“YOU’RE SO PREDICTABLE!”

“IT SURE IS HOT HERE IN THE CARIBBEAN!”

“Yes, but it’s a ____ ____.”

I would give you three guesses to finish that last sentence and you would probably get it right with two guesses in hand. Why, because it’s predictable.

Predictability. It’s what makes marketing sound like marketing, and it’s one of the biggest reasons marketers fail.

Age old clichés, making unsubstantiated claims, and assuming the customer is willing to believe whatever is said are classic mistakes marketers make.

Most marketers are after “smooth,” “polished,” and “clever” ads. Unfortunately the public no longer trusts “smooth,” “polished,” and “clever.”

You know you’re onto good marketing when it doesn’t sound like marketing.

Face it, your competitor thinks just like you. He also wants to lead the customer to the same conclusion. Both of you make the same claims and offer the same assurance in your marketing. The problem with this is your customer has heard it all before, and he’s not buying it!

To be persuasive, your marketing must be frank, direct, and believable.

Your marketing will become believable only when you relate to what your listener is feeling. Tell her what she already knows or suspects! Remind her of the things she has experienced. Tell her her predictions and perceptions are accurate, and she’ll probably agree with whatever you have to say. (Who wouldn’t agree with themselves?)

Build on a foundation of common perspective. See your customers need the way they do. Feel the experience with her and you may discover how to speak to her felt needs. Walk a mile in her shoes before you talk to her about how her feet feel.

(By the way, it’s a “humid heat” here in the Caribbean;)

-          Martin

Fighting Fire With Fire…

You might not be surprised when I tell you that telling the truth is hardly persuasive these days.

The sad truth is that businesses have invented a whole new way of communicating which is rather deceitful. It’s called “advertising.”

Deceitful advertising is a common method today as honest business people of yesterday realized that telling the simple truth isn’t enough anymore. The result, all too often, was a dramatic loss of business to competitors who used deceitful advertising to sell inferior products.

The honest business person had no choice but to fight fire with fire.

Anyone who believes in this philosophy has certainly never tried to put out a fire. For you will soon realize that the guaranteed result is a nationwide inferno of deceitful advertising. “If the public won’t buy our product for $30, we’ll mark it as $60 and sell it for half price!”

These kinds of business people knew that they couldn’t fool ALL the people ALL of the time. But they could fool some people some of the time, and so it went on.

These kinds of business people are heading for extinction because it’s getting harder to fool ANY of the people ANY of the time.

The real tragedy is that honest business people abandoned the truth in their advertising. It wasn’t the truth that was ineffective; the mistake was assuming it was enough to simply tell it.

If you want the truth to prevail, you have to cause people to realize it. This requires much more skill than to simply tell it.

Honest persuasion is the water that will put out any fire.

“Truth we are told is truth we may not accept; the truth we have realized is the only truth we own.” – Anonymous

-Martin

Its Good Or It’s Bad

You have two choices when you advertise.

Your ads can be intellectual (information focused) or emotional (experience focused).

Emotional ads take the reader and lead him along the path of experience. He feels and tastes and sees what the ad writer wants him to: “As the light sneaks in on a cool winter’s morning, you feel the soft air tickle your face. You know today is going to be filled with unique experiences that will leave you feeling like there is no place like this on earth.”

However, when you choose the intellectual approach to ad writing, it’s no joking matter.

Most people write intellectual ads the way they tell a joke. They open with an obscure reference to what’s coming, and then they spend the rest of the joke adding little pieces of information working their way up to the punch line.

This is the worst possible way to write an ad. An ad is NOT a joke.

Those who listen to a joke are committed to listening. Those listening to an ad are not.

A bad intellectual ad starts off with a setup, where the writer tries to set the stage for the argument that is to follow. As the ad lingers on, the customer is thinking, “Get to the point, what’s in it for me?” In less than seven seconds you’ve lost the customers attention entirely.

 A bad intellectual ad can take up to twenty seconds to get to the point. What’s worse is it’s a point to a question no-one is asking.

A good intellectual ad begins with the punch line to a felt need, and then quickly backs up any claims with relevant proof.

Intellectual or emotional, a good ad is a satisfying experience.

Are your ads satisfying?

Or are they a joke?

 -Martin

The most IRRESISTIBLE 3 letter word…

You’re marketing and you need to produce results.

All your previous teachers with their years of experience tell you to do things like say the company name at least seven times in every ad.  Your experience tells you forcing the company name in places it doesn’t belong, makes an ad sound too much like an ad.

You’ve been down this road before haven’t you?

The same teacher who told you to use your company name seven times in your copy probably also advised you on the incredible power of words like “sale” and “discount”. The two most crippling words as far as building a long lasting brand goes.

This teacher is like all the ones before him. Numb to evolution and growth.

The most irresistible word in the English language has only three letters. The most powerful word is “YOU.”

“YOU” captures the reader’s attention. It puts him right in the middle of the action allowing him to experience it firsthand. (Or should I say second?)

When the reader lives in your ad he feels more compelled to take action. Besides, he’s been where you want him to go. He’s worn your watch, slid into your comfortable shoes. He’s smelled the smells and lived the adventure.

In your ads, the customer needs to already own what you are trying to sell him.  As a listener, you are inextricably engaged by the power of the imagery. By the end of the ad, ownership of the product you are selling has already been transferred.

It all begins with “YOU.”

-Martin

A Million Distractions…

A Million Distractions…

They say in advertising that you can choose one of three options; boredom, shouting and seduction. Which do you choose?
Every day we are exposed to millions of different signals that let’s your insular cortex (responsible for consciousness) know to act or not to act.
Stop at the red light, cross the street, have lunch, take a nap; some life threatening, some mundane.
The other day I was standing in an elevator with one of those glares across my face when I realized the elevator isn’t moving. I HAVE to actually do something. Click!
You and I have so much to remember on a daily basis that sometimes we completely forget what we are doing. We move into a kind of robotic mode. This is a result of over choice.

I bring this to your attention to remind you of something most marketers forget: the customer is seldom paying attention.
The same way I know I should push the button in order to make the elevator move, your customer is aware of needing to act. The problem is they just not thinking about it. They have too many other things to think about.

Most marketers’ solutions are to try to steal the attention of the customer. Loud colours, big banners, noise, SPECIALS!!

These are all sad alternatives that have a negative effect on the customer. Like sneaking up behind them and shouting, “LOOK OUT!”
Is this any way to start a solid relationship?
I vote for seduction.
They say the skilful use of words is the most impressive of human powers. Through words you can entice your customer with a thought more interesting than the one they are thinking.
The mind is an amazing thing. It is constantly looking, analyzing and scanning. All the while ignoring the average, mundane, the boring; the abnormal, fascinating and enticing is captured and examined.
If you want your customer to willingly give you their undivided attention the solution is simple. Give them a thought more interesting than the one they are currently thinking. Do this with magical words worthy of opening heavens gates.
You need not shout…