, that once again "word of mouth" can do more damage than good.