Without the Pomp and Circumstance
Without the Pomp and Circumstance
In making the ad that sells, it is not about you, or your product, or your company.
Yes, branding is okay. Being perceived as the expert, as trustworthy, is okay.
Having a great product is okay – even great.
But before all the smoke and mirrors, before the hype about your product and its features and its details and what sets it apart from everything else – you have to zero in on what is important, zero in on the hero in the story.
The customers.
What’s in it for them. Why should they buy. What of their many needs are you answering.
The problem with many entrepreneurs is that they do not zero in on their customers. They are more occupied on what they are about than what their customers are about.
But the customer is king. He is the decision maker. He makes or breaks every product.
Thus, in making an ad copy, the customer has to be the hero in the story. He has to identify with the product, it must make an impression on him. But how? A customer is bombarded by a thousand different thoughts and images and imprints that tug on his attention.
The League of Extraordinary Minds has a renegade solution. One of the experts in their panel discussion said that entrepreneurs must touch pain points.
Christophe Morin, one of the experts on neuromarketing interviewed by Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren, told of a story where he and his team tested a hypothesis on the psychology of customers. He and his team engaged the help of a homeless person which frequently haunted a corner in San Francisco in this experiment. This homeless person typically held a pathetic sign which said, “Please help!” or something similar, and people would give him only a few bucks each day. This expert’s team told the homeless person that they would give him a generous donation if (1) he would carry a sign for them and (2) he would come to their office at the end of the day and make a report on how the day turned out. The homeless person said yes. At the end of the day, the homeless person returned, still aghast at his good fortune (he had quite a good day), made the report and collected the generous donation.
So what did his sign say? His sign said simply, “What if you were hungry?”
What happened here? Rather than putting it on the perspective of the person begging and wanting attention, the message was designed to appeal to the most ancient brain structure (old brain) of the customers (alms givers), and this old brain (as the expert said) is terribly selfish and programmed towards self-preservation.
So what is the lesson here? The secret is the message and the underlying psychology. How well do you know your customers? What will trigger their interest? What message will touch their pain points?
It seems incredibly orchestrated, contrived and staged, I must admit. But if you really have a good product that would be of great benefit to the world, then this could be one of the ways to get it out there.
If you try it, and you must, please let me know if it works.
Article by Issa. Art by Danvic Briones. Copyright 2009-2011.
Website: www.YouWantToBeRich.com
Email: issa@youwanttoberich.com
P.S. You can still register for the 2011 Money Summit here.
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