Singing your own praises

When we all sing the happy birthday song ‘for he is a jolly good fellow’ – we all sing.

If that sounds like I’m stating the bleeding obvious, then it is because I am.

The point is that there is tremendous peer pressure to conform and irrespective of your feelings, you will likely sing along. You are expected to. Everybody knows it and it would be socially awkward not to. But this is how we learn bad habits.

Have a look at the next ad that you see.

It strikes me that, with few exceptions, they all sing the same tunes: the equivalent of ‘for we are a jolly good fellow’.

The thing is: the readers expect you to say that. You are surely not going to advertise and say you are hopeless and often miss deadlines and your services are unimaginative, right?

The issue you must deal with is that they simply don’t care about you. They also hardly know you; which is the point about advertising. Readers/ potential customers expect you to promote yourself and your virtues.

Should you advertise?

Absolutely!

How do you do that then?

The process is not a secret or particularly difficult either.

There are three simple principles that should be followed – and I am not talking about technical or creative elements here.

The short version is simply this:

Rule 1:

Know your proposition. Read this post for a full explanation – and some links to a 20p eBook that you can use as working document to develop your proposition.

Rule 2:

Tell the (potential) customer what you will do for them and don’t sing your own praises. Every customer has some pain that you can take away – otherwise you don’t have a business.

• Being a jolly good fellow is cost-of-entry.
• Don’t say the bleeding obvious: singing your own praises is a waste of money.
• Solve the customers’ problem instead and let them sing your praises.

Rule 3:

You must become credible in the eyes of your target customers. Your message above, even if it addresses a real customer need, will only be believed if the source is credible. And since you don’t know them (yet) you can only do that in

You achieve credibility in two ways:

• You can prove that you are credible by quoting referrals or demonstrating your credibility. (I.e. it is not what YOU say, but what others say or what you can DO that will make you credible.)
• You become credible by consistently advertising. (I know it shouldn’t work like that, but the psychology is pretty simple and well proven.) Sheer repetition makes you credible.

2009 Winners. NOT.

Are they serious?

If they are, advertising is in serious trouble.

Or maybe not, So previous post.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Need I say more

Advertising myths debunked for free

Are there hidden messages in advertising? Did the movie patrons really buy more popcorn when the cinema operator slipped a secret message into every 16^th frame?

Consumers are paranoid about being manipulated and no evidence exists to suggest that subliminal advertising is effective in persuading consumers to buy products.

Let’s stick with the facts as we look at what advertising is and is not.:

Subliminal advertising does not happen.

No controlled experiment has ever found any evidence of planned subliminal advertising and the inefficacy of it is thoroughly proven in hundreds of studies, the myth persists.

Jim Goodnight said aptly "that advertising is the art of the blatant message, not the hidden one."

As much as people are paranoid about the alchemy that is subliminal advertising, it does not exist:

-        there ain’t a camel in the cloud,

-        and there ain’t naked boobs in the ice.

Sheri Broyles published a great meta-analysis on the topic in the Journal of Consumer Affairs, and re-printed here.

So, if there is no secret to it, how does it really work?

What makes some ads more effective than others? Is traditional advertising dying in the face of the social media onslaught? Are you wasting your money with advertising?

Let’s consider these universal principles of advertising. Well, when we talk advertising we mean the type described below as ‘effective ads’.

An effective ad is/has:

-        A relevant message (offer)

-        Creatively presented to draw attention (memorable)

-        Accessible to the right audience (time & place)

-        Consistently repeated

That is pretty much it. Some may like to ad that it should be ‘on brand’ and that is true. But that is true for everything you do.

The following observations may not go down well amongst certain people, but since I am a marketer and not an advertiser, I look at advertising as a tool (not a profession) and it is a tool that I have used and have come to know:

1. Bad advertising is bad advertising and you can’t blame the channel or the consumer or emerging media.
2. Good advertising practices include continuous evolution and innovation to effectively reach consumers. Bad advertising mediums will die if they don’t evolve. That is not because of new competing media, but because of poor commitment to the craft of advertising.
3. We don’t believe that ‘brand advertising’ (propagated by so many) is ever appropriate. You get people aware of your brand and loyal to your brand by getting them to use/buy/experience your product or service. Brand loyalty is a RESULT of your success in getting people to buy your products, it is not a driver.
4. Your brand mark (logo) is not your brand; it is simply a sensory reminder of the attributes your brand is known for.
5. You don’t ever own a brand. A brand is what customers think of your product/service. You are a custodian of that set of associations and it is disrespectful to suggest or act otherwise.
6. Your sales success is a product of [advertising spend X product or service quality]. There is no reason to reduce your spend on advertising until and unless it becomes ineffective.
7. Advertising will not cure a bad business. But it will grow a good business. That is: all successful companies are not always successful because of their advertising, but unsuccessful companies are often the result of their non-advertising.
8. Whilst there are examples of companies/products that surprised everyone with their overnight success without advertising, the operative word is surprise. If we knew why, we could replicate it but we don’t and we can’t.
9. Social Media does not replace advertising. SM is desperately trying to find ways to masquerade as something that is not advertising but achieving the same outcomes. Pure advertising is authentic about its purpose and consumers understand a respect it for what it is. Social media has a place, advertising has a place.
10. Advertising will always be a gamble because consumers are fickle and it is almost impossible to predict their preferences and behaviours with certainty. The only way to beat the odds is to keep betting – and it will eventually work.
11. Sleep kills 99.9% of advertising.
12. Shrink your market you aim to dominate until it is of the size where you can dominate.
13. You only have to reach 50% of the market (effectively) because that 50% knows the other half and if your product is any good, they will tell them.

Retail Advertising Part 2

Image via Wikipedia

I wrote on part one (previous blog) about price and my sentiments can be summarised by the statement that price is what you pay and value is what you get. Retailers would do well to focus on the ‘value’ and not on the price. Of course the value is delivered with a product (or service) which meets a need/ solves a problem for a customer.

Communicating the value to a customer (as opposed to the price) starts with an idea – but the idea must be built on (related to) the core product
Before you can start communicating about your product, you have to understand what your product really is; i.e. what is the customer buying? Let’s consider some examples:
What is the core product?

• You are not selling lipstick, but…sex appeal.


• You are not selling a house, but…home.


• You are not selling a book, but…stories.


• You are not selling an MBA, but…career success.


• You are not selling a drill, but…a hole in the wall

Let’s see how you go: What do you YOU sell if:

• You are not selling a watch, but…


• You are not selling a video, but


• You are not selling a MP3 player, but…


• You are not selling a pair of jeans, but…


• You are not selling a headache tablet, but


• You are not selling a wheelchair, but…

(Feel free to use the comments section below if you want to have a go.  Or if you want to share how you view your own products.)

Once you know what you are selling, you need a creative idea to communicate what that is. This is easier said than done, but:

• Always begin with a good idea.


• A bad idea, executed brilliantly is just as ineffective as a good idea executed badly – but at least the good idea has an opportunity to be executed well.


• When generating the idea – don’t worry about the execution.


• Allow the free flow of ideas (brainstorming).


• The best ideas are obvious (if not simple) in hindsight: ‘I wish I‘d thought of that.’

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