Touch Points

Monday Morning Memo for May 30, 2005 by Roy H. Williams

Targeting Through Ad Copy

For years, advertisers have attempted to target "the right customer" through carefully selected media vehicles. Mailing lists aimed at specific demographic, geographic and psychographic profiles have fallen short so often that a 3 percent conversion rate is considered a big success. Carefully selected TV shows and radio formats have failed to deliver equally as often. And now email opt-in lists are disappointing a whole new generation of advertisers.

Not surprisingly, it is media salespeople who are largely responsible for today's overemphasis on "reaching the right customer." After all, if they told you the truth – that business reputations and advertising results are built on saying the right thing rather than reaching the right person – they would have no leverage to convince you that you need to reach exactly who they're trying to sell you.

In your next ad, try targeting through the content of your message rather than through demographic profiles.

There are four simple steps in creating a sharply targeted message:

1. Choose whom to lose. You can't really know who you're targeting until you can name who you're not targeting. Inclusion is tied to exclusion. The Law of Magnetism is that attraction can be no stronger than repulsion. In the following example, I'm choosing to lose bargain-hunters and posers. (Not that there's anything wrong with bargain hunters or posers. In another campaign, I might target them with great success.) When you're saying the right thing, you'll be surprised at how many people suddenly become "the customer you needed to reach."

2. Gain their attention. If the reader/listener/viewer isn't with you, you're toast. We live in an over-communicated society whose attention has been fractured by too much media. So never assume that people will be paying attention to your ad. Assume instead that you must wrestle their thoughts away from powerful images and distractions that are tugging at their mind. "If the lowest price is all you're after, this isn't the camera for you." That headline/opening statement attracts the quality conscious consumer to the same degree that it repels the bargain hunter. The only task remaining is for us to explain precisely why our camera is worth the premium price we ask.

3. Surprise them with your candor. Traditional hype and ad-speak make today's customer deaf and blind. They can smell hype and phony promises and they're turning away from them in greater numbers every day. So bluntly tell them the truth. Confess the negative or they won't believe the positive. "Another downside of this camera is that it's not the sleekest, prettiest one in its price class. No one is going to tell you how cool your camera looks. The upside is that it takes far superior pictures."

4. Make it make sense. Believability is the key. Tell them how and why your product can deliver what it promises. "The prettiest camera in this price class has a shutter speed of 1/15th of a second. But the shutter speed of the ugly Canon PowerShot S500 is a superfast 1/60th of a second, allowing you to take fabulous photos in low-light situations. Your indoor photos will look rich and vibrant when all the others look dark and grainy. And your nighttime photos will make people's eyes bug out. Beautiful contrast and luminance, even without the flash. This camera can see in the dark. Take a picture of your lover in the moonlight. It will become your favorite photo ever. And that superfast shutter speed is also very forgiving of movement. That's why no one ever replaces their PowerShot S500. Go to your local pawnshop and see if you can find one. We're betting you can't. But you will see several of that "prettier" camera available cheaper than dirt. So if you're looking for a great price on a sleek-looking camera, that's probably where you should go."

See what I mean about choosing whom to lose? Are you beginning to understand the power of candor?

I promise that targeting through copy works. But do you have the guts to do it?

Learn to target through candid copy and then you can have fun laughing at all the media reps who try to convince you that you've got to reach precisely the audience they're selling.

Roy H. Williams

PS - You weren't targeted in any way other than through the copy of the sample ad I wrote. But I'm betting you were impressed with the Canon Powershot S500, were you not?

PPS - VERY, VERY PROUD - My partners Jeff and Bryan Eisenberg became bestselling authors last week with the appearance of Call to Action on the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times bestseller lists. This is the first bestseller ever published by Wizard Academy Press. Way to go, Eisenbrothers!

Beating the system with word of mouth

This is from Eric Peterson's blog about Jeff & Bryan Eisenberg's new book "Call To Action"

<< Beating the system with word of mouth | Main

Eric Peterson | May 27, 2005, 11:13 AM

So much talk lately about social networks and viral marketing, the "new marketing strategy" that will save dying brands and propel new technologies into our homes and lives, but more often than not these strategies are devoid of a plan for monetization or even a way to measure success. How do you measure the net effect of "word of mouth?"

I'll tell you one way, use it to sneak onto the Wall Street Journal (requires subscription) and USA Today bestseller's lists for books, just like my friends Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg did. Rumor has it they'll be listed on the New York Times list as well.

Their new book, Call to Action, is distributed entirely without nationwide bookstore support. Over 90% of the sales have been done online. Through a combination of low pricing and aggressive viral marketing, Bryan and Jeffery have essentially beaten the system at its own game. By working directly with bloggers, pundits and well-known members of the online marketing field, the Eisenbergs were able to spread the word like wildfire. Without spending a dime on anything except a few PRWeb press releases, Bryan and Jeffrey truly leveraged the power of the viral Internet to do something tangible and measurable. Imagine how proud Brian's soon-to-be-born son or daughter will be knowing that his dad is a bestselling author!

"We are so grateful that so many of our friends and colleagues helped us share our message accomplish our goal," said Bryan Eisenberg when we talked this morning. "We weren't really trying to 'beat' the traditional publishing system per se; we wanted to highlight the fact that the rules for marketing are changing every day. Tradional publishers wouldn't have allowed us to publish this book this way, so many of them are out of touch with the new marketing rules where the audience pulls instead of being pushed. Hopefully this will be a wakeup call for book publishers."

The book is great and the marketing strategy even better. I only hope that my upcoming O'Reilly book will sell half-as-well and generate a tenth of the buzz that Call to Action is seeing now.

[ I welcome your feedback ]

MMM for May 16, 2005 by Roy H. Williams

When Numbers Go Bad
A longer-than-average Monday Memo, but worth it.

Are you one who believes the reliability of research is assured when the sample size is adequate and the respondents are properly qualified? If so, "research" will likely lead you to some tragic conclusions if it hasn't done so already.

The problem with most research is that it's done by mathematical types who have little appreciation of the nuances of language. Ask a witness, "How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?" and they will name a much higher speed than if they are asked, "How fast were the cars going when they made contact?" (This is not a speculative assertion. The full report can be found in Essentials of Human Memory by Dr. Alan Baddeley.)

What's missing in most survey writers is an understanding of the illogic that we humans call logic.

Neurologist Richard Cytowic was nominated for a Pulitzer in 1982. This is what he had to say in The Man Who Tasted Shapes: "My innate analytic personality had been reinforced by twenty years of training in science and medicine. I reflexively analyzed whatever passed my way and firmly believed that the intellect could conquer everything through reason. 'You need an antidote to your incessant intellectualizing,' Clark had once suggested, 'something to put you in touch with the irrational side of your mind.'… I had never considered that there might be more to the human mind than the rational part that I was familiar with. It had never once occurred to me that a force to balance rationality existed, let alone that it might be a normal part of the human psyche."

When Cytowic began to study this "force to balance rationality" he learned: "…some of our personal knowledge is off limits even to our own inner thoughts! Perhaps this is why humans are so often at odds with themselves, because there is more going on in our minds than we can ever consciously know."

"If a new soft drink came along that you thought tasted better than your current favorite, would you switch to it?"

"Which of these two colas tastes better to you?"

"Thank you for your opinion. You have been very helpful."

But when New Coke was introduced, America hated it. We were outraged, You're messing with our heritage! New Coke wasn't a genius marketing ploy to remind us of how much we loved old Coke. It was a genuine screw-up, fueled by millions in research.

Joey Reiman, a founding partner of the BrightHouse Institute, (one of Coca-Cola's research partners) gave an interview to the New York Times on Oct 26, 2003. "Focus groups are ultimately less about gathering hard data and more about pretending to have concrete justifications for a hugely expensive ad campaign. ‘The sad fact is, people tell you what you want to hear, not what they really think,' Reiman said. ‘Sometimes there's a focus-group bully, a loudmouth who's so insistent about his opinion that it influences everyone else. This is not a science; it's a circus.'" The article went on to say: "Advertising's main tool, of course, has been the focus group, a classic technique of social science. Marketers in the United States spent more than $1 billion last year on focus groups, the results of which guided about $120 billion in advertising. But focus groups are plagued by a basic flaw of human psychology: people often do not know their own minds."

Ask a person to speculate about what they would do in a particular circumstance and they'll tell you what they truly believe they would do. But when the actual circumstance comes upon them, they do something else entirely. My advice: Quit asking people what they think. Begin watching what they do. Ignore their words; study their actions.

Still not convinced that numbers are easily misinterpreted and misunderstood? In a recent Los Angeles Times article Peter Gosselin writes about economists who won the Nobel prize and then made poor personal investment decisions, sometimes even fumbling the Nobel prize money. He then took a look at the investment decisions of the faculty of Harvard University. His conclusion? The financial masterminds don't do any better than the average goober standing in line at the bowling alley.

Remember the days prior to the bursting of the dotcom bubble? Everyone was talking about "eyeballs" under the assumption that web traffic could easily be translated into dollars. "It's just a numbers game." The Internet was ruled by computer programmers and numbers have long been the language of Wall Street. But any time the flaws and foibles and inconsistencies of humanity are removed from the persuasion equation and the chant begins, "Numbers don't lie," engineers, programmers, researchers and investors will align themselves into a magnificent fool's parade. And then, when the bubble bursts because the fundamental assumption was wrong, they blame it on the introduction of "unforeseen forces."

My partners Jeff and Bryan Eisenberg tried to warn the dotcom world, but no one in those days listened. Jeff and Bryan's heretical notion was that online shoppers are human beings and should be treated as such. "Remove the humanity from the data and you're left with nothing but dangerous digits." Data worshippers pooh-poohed the warning. Today the Eisenbrothers are regarded as two of the preeminent consultants in the world of online marketing. In fact, if the sales numbers can be trusted, their new book, Call to Action should make the Wall Street Journal bestseller list this week and maybe even the New York Times as well.

Let's hope that numbers, this time, can be trusted.

Roy H. Williams

PS – If Call to Action makes the bestseller list, it will be the first book to have done so without the benefit of brick-and-mortar distribution. The entire Call to Action marketing effort was accomplished entirely online. But then again, doesn't it make sense that the bookstore-distribution barrier would finally be shattered by the kings of online marketing? We're keeping our fingers crossed.

PPS – I don't really expect to change anyone's mind today regarding the veracity of numbers. To those with an entrenched left-brain perspective, numbers are a religion and my comments will be summarily dismissed. Those who agree with what I wrote will merely be affirmed in a long-held belief. So no one really changes. Hey, I may wander into strange intellectual territory sometimes, but at the end of the day I'm a clear-eyed realist. See you next week. – RHW

Radio nut spots help ad firm grow niche

By Christine Snyder / Special to The Detroit News

FARMINGTON HILLS -- Sometimes it takes one to know one. That's behind the success Vanguard Creative Group of Farmington Hills had with its award-winning campaign for Kar's Nuts of Madison Heights.

Kar's Nuts is a lot like Vanguard. They were both small and local and weren't household names. The ad campaign Vanguard did for Kar's Nuts not only elevated Vanguard's stature in the advertising world -- it won the 2005 International Summit Creative Awards -- it helped Kar's Nuts elevate its recognition with consumers...

MMM for May 9, 2005 by Roy H. Williams

Power of Weakness

Features and benefits, features and benefits, features and benefits. We've polished our pitches to such a degree that we've dimmed our abilities to persuade. The customer is only half listening because the inner self is asking, "What are they not telling me?"

Those who have heard my 90-minute presentation about the ongoing evolution of Western communication style are familiar with the problem:

1. The fine art of Hype has been perfected and refined.
2. Western culture has been submerged in it, held under until every last pore of our souls has been saturated.
3. Consequently, we've developed an immunity to "ad-speak," the language of hype.
4. But we don't rage against it. We see the half-truth of hype as a fact of life.
5. That's why we're ignoring it.
6. And we're ignoring it in greater numbers every day.

Do you want to surprise Broca, gain the attention of your customer and win back your credibility? Learn to name features, benefits, and downside. Trust me, the customer is already trying to figure out the downside. Why not just tell them? It's the best possible way to insulate yourself from the backlash when they finally figure it out for themselves.

This powerful "tell the truth" technique is easily perverted into just another oily sales trick when the downside you name isn't the real one. As Francois Duc de La Rochefoucauld observed 350 years ago, "We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones."

I'm saying confess the big ones. Knock your customers flat with your candor. Yes, it will cost you a few sales you might otherwise have made. But it will make you far more sales than it costs you.

People aren't as stupid as you think.

Roy H. Williams

PS – That "90-minute presentation about the ongoing evolution of Western communication style" is currently rocking audiences around the world. Are you ready to be knocked out of your box? Can you put together a crowd? Each of my 41 carefully chosen Wizard of Ads partners has been trained and equipped to make this stunning multimedia presentation in my absence. (My absence is usually due to the prohibitive fees I charge for traveling. I hate traveling. Fortunately, several of my partners love to travel.) Why not invite one of them to present to your group? Contact Corrine Taylor to work out the details. But please be patient if she doesn't get back to you quickly. Corrine is truly the world's busiest person. (You just wouldn't believe the number of different things she handles each day.) Corrine can be reached at 800-425-4769 or by email at Corrine@WizardOfAds.com

MMM for Monday May 2, 2005 by Roy H. Williams

The Power of Purpose

"…And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?'" – from the 1st book of Kings, chapter 19

When Elijah focused on his own strength, his knees got weak, his hand began to tremble and his heart melted away. But as long as he kept his vision focused on his mission, he was filled with vitality and confidence and did miraculous things.

Where is your vision focused?

I have endured much questioning about The Quixote Collection at Tuscan Hall. People say, "Wasn't Don Quixote a delusional madman and a laughingstock? Why would you be taken with such a one?"

Here is my answer. As long as Don Quixote's heart was filled with Dulcinea he overcame impossible odds. It was only after his friends convinced him Dulcinea did not exist that his heart shriveled within him.

Each of us needs Dulcinea, a sense of mission and purpose. For without it, there can be no adventure.

An itinerant preacher from Nazareth said, "If your vision is focused, your whole body will be full of light. But if your vision is unfocused, the light that is in you will be darkness. And if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" One of the ways Mathew 6:22 can be interpreted is this: "If a mission consumes you, your life will be filled with optimism, creativity and stamina. But if no purpose fills your heart, the echo of its emptiness will fill your mind with a mournful song."

I believe that millions flounder and whine and are depressed because they refuse to sell their lives to something bigger than they are. They are sad because they have no purpose. Stephen Crane spoke of the power of purpose this way:

A man saw a ball of gold in the sky;
He climbed for it,
And eventually he achieved it --
It was clay.
Now this is the strange part:
When the man went to the earth
And looked again,
Lo, there was the ball of gold.
Now this is the strange part:
It was a ball of gold.
Aye, by the heavens, it was a ball of gold.

- passage 35 from The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895)

Your heart, my friend, is the size of a stadium. If you try to fill it with small things – a new car, a vacation, a promotion at work, a bigger home, a stock portfolio – a mournful echo will fill your life. But if you fill your stadium with all of humanity and search for ways to make their lives better each day, you will find yourself in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing in the right way. Serendipity will come to stay.

Do you have a purpose outside yourself?

Are you climbing for a ball of gold?

Roy H. Williams

"One man, scorned and covered with scars, still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world was better for this." - Don Quixote