How exactly did appealing to the whole person fall out of fashion in advertising? Somewhere along the lines, people began to separate out Reason-Why or logic-driven ads from emotionally galvanizing ads.
Stop worrying about the colour of your logo, the size of your ad, or the shares on Facebook. When it comes to business, your job is to sell happiness. And the best happiness that is long lasting and unbreakable is through the use of Oxytocin.
These are product, service, channels of distribution, relationships, reputation/image, and price. However, not all differentiation strategies are equally effective.
Give people a list of random words to read, take the list away, then ask how many words each person can recall. On average they’ll recall three words. But this technique increases it to nine.
"Is this that transactional-relational thing?" “I think so. Her business should be relational." “Why?" "We’ve been taking Buffy to our groomer for 10 years. You ever bathed and brushed a Bichon? Our groomer isn’t the cheapest. But I never miss an appointment."
Google didn't tell anybody when they started feeding everybody's business ads over onto their video game platforms. So the impression count went up, the clicks went up. But they're all useless.
You need 4 things… (1) A good steady flow of new customers. (2) A good steady flow of repeat customers. (3) Referrals. (4) Positive Word of Mouth (and this includes social media)
The more we treasure something, the higher our emotions run in relation to it. Tell a mother how ugly her baby really is and you’ll see what I mean. And this is a very useful phenomenon for the ad writer.
Squeaky wheels demand grease, and when they don’t get greased, they squeak louder and louder and louder. Social media has provided them an amplifier of unprecedented volume and duration.
The things we are hardwired to find unignorable and “fascinating” involve the (mostly social) triggers first discussed and popularized by Sally Hogshead.
Yes a few customers will take advantage. Get over it. A Courageous Offer opens up the customer floodgates. The money of the many will wash away the bad taste of a few.
America has always sorted its mail over a trashcan, and now just as ruthlessly sorts, filters, and dismisses every other incoming stimuli. Modern life demands it.
You need all four... (1) A Big Idea (2) Nuts and Bolts (3) Entertainment (4) Hope. The last is the easiest to overlook… but it’s the most important.
Nobody knew bad breath was a destructive social ill until Gerard Lambert pointed the blinding spotlight of his ads at the dangers of halitosis as a means of selling Listerine.
Many years ago a business owner wanted me to fill his nightclub on the slow nights of the week. The club already ran cheap drinks and promotions on these nights... and the club was empty.