Normally, a writer has to work to bring things around, full circle, in order to show character change, making it a bit more difficult to pick out and showcase the set-ups and payoffs.  But the “stuck in the same day” premise of Groundhog Day removes that difficulty, allowing the creation of mashup like the one below.  A mashup that perfectly demonstrates the beauty of set-ups and pay-offs  : )

Click here to view the embedded video.

P.S. If you’re a fan of the movie, you might also enjoy this blog post on Groundhog Day’s “Hidden Heroin”

Happy Belated Groundhog Day is a post from: Jeff Sexton Writes

And in an online world dominated by Direct Response, reason-why advertising, creative, “branding” ads often do seem utterly indulgent wastes.

But for all that, the basic truths of real-word marketing remain:

1) People don’t make buying decisions rationally.

2) Some messaging can only be credibly delivered BEFORE the prospect is in the market for the product or service

3) Getting people to pay attention to messaging for products they’re not buying now requires ads capable of interesting them with something other than the sales offer itself

Combined, this means that hitting potential, at-some-point-to-be prospective customers with recurrent, emotionally resonant messaging that will sink in BEFORE and be “reactivated” or “recalled” WHEN they are ready to buy works in ways that direct sales messages don’t. But that kind of advertising requires creativity.

So let’s take these one at a time, in greater depth:

People Don’t Make Buying Decisions Rationally

I was on the phone the other day with the owner of a B2B Lead Generation company. I won’t say exactly what he sold, but it definitely falls into the realm of big-ticket, considered purchase equipment. And according to his considerable historic data, most companies compiled their “short list” of possible suppliers based on gut feel.

Here’s a feel for how that works:

• There are a handful of tier 1 behemoth’s that most people put on the list, following the “nobody ever got fired for going with IBM” mentality.
• There are a score or so of smaller tier 2 suppliers that may well be better options than the 3 or so tier 1 providers. Due to the amount of these tier 2 providers and the very nature of being tier 2, it’s likely that either none of them, or only 1 or 2 of them will make the list.
• The decision of which tier 1 providers to put on the list and which tier 2 providers to add to that list gets made in conversation over a few minutes, mostly off of reputation, gut feel, and sales relationships. It almost never gets made from exhaustive analysis, reference to specifications, pricing, etc.
• Once the short list is made, THEN the research gets done, the bids go out, etc.

Anybody who understands this knows that the real battle for any Tier 2 provider ISN’T a battle for specifications or price. The real battle is the battle for the short list. And if 20 potential vendors are narrowed down to 1 or 2 in a matter of minutes, then it’s a battle determined almost entirely by Top of Mind Awareness and Gut-Level reputation.

Also, keep in mind that this is the buying process for a very dry, technical, considered purchase. If that doesn’t get bought in a rational manner, what does?

Now, most people use Blendtec as an example of “Viral Marketing” or the power of YouTube. Frankly, I think that represents what Bob Hoffman calls, “arguing from the extreme” — as in what percentage of videos go viral? And what percentage of those are commercial in nature? And what percentage of those actually manage to impact sales?  So as an example of those things, Blendtec is a veritable freak of nature.

But as an example of winning the battle of the short list through creative advertising, Blendtec is right on the money. Very few people probably saw those videos and rushed out, on the spot, to buy themselves a Blendtec blender, in some sort of direct response frenzy. Operators were NOT standing by, after all.

What DID happen, though, was that people saw those videos, filed that attention-grabbing demo away for future use, and ended up putting Blendtec on their short list when it did come time to shop for a high-end blender. A neat little trick that more than doubled sales. And a trick that wasn’t done with spec sheets and data points, but through a creative, whacky demo.

Some Messaging Can Only Be Credibly Delivered BEFORE “Go Time”

Few people want to believe they’re “susceptible” to advertising. Nor at first glance, should they, as most of us DO discount paid-for message in light of the obvious self-interest and bias. But that’s only in the short term, while we’re consciously thinking about it.

But that’s not what happens over time. The latest psychological research shows that over time the emotional messaging imparted from the advertising sticks while our intellectual discounting of the message wears away. So over time, intelligently crafted advertising DOES affect our internal, gut-feel of the brand.

Get it?  Tell me you have the ideal solution for me when I need what you sell, and I’ll discount your claim. Convey that same claim to me through your ads, before I need what you sell, and — with some luck and skill — I’LL have a gut-level feeling that you’ll be the best provider to buy from.

In other words, the battle for the short list has to be won BEFORE the battle — with creative advertising! Or as Leo Burnett would say, “Before you can have a share of market, you must have a share of mind.”

3) If you can’t grab their attention with WIIFM, your ad had better be INTERESTING

Since I just quoted Burnett, let me also give you Bernbach quote to go with it:

“The truth isn’t the truth until people believe you, and they can’t believe you if they don’t know what you’re saying, and they can’t know what you’re saying if they don’t listen to you, and they won’t listen to you if you’re not interesting, and you won’t be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.”

In other words, without some amount of creativity — the “imaginatively, originally, freshly” part — you’re sunk.

And that makes sense, doesn’t it? If I’m talking to you about some product or service you’re currently ready to buy, I’ve already had a certain amount of relevance given to my messaging just based on circumstance. But if your NOT currently in the market for what I’m selling, then my messaging has to gain your attention through some other means. That’s where creativity comes in.

Creativity also factors into making a point felt, rather than just understood, which is sort of important if you’re trying to impart a “gut feel.”

Want an example of all this?

OK. Here’s a radio ad from my colleague Chuck McKay. It was written for a firm of divorce lawyers.  Take a listen and see for yourself just how much creativity is or is not a key factor in the effectiveness of this ad:

Chuck’s Ad for Oneil

P.S. Chuck will be doing a “Free Consulting Friday” promotion tomorrow. Want a chance to pick Chuck’s brain for free?  Drop him an e-mail telling him your marketing problem/question, and he’ll schedule a phone call with you.

Winning the Battle for the Short List is a post from: Jeff Sexton Writes

1) Practical Tactical Tuesday

2) Theory Thursday

I’m aiming for an interesting theoretical post each Thursday, followed up by perhaps a case study or a quick and dirty how-to on the following Tuesday.  In between, I might throw in some shorter link-based posts, lists, and interviews, but I’m not promising those on any kind of regular basis — just the Tuesday & Thursday content.

So look for the first ever Theory Thursday post tomorrow, and in the meantime, here’s a quick thought and a cool article worth sharing:

“According to the Bible, when Christ stood up and made his sermon on the Mount he preached to the masses. he didn’t get up on that rock and say, ‘I’d like to talk to 18–25 year old ABCs, with a predisposition to change and a disposable income of X.’ No, he got up an preached to as many people as possible.”  - Sir John Hegarty

And here’s a pretty good article talking about this exact same advertising mistake:

The King’s Comeuppance: How the Hottest Ad Agency of the Aughts Fell from Grace

P.S. Hat Tip to my colleague, Steve Rae, for forwarding the Slate article to me.

New Columns: Theory Thursday & Practical Tactical Tuesday is a post from: Jeff Sexton Writes

Now, as a marketer, the Empathy and Focus parts are second nature — at least in terms of understanding.  Putting them into practice every day is harder stuff, but any copywriter that doesn’t understand the importance of empathizing with the prospective customer and focusing in on their primary buying motivations and concerns isn’t a copywriter at all.

It’s the last element most marketers and copywriters screw up or overlook: the importance of Imputed Quality.  Not nuts and bolts, specification-driven build quality or value for the dollar quality.  But quality cues that tap into buyers’ pre-existing mental imprint of luxury and virtuous manufacture.  The telling detail that says everything.

Want to see an example of imputed quality used in copy?  Here ya go:

Notice that the actual build quality is detailed by the bullet points of the body copy, while the imputed quality — the telling detail — is given pride of place within the headline of the ad itself.*

Of course, this sort of quality cue or imputed quality factor has to be already existing or freshly baked into the product or service itself before it can be advertised, but recognizing the need for it — and doing the patient research and digging to find it — is one of the major keys to writing copy that works.

Apple of course, is a master at this, which is one reason they are renowned design icons, because inspired design imputes high quality. But it’s also why Apple never skimps on screen quality, keyboard feel, and the overall polish put on their user interfaces: those are the sort of tangible, experiential things that impute quality.

Yes, of course, we expect real quality from an Apple product in the sense of freedom from typical PC-like annoyances, annoyances brilliantly dramatized and mocked by Apple’s “I’m a Mac” campaign.  But even if you knew nothing about Apple or PCs and just LOOKED at the competing products laid side by side, you’d intuitively get that one set of products were special and nicer than the rest.  Regardless of how their internal components and specs stacked up.

So Here Are My 3 Takeaways from This:

1) Quality is important, but quality without imputed quality will go unrewarded in the marketplace.

2) Business owners should never expect customers to recognize quality and should “bake” imputed quality into their offerings.

3) Copywriters who fail to use imputed quality cues will end up with underperforming ad copy.

P.S. — Want to see an already-existing quality cue in action? Check out these guys thudding the door closed on a Mercedes:

Click here to view the embedded video.

P.P.S. — How do I know that Ogilvy diligently searched for product facts that would help him find and recognize important quality cues?  Because he listed research twice when explaining his copywriting methodology!  Steps 3 and 5 both emphasize the importance of research and facts.

* For a more detailed analysis of this famous Ogilvy Ad, check out my old GrokDotcom post.

Two Kinds of Quality is a post from: Jeff Sexton Writes

Kindness and Professionalism

And while Tim has drilled down to discover the 7 elements in small business Kindness and Professionalism (which you should consider a must-read), for me the real genius is in his general formula of “Kindness and Professionalism.”  Why?

Because it’s the opposite of “Adding insult to injury.”

Believe it or not most medical malpractice suits, along with most “United Breaks Guitars” PR and word of mouth catastrophes all prominently feature both elements — often with the “insult” taking precedence over the injury.

Imagine what would typically happen without the “Insult.” If united broke the guitar and then apologized and even only partially compensated Dave Carroll for the loss, do you still think he would have made that video. Think about that: even if the ordeal still cost Dave hundreds of dollars — even if the “injury” part of the equation was still present — that element alone would never have sparked a viral YouTube revenge without the added injury of an uncaring and calloused bureaucratic response.

But flipping the equation goes beyond avoiding PR nightmares; adding kindness to professionalism offers a powerful mental framework for creating emotionally compelling customer service.  And these elements are present in every “WOW” customer service story you’ll ever hear or experience, whether it’s the I Heart Zappos story, the various Nordie stories, and so on.

So, think about it: Kindness and Professionalism.

And then head on over to Tim’s blog to see everything that can go into each part of that dynamic duo.

The Opposite of “Adding Insult to Injury” is a post from: Jeff Sexton Writes

If you’re new to the blog, here are a few of my previous posts on the topic:

• One Tough Mother’s Magical Advertising Secret
• Magical Thinking and McDonald’s
• A First Class Ticket

If you’re a little fuzzy on the concept of magical thinking, I recommend this Psychology Today article by Matthew Hutson. But my short and biased take on it goes something like this:

None of us are naturally, inherently rational beings. Our natural thinking patterns are “magical” rather than scientific. It takes a conscious attention to banish the magical and reinstate a scientific view of things.

So regardless of how thoroughly sound-minded you may think you are, there’s a part of you that still thinks magically. You still believe in magical contagion, which is why you treasure first edition, signed copies of books, or you dad’s deer rifle, or a baseball caught at a big league game, and so on. It’s why you wouldn’t want to live in a house formerly lived in by a serial murderer — or worse, a home were violent murders took place. And it’s why you would hesitate to deface a picture of a loved one.

And this matters because the part of us that actually affects our decision-making process is the part that still thinks magically — our emotional, lizard brain. Pretty obvious why every marketer should be intimately familiar with magical thinking, right?

Want to hear more?  Go listen to the interview.

P.S.  If you think Magical Thinking is only something other people engage in, go ahead and try this experiment — I dare you! Go print out a picture, preferably a headshot, of your kid and then stick a knife through it. If you can’t, or simply “won’t” do it, or even if you hesitate to do such a thing and feel funny about it, then congratulations: you just got a first-hand experience with Magical Thinking.

Magical Thinking is a post from: Jeff Sexton Writes

Your most beautiful post

While I hesitate to call any of my posts beautiful (as none of the prose qualifies), there have been one or two posts on beautiful and heartfelt subjects, and this interview with Steven Pressfield is one of them And just in case an “interview post” is considered cheating, I’ll throw this one in as well:

• A Belated Thank You

Your most popular post

In looking back through Google Analytics, the front-runner for page views was this pre-release review of Dan and Chip Heath’s highly anticipated book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.

But I tend to suspect that the front-runner position of that post has a lot more to do with the popularity of the Heath Bros’ (deservedly) best-selling book, and a lot less to do with any particular blogging excellence on my part. Luckily for me, my close-second most popular post was also my most controversial…

Your most controversial post

I had no idea this post on the Website for Best Made Axe would be as controversial as it was, but I stand by my initial premise: if you’re going to declare yourself the “best made” it’s only natural to expect to find substantiation of that claim on your Website. When that evidence isn’t found on the site, it causes doubt in the mind of the consumer.

Fortunately for Best Made Co, they do so many other things right with their marketing, that the lack of substance on the Website hardly matters.  And I think it is to their great credit that both the head of Best Made Co.‘s Facebook fan page and one of the founders of the company came to comment on the post.

Also, for what it’s worth, my intent with the post was always to help other small-scale producers understand an important aspect of persuasive websites, and not to slam Best Made Co. Anyway, it’s still good reading, IMHO:

• Better Web Marketing for Best Made Axe

Your most helpful post

This is a tough one because all of my posts are aimed at being helpful. But I think that this post managed to tie together a bunch of really worthwhile insights in an interesting and fun package centered around the blockbuster flick, Inception:

• Inception’s 4 Rules for Ultimate Influence

A post whose success surprised you

This particular post was fairly personal and off-topic for me, so I was surprised to find out that it resonated with as many readers as it did.  Of course, after a moment’s reflection, it wasn’t surprising at all, since the core essay featured in the post has been consistently popular ever since it was first penned by Keith Bell.  Check it out, you’ll probably like it too:

• Winning Isn’t Normal

A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved

I think most web and direct response copywriters have been so ingrained with the “reason-why” advertising mantra that we sometimes don’t know quite what to do when we’re either short on demonstrable points of difference or benefits, or legally prohibited from proclaiming them in our advertising. This post represents at least one tried and true solution to that problem, but it got precious little attention. I think you’ll like it:

• A First Class Ticket

The post that you are most proud of

I’m proud to have written a handful of guest posts for Copyblogger, and especially proud of how well this one turned out. It was a very solid post to begin with and Sonia Simone did a brilliant job editing it while Brian Clark did his usual amazing job at creating a must-read headline:

• The Common Sense Mistake that Makes Your Writing Lifeless

And that’s it. Thanks for reading and a special thanks to Paul for nominating me to participate in this contest in the first place

7 Posts for Paul is a post from: Jeff Sexton Writes

I always assumed Avis foolishly dropped it out of boredom. Some brand manager wanted to put his “mark” on things and foolishly killed the goose that was laying golden eggs. But that’s not nearly as interesting as what really happened…

See, a few years after Avis and Doyle Dane Bernbach launched their legendary campaign, Hertz (aka No. 1) got nervous about how quickly Avis was gobbling up their market share.  So Hertz got  wise and hired the other legendary creative agency of the day: Ally & Gargano.

And here’s the counter-campaign that Carl Ally created for Hertz:

Hertz basically took that “No. 2″ position and rammed it right up Avis’s arse, detailing point by point what customers give up when they rent cars from the smaller company: locations, car selection, guaranteed performance, customer support infrastructure, etc.  And you gotta love that ending line: “No. 2 says he tries harder.  Than who?”

That counter-campaign went for the throat.  And the results show that it worked:

To the right you’ll see a snapshot from a leaf of a new book on Ally & Gargano.  You can find a digital version of the entire page here. But the important points to note are:

1) “After only 90 days from the start [of the campaign], Avis abandoned their extremely successful campaign and quickly created advertising with no references to Hertz, Trying Harder, or being Number 2.”

2) From the launch of the campaign at the tail-end of 1966, Avis’s market share flat-lined and Hertz maintained their position as the leader in the industry (which wouldn’t have happened had the earlier trends continued on for another 2 years).

And that’s what happened to the famed “We’re Number 2″ advertising campaign.

So what are the lessons to take away from this?

First, I think Avis wimped out on this one. If they were vulnerable on their branding, it was because they weren’t factually living up to their “We Try Harder” claim. But even then, they could have re-vamped their customer experience and fought back rather than voluntarily surrendering the one campaign that was actually working for them.

Before the Avis campaign was launched in 1963, Bill Bernbach insisted that Avis revamp their fleet and actually improve the customer experience so that he had a “better reality” to advertise. If Avis was really serious about keeping the campaign — and they should have been — why didn’t they make another revamp and show exactly how they “tried harder” than Hertz

Second, you simply can’t afford to ignore great advertising. If a competitor has launched an immensely successful ad campaign that resonates with the public and that’s driving increased market share, you must respond. And the only way to do that is with great advertising of your own.

Third, counter branding works both ways. Ries and Trout famously advised challenger brands to “find the weakness in your competitor’s strength” and that’s exactly what Avis did with their “No. 2″ campaign. But “Marketing is often a battle for legitimacy.  The first brand that captures that concept is often able to portray it’s competitors as illegitimate pretenders.”* And that’s how Hertz countered Avis’s counter branding — by recasting Avis as an illegitimate pretenders to the “customer service” throne.

At least, those are my takeaways.  I’d be thrilled to read yours in the comments…

* Quote taken from The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Answering a Competitor’s Killer Campaign is a post from: Jeff Sexton Writes