“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”
Advertising is life made to look larger than life, through images and words that promise a
wish fulfilled, a dream come true, a problem solved. Even Viagra follows Mark Twain’s
keen observation about advertising. The worst kind of advertising exaggerates to get your
attention, the best, gets your attention without exaggeration. It simply states a fact or
reveals an emotional need, then lets you make the leap from “small to large.” Examples of
the worst: before-and-after photos for weight loss products and cosmetic surgery—both
descend to almost comic disbelief. The best: Apple’s "silhouette" campaign for iPod and
the breakthrough ads featuring Eminem—both catapult iPod to “instant cool” status.
“When in doubt, tell the truth.”
Today’s advertising is full of gimmicks. They relentlessly hang on to a product like a ball
and chain, keeping it from moving swiftly ahead of the competition, preventing any real
communication of benefits or impetus to buy. The thinking is, if the gimmick is
outrageous or silly enough, it’s got to at least get their attention. Local car dealer ads are
probably the worst offenders--using zoo animals, sledgehammers, clowns, bikini-clad
models, anything unrelated to the product’s real benefit. If the people who thought up
these outrageous gimmicks spent half their energy just sticking to the product’s real
benefits and buying motivators, they’d have a great ad. What they don’t realize is, they
already have a lot to work with without resorting to gimmicks. There’s the product with all
its benefits, the brand, which undoubtedly they’ve spent money to promote, the
competition and its weaknesses, and two powerful buying motivators—fear of loss and
promise of gain. In other words, all you really have to do is tell the truth about your
product and be honest about your customers’ wants and needs. Of course, sometimes
that’s not so easy. You have to do some digging to find out what you customers really
want, what your competition has to offer them, and why your product is better.
“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.”
In advertising, you have to be very careful how you use facts. As any politician will tell
you, facts are scary things. They have no stretch, no pliability, no room for
misinterpretation. They’re indisputable. And used correctly, very powerful. But statistics,
now there’s something advertisers and politicians love. “Nine out of ten doctors
recommend Preparation J.” Who can dispute that? Or “Five out of six dentists recommend
Sunshine Gum.” Makes me want to run out and buy a pack of Sunshine right now. Hold it.
Rewind.
“Whenever you find you’re on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.”
Let’s take a look at how these stats—this apparent majority—might have come to be. First
off, how many doctors did they ask before they found nine out of ten to agree that
Preparation J did the job? 1,000? 10,000? And how many dentists hated the idea of their
patients chewing gum but relented, saying, “Most chewing gum has sugar and other
ingredients, that rot out your teeth, but if the guy’s gotta chew the darn stuff, it may as
well be Sunshine, which has less sugar in it.” The point is, stats can be manipulated to say
almost anything. And yes, the devil’s in the details. The fact is, there’s usually a 5%
chance you can get any kind of result simply by accident. And because many statistical
studies are biased and not “double blind” (both subject and doctor don’t know who was
given the test product and who got the placebo). Worst of all, statistics usually need the
endless buttressing of legal disclaimers. If you don’t believe me, try to read the full-page
of legally mandated warnings for that weight- loss pill you’ve been taking. Bottom line:
stick to facts. Then back them up with sound selling arguments that address the needs of
your customer.
“The difference between the right word and almost
right word is the difference between lightning and
a lightning bug.”
To write really effective ad copy means choosing exactly the right word at the right time.
You want to lead your customer to every benefit your product has to offer, and you want
to shed the best light on every benefit. It also means you don’t want to give them any
reason or opportunity to wander away from your argument. If they wander, you’re history.
They’re off to the next page, another TV channel or a new website. So make every word
say exactly what you mean it to say, no more, no less. Example: if a product is new, don’t
be afraid to say “new” (a product is only new once in its life, so exploit the fact).
“Great people make us feel we can become great.”
And so do great ads. While they can’t convince us we’ll become millionaires, be as famous
as Madonna, or as likeable as Tom Cruise, they make us feel we might be as attractive,
famous, wealthy, or admired as we’d like to think we can be. Because there’s a “Little
Engine That Could” in all of us that says, under the right conditions, we could beat the
odds and catch the brass ring, win the lottery, or sell that book we’ve been working on.
Great advertising taps into that belief without going overboard. An effective ad promoting
the lottery once used pictures of people sitting on an exotic beach with little beach
umbrellas in their cocktails (a perfectly realistic image for the average person) with the
line: Somebody’s has to win, may as well be you.”
“The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.”
We’re all part of the same family of creatures called homo sapiens. We each want to be
admired, respected and loved. We want to feel secure in our lives and our jobs. So create
ads that touch the soul. Use an emotional appeal in your visual, headline and copy. Even
humor, used correctly, can be a powerful tool that connects you to your potential
customer. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling shoes or software, people will always respond
to what you have to sell them on an emotional level. Once they’ve made the decision to
buy, the justification process kicks in to confirm the decision. To put it another way, once
they’re convinced you’re a mensche with real feelings for their hopes and wants as well as
their problems, they’ll go from prospect to customer.
“A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.”
Ain’t it the truth. More money, more clothes, fancier car, bigger house. It’s what
advertising feeds on. “You need this. And you need more of it every day.” It’s the universal
mantra that drives consumption to the limits of our charge cards. So, how to tap into this
insatiable appetite for more stuff? Convince buyers that more is better. Colgate offers
20% more toothpaste in the giant economy size. You get 60 more sheets with the big
Charmin roll of toilet paper. GE light bulbs are 15% brighter. Raisin Brain now has 25%
more raisins. When Detroit found it couldn’t sell more cars per household to an already
saturated U.S. market, they started selling more car per car—SUVs and trucks got bigger
and more powerful. They’re still selling giant 3-ton SUVs that get 15 miles per gallon.
“Clothes make the man.
Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
Who gets the girl? Who attracts the sharpest guy? Who lands the big promotion? Neiman
Marcus knows. So does Abercrombie & Fitch. And Saks Fifth Avenue. Why else would you
fork over $900 for a power suit? Or $600 for a pair of shoes? Observers from Aristotle to
the twentieth century have consistently maintained that character is immanent in
appearance, asserting that clothes reveal a rich palette of interior qualities as well as a
brand mark of social identity. Here’s where the right advertising pays for itself big time.
Where you must have the perfect model (not necessarily the most attractive) and really
creative photographers and directors who know how to tell a story, create a mood,
convince you that you’re not buying the “emperor’s clothes.” Example of good fashion
advertising: the Levis black-and-white spot featuring a teenager driving through the side
streets and alleys of the Czech Republic. Stopping to pick up friends, he gets out of the
car wearing just a shirt as the voiceover cheekily exclaims, "Reason 007: In Prague, you
can trade them for a car."
Copyright 2005 Alex A. Kecskes all rights reserved.
Alex Kecskes is a former ad agency Copy Chief who provides a full range of copywriting services to agencies and companies large or small. He has created effective copy for brochures, mailers, multimedia, articles, newsletters, PR and web content.
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