Listen Up. If you want to or NOT!

SOME STATEMENTS MAKE NO SENSE but are accepted by the norm anyway.

Take the following sayings:

“No one goes there anymore. It gets too crowded.”

“A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”

“You can observe a lot by just watching.”

“My business is doing great, but my clients complain they hear my ads too much.”

Ok that last one is not a famous saying but a true one none the less. A lot of (successful) business people say that their clients complain that they hear their ads too much. Did I say they were very successful?

It’s pretty strange that people will complain about hearing an ad too often but never about reading an ad too often? Radio and television will often be recommended, but rarely newspaper: “You can close your eyes but you can’t close your ears.”

We hear even when we’re not listening, but we can’t see unless we’re watching.

That is why we are so good at remembering songs we didn’t want to memorize, but we can’t name the colour of the car that sits in the driveway just five houses down the street from ours, even though we drive past it several times a week.

There are two kinds or ads: Echoic (sound) and iconic (sight). Echoic ads are far more intrusive than iconic ads. It is because of the intrusive nature of sound that people often complain about ads on the radio, but never about those in print.

The problem with using sound is that echoic ads require repetition to be effective. With iconic ads people can choose not to read it at all.

The listener to an echoic ad is not allowed this control. But the ad HAS to be repeated.

To gain the maximum exposure you long for you have to repeat your ads relentlessly. Yes, people might claim to be sick of hearing your ads, but underneath their so called complaints lay a seed buried in their subconscious waiting eagerly to crack the surface.

(Okay it’s not quite that dramatic, but it’s true anyway.)

-Martin

Listening to Jim

JIM WAS AN OLD WAR VETERAN and liked his profanity.

Born into a middle class family with too many children, Jim grew into a sour, salty old man.

When I was fourteen, Jim hired me to do some work at his steel yard. No self-respecting steelworker would be seen doing the work I was asked to. I was known as “kid”. “Kid! Scrub the #&%@ washroom!” “Kid! Make sure the &#%* trucks are unloaded!”

My favourite job was to load a thousand gallons of water onto Jim’s truck and then drain it down a hole in Jim’s front yard whenever his well ran dry.

Looking back, I see the day Jim taught me to haul water as pivotal in my life.

We would drive north forever and come to a stop next to the road at an abandoned industrial wasteland. 

Jim parked his car under an old oak tree at the edge of the gravel, and we got out of the truck together. “C’mere, Kid! I’m going to teach you how to haul &#@* water.”

Walking behind a pile of junk at the edge of the gravel, Jim emerged with a gigantic canvas hose, which he strapped to the opening of our homemade water tank.

He then turned a hidden valve within the junk pile. I watched in amazement as gloriously bright, clean water began gushing into our tank.

On the drive home, Jim swerved into the right lane as though passing an invisible car. Being only a “kid,” I knew better than to question Jim’s driving, but curiosity got the best of me.

“Look behind us,” Jim said. “You see that big branch hanging over the road? Well, that branch is dead and is going to break one day.” As I turned to quietly stare down the road in front of me, Jim added, “And I don’t want to be under it when it does.”

Noticing that Jim was completely serious, I answered him as solemnly as I knew how. “Thanks for pointing that out, Jim, I’ll try to remember it.”

Jim turned to me as though he’d seen me for the first time. “Kid, every living person has something he can teach you. Always find out what it is and let him teach it to you. Folks are happy to teach you valuable things if you’ll only let ‘em.”

After a long silence, Jim spoke again. “Kid, if you can find even one true friend in your life, you’ll have done better than most…but you’ll never find a true friend unless you’re willing to be one.”

We rode the remainder of the ride in silence, but I understood.

Jim has shared his secret fear of the old branch breaking. I didn’t laugh but quietly listened, and a valve had opened.

The day Jim taught me to haul water, I learned that beneath even the shabbiest gravel parking lot, one can find a wealth of hidden treasure.

A Time Will Come..

-          Martin

But that’s NOT what I meant!

“I REALLY LIKE YOUR GREEN HAT. Where did you get it?”

“I’ve always liked those pants. Are they coming back in style again?”

“Are you always this funny when you’re drunk?”

Even though the speakers didn’t actually say to you, “Green hats are ridiculous, those pants are out of style, and you talk like a drunk,” you’d probably find it hard to respond favourably to those “compliments”, because you would have heard MORE than was actually being said.

Like me, people have learned to hear much more than is being said, especially when it comes to advertising. I’m convinced it was all the hype advertising that taught us to listen with suspicious ears. “Sale! Sale! Sale! 60% 70% Up to 80% off! This offer ends today at 6pm!”

This kind of advertising might have worked back in the days of our naiveté, but that day ended when we got our first Multi Level Marketing pitch or received our first letter from a time-share resort:

You have definitely won one of the following prizes: (1) A brand new Cadillac

(2) A Sport Boat (3) A $5000 Rolex (4) A home entertainment system worth $10 000

(5) A year’s worth of free flights anywhere in the United States. Please call to let

us know when you can pick up your prize. Bring proof of identification.

To be effective at advertising in today’s market we have to understand our listeners’ reluctance to believe the claims of advertising.

We must volunteer the proof they need.

The time has come to offer a remarkably better product or service. No longer will the prize go to the company who tells the biggest lies and shouts the loudest.

If you want your advertising to be productive, you must have a story to tell, and you must tell it persuasively.

By the way, I once got that time-share letter in the post and travelled 120 miles to collect my prize. After 3 hours of (unsuccessful) pounding and hard selling, they tossed me a two-dollar inflatable raft and said, “Thanks for making the trip, Sport. Here’s your boat.”

You might ask how I am so sure that people are becoming less naïve. Well the time-share people quit mailing those letters when the letters stopped working.

Want A Free Boat?

When last did you take a day off and drive 120miles to pick up a new boat, Sport?

-          Martin

Rules of Encouragement

Never Forget to Encourage

WHEN I WAS THIRTEEN, I spent most Saturdays delivering a free news paper for a local press agency. It wasn’t the most recognized edition; in fact it was pretty much the lowest grade paper out there.

My route consisted of the same old figure eight loop around the neighbourhood. But this loop did include one special house; number eighteen Carla Avenue.

This house was occupied by a kind older gentleman that went by the name of Rick James. Rick was always out in his garden making sure everything looked presentable. I would guess Rick was alone as there was always only one car parked in his yard, never any kids around and he was always there when I came cycling along.

Old enough to be my granddad, Rick always had a smile on his face when I pulled up to give him his weekly paper. My incredibly low status was probably the reason Rick James never failed to bring me a little gift each Saturday morning.

Rick used to be a salesman for an advertising company. The first of Rick’s many gifts to me was to say, “Martin, you’re doing a fine job delivering those papers,” as he pressed into my hand a little Swiss army pocket knife, which I carry with me to this day.

The very next week it was, “Martin, you’re a hard worker, and I’m convinced you’re going to be a great man someday.” Then he handed me a golden coin with two sides both displaying ‘tails’ with a little quote reading, “You create your own luck”, which I still have today.

One week he told me his old Advertising Company was sending him a big leather bound diary as a thank you gift for his twenty five years with the company. He said he didn’t have much use for something like that and that he wanted me to have it.

Rick believed in me long before I believed in me. His affirmations each week helped me bounce out of bed with a sense of mission and purpose. There might have only been ten people on my route, who actually read the paper, but one of them was Rick James, and Rick cared whether I did a good job.

One Friday night, my mom brought me a piece of mail. It was addressed to, Martin van Zyl (a fine young man) Inside I found the most amazing leather diary I have ever seen.

Twelve hours later, as the clock approached 6am, I cycled up to Rick’s house hoping to catch him coming out.  There was a note stuck to his front door: “Rick James died in his sleep on Wednesday night. Please deliver any mail back to the original address with the same notification.”

Every morning, as I cycle out on my training route for competitive cycling, a little Swiss army knife I have in my emergency bag quietly whispers, “Encourage the people around you today, for you never know who they might become, or what tomorrow may bring.”

-          Martin

Build Better Traffic

I’D LIKE TO BUILD BETTER TRAFFIC. My favourite traffic builder involves three actors dressed up as policeman.

The first “policeman” stands on the street in front of your business directing all the oncoming cars into your parking lot. There the second cop points the cars into the parking spaces. The third cop stands at the front door and blows his whistle to direct people into your store.

When your store is fully packed, the three policeman/actors/employees yank off their uniforms and start selling customers.

Need any other good ideas?

Ok, so maybe my idea of building traffic is slightly stupid, and illegal. But the traffic would be no more qualified than the crowd brought in by most other traffic building schemes.

“Yes please, I’m here for the free hotdogs and the pink gorilla on your roof you talked about on the radio. Gosh, now that I’m here and realize you’re a car dealer, I suddenly feel the urge to buy a car!”

AND We Have Free HOtdOgS!

To run an ad under the pretence that “it’s a good traffic builder” is from the same school of thought that thinks there’s value in “getting your name out there.”

If a traffic builder helps you reinforce your market position or communicate your unique selling proposition, it’s much more than a mere traffic builder: it’s a good ad that just happens to generate immediate traffic.

Unfortunately, this kind of traffic is never predictable. An ad that creates good traffic one week may generate none the next.

You have two options: you can (1) write meaningful ads that will be remembered when a customer is looking for what you’re selling or you can (2) write ads that bring in immediate traffic.

If you choose option 2, I know someone who can help you.

He owns a car lot up the road from me and works with a pink gorilla.

-Martin

Leave Something on the Table

Leave Some!

JOHN AND JENNIFER ARE NEGOTIATING. Jennifer is pushing to suck every last drop out of the deal. She smiles and excuses herself by saying, “I just wanted to make sure I don’t leave anything on the table. You can’t blame a girl for trying.”

“Yes, Jennifer, I can blame you. I can blame you for not allowing us both to win. I can blame you for never wanting to do business with you again. Thank you. I hope to never deal with you again and I’ll be sure to let anyone I do business with know the same.”

Though these words are not said aloud, you can be sure John means every bit of it behind his cold smile and slow nod.

Who, then, is the loser in this negotiation?

I believe you should leave something on the table. When you are hoping to deal with someone again, leave a little on the table. When you want someone to speak highly of you, leave a little for him. When you want someone to become your ally and friend, be sure the deal is good for him too.

If your own reputation means nothing to you and you’re more concerned with acting like a “hard-core” businessman, squeeze all you can out of the deal. It’s easy to do! Just demand the very most for the very least in return. Grab and squeeze.

Becoming a person to whom other enjoy giving a bargain is more difficult. First you have to find out what it is the other person wants most out of the deal. Once you’ve uncovered this, don’t dangle it in front of him like a carrot. Simply make the concession immediately and with no strings attached, then with a smile ask plainly for the thing that’s most important to you.

Typically, a mutually beneficial relationship will result, and you’ll also have gained a friend who will be there for you the next time you need him.

Will you fight the whole world alone, or will you win an army of friends?

No one stands long on the battlefield who has not built an army of friends.

To make an enemy your friend is easy. Simply do what a friend would do.

“I will destroy my enemies by converting them to friends.” – Maimonides

- Martin

Highway to Advertising Hell

So many of us always ask questions we already know the answers to. How can we feel better?

Your physician would say, “Eat right and exercise.”

Yet for every dollar spent in fitness centres, Americans spend nineteen dollars on cocaine. The reason? Two seconds after snorting cocaine, you feel like superman. Two weeks of diet and exercising and all you feel is sore and hungry.

Instant gratification is something we all know too well. It’s harmless enough if the only thing it leads you to do is pay higher prices at a convenience store. But heaven help you if you demand instant gratification from your advertising!

The business person looking for a financial quick fix will soon discover the cocaine of advertising, a four letter magic chant:

SALE! SALE! SALE! SALE!

Good advertising is painful at first because you don’t see immediate results. The impatient business owner will start with a small dose of advertising cocaine and then get defensive about it: “How can this be bad for me? I’ve never done better.”

But just as a junkie never stops to consider the damage he is doing, a business owner never stops to realize the damage “SALE! SALE! SALE!” does to his business health.

The first dose of cocaine makes him feel great. So does the next one and the one after that. But it takes more and more to get the same effect.

Therefore, it’s almost impossible to convince the addict he’s got a problem, even though he started with only “Twenty Percent Off” and has now progressed to “Half Price.”

Successful companies don’t spend their ad dollars training their customers to wait for a sale.

Do You?

-          Martin