How to evaluate an ad - A quick case history
By Ivan Levison, Direct
Response Copywriter
I came across an attractive full page ad recently for Tempur-Pedic
beds. The ad features a large color photo of the bed and a big, bold, two-word
headline:
"Inner strength"
The ad goes on to explain that "The miracle is on the inside" and
that "Our bed utilizes natural principles of physics. Nothing mechanical
or electrical. No motors, switches, valves, air pumps, or water heaters. It
can't break, leak, short-circuit, or stop working" and so forth.
So, how do we judge this ad? Aside from checking response rates, post facto,
and seeing how it performed, how do we decide if this ad, or ANY ad, is going
to be a winner? Here's how I make this judgement...
First, I look at what the ad is attempting to accomplish.
I try to understand the marketing thinking behind the ad. In the case of the
Tempur-Pedic ad we have an example of a purely "educative
sell." In other words the folks at Tempur-Pedic are betting that the prospect
is interested in mattress technology so they devote virtually the entire ad
to explaining how the product works. Here's a typical passage: "Inside
our bed, billions of microscopic memory cells work in perfect harmony to contour
precisely to your every curve."
The ad is fabulous when it comes to explaining why the mattress is unique
and how it is constructed. However the ad is just awful when it comes to providing
the reader with BENEFITS. This seems to me a serious mistake. You see, in my
view the first job of any ad is to solve the reader's problem.
To state a benefit. In the case of the Tempur-Pedic ad, benefits are almost
totally absent. Supportive, educative information that should be secondary
has become the entire ad.
What benefits should have been highlighted?
Well, this isn't rocket science.
The copywriter should have said that with the Tempur-Pedic bed, you sleep better
than ever before and wake up every day
feeling rested, energetic, and raring to go. What's important is the promise
of a good night's sleep. NOT a lesson in mattress making. Thus, if I had to
substitute a two word headline, for the two words, "Inner
strength," I would suggest the obvious: "
Sleep better." Of course, no one said we're restricted to two words!
Just for fun, here are some headlines I just cranked out that I think work
MUCH better than the headline that ran.
Compare each of these to the headline "Inner strength."
- How this miracle bed from Sweden can help you get a
great night's sleep.
- How to get a great night's sleep, every single night.
- Sleep tight every night on the Tempur-Pedic
mattress.
- Sweet dreams start on a Tempur-Pedic mattress.
Next time YOU have to write or evaluate some copy for an ad, direct mail piece,
whatever, don't start writing headlines right away. First, think about the
problem your reader has, and how your product or service can solve it.
Then start writing benefit-oriented lines that are clear, not clever. Believe
me, you won't be far off!
Do you have an article or some useful advice that you you'd like to share?
Please email
the editor with your news to appear in Business Black
Belt as well as on our website.
Dial 411 Free
Are you familiar with this free directory assistance service? Cell phone companies
charge $1.00 or more for 411 (Directory Information) calls when they don't
have to. When you need to use the 411 / information option,
simply dial: 1-800-373-3411 (800-FRE-E411) without incurring a charge at all;
pay only for the minutes required to make the call. Service dials the number
free
of
charge.
Works on home phone also.
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- Dave McClure, Accounting Today, January 2006
Through the other end of the telescope
Sometimes, if we look at something from 180 degrees, an answer presents
itself.
by
Burke Franklin
Investors
want to help if they can.
There are a million reasons
why people won't invest in your business. Certainly you can
give them a million reasons why they should, but one possibility
is that your potential investor doesn't see where they can make a
difference besides writing a check. Maybe I'm a control freak, but
I think my money will fare better if I were able to lend a hand or bring some
talent to that would make a difference.
Like a contractor or an interior designer looking at a home to buy
— they know exactly what to do and who to hire in order
to add value to the home. They have an idea of what it will cost and what the finished result will
likely be worth. Others may not see or be able to capitalize on the
potential because they haven't the skills nor contacts to make the most of the project.
With that idea in mind, let's
look at your prospective business financing from this point of view... The
investor won't invest because they can't make a difference themselves. Can your investor look in their rolodex and find people they can call to make things happen for your company? Can a friend steer your product onto the shelves at a big retailer? Can they call in a favor and get
you in front of an important enterprise executive? Can a phone call get you a link on a prominent website? If not, your deal may not seem so interesting.
What gets investors most excited is when they can see the potential of your deal AND see the
difference they can make in building value. If an investor
can calculate the value of their contribution such that it
guarantees their return on investment, the deal can be a slam
dunk. It's one way of protecting their investment, reducing
risk and assuring success. (Egos being what they are and
people with money often have egos to match, it's possible the investor will overvalue their contribution, making it easier to get
them off the dime.) The more the investor thinks s/he can do, the higher their
perception of the likely return on their investment — they
should invest even more! A gambler invited to deal a few
hands will likely place bigger bets.
Investors must be more than merely interested to make an investment
in your business. They must be excited! Very excited! Finding
an investor and unearthing the potential they have for adding
value to their money can generate a lot more excitement than
trying to convince a reluctant financier of the merits
of your deal without their participation. It's up to you how
far you want them to go—all the way from making a few phone
calls to running the company. You could even give someome one
stock as payment
for similar favors, but wouldn't they want to make even
more by owning a piece of the action? Like the contractor
or interior designer, they'll make more money on their improvements
if they own the home first.
Do you have an article or some useful advice that you you'd like
to share?
Please email
the editor with your news to appear in Business Black Belt as well
as on our website.
Update: Success with Credit Cards
Excerpted from Reader's Digest
 When
we saw this issue of Reader's Digest, we thought of you! They ran an article
entitled 9 Money Rules of Thumb by Kimberly
Lankford that
originally ran in Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Below is just Rule
#1. Check out page 95 of the July 2005 issue of Reader's Digest
for the complete article.
The article's first "rule of thumb" is "Close credit accounts
you no longer use." Kimberly Lankford's verdict is Thumbs Down. Assuming
your history with those accounts is good, cut up the cards, but keep the
accounts open so you don't hurt your credit score.
When lenders decide whether to extend credit, they look at how much of your
available credit you're already using—poetically called your utilization
ratio. Let's say you have five credit cards, each with a $10,000 limit, and
your total balance is $6,000. That gives you a utilization ratio of 12%—not
bad, in the eyes of the lenders. But if you close four of those accounts,
your ratio suddenly jumps to 60%--not good. "You haven't borrowed an
additional nickel, but on paper it looks as if you're closer to being overextended," says
Craig Watts of Fair Isaac, the company that developed FICO credit scores.
Ideally, you should keep your utilization ratio below 50%, says Maxine Sweet
of the credit reporting company Experian.
In our experience, we have been told by lenders that is best for people
to keep their balance on each credit card at 40% or below the credit
limit for that particular card.
Focus
on Your Goal, Not on How You’ll Get There
By Burke Franklin
Author, Business
Black Belt
After we figure out what we want,
we usually start to strategize how to get it. I'm sure you can do what
takes to get what you want, but that may be the very place you get yourself
into
trouble. Often, we can achieve the same result in a variety of ways.
This lesson is about understanding the what and not getting tangled up in the how you
will succeed. Otherwise, you might well miss the perfect opportunity for getting
exactly what you want (or better).
The phenomenon goes something
like this: you establish what you want, then you set about the process of
how to get it. Given your resources and knowledge, you develop a strategy,
then a plan of action—as crude as it may be. At this point, your energy shifts
away from your goal to your action plan. The goal itself is almost forgotten
in favor of all the things you now have planned to do.
How often has this happened to
you? A salesperson is pitching their product and misses the part where you
say, “Yeah, I’ll take one.” That was their goal, but the salesperson keeps
on selling anyway. You want to buy. The sale just happened sooner than they
thought it would. Some salespeople think that the only way to make their
sale is to give their complete pitch and do a series of certain things because
that's what it takes to sell their product. “Yeah, I’ll take one,” is often
a reaction many salespeople aren't prepared to handle. The salesperson is
too focused on how the sale should happen versus being connected enough with
you to realize that their goal has been achieved without having to follow
their predetermined plan.
A customer of ours wrote a business
plan to attract an investor to give him the cash he needed to buy a LearJet
to start a jet charter company. While the investors were grilling him, another
guy who owned a couple of jets read the plan and decided that his planes
would be better cared for and leased more frequently with our customer...
instead of cash, our customer got two jets! What if our customer was stuck
on the idea that he first needed cash, then he could buy a jet? What idea
are you stuck on?
Sometimes, if a better solution
comes along that doesn’t fit our plans, or it doesn’t match our expectations
of what we thought would or should happen, we may pass it by. We ignore it.
It's not right. (We make it wrong.) It's not going to work. We often lose
sight of what we want. While our head is down working our scheme, we often
miss the fact that we’ve achieved our goal, or that it may be down a different
path.
Go ahead and make something your
goal and start to figure out how you’ll achieve it. Remember to keep the result you
want as your top priority, in the event that a different way of reaching
it shows up unexpectedly.
How to tune your mind
for solutions
Let's take this a step further: Think for a moment about the color red.
Look around right now for everything that is red. Notice how everything
red jumps
out at you. Now try it again with the color green. See how easy it is to tune
your mind for what you’re looking for? Try this: Look at your life and focus
for a moment on your problems. What’s wrong? (Keep looking around with focused
intensity and I'm sure you can come up with a depressing list...) On the ther
hand, look at your life and selectively see what works. What’s working
for you now? Do you usually look for what works or what doesn’t work around
you? What if you were to consciously tune your mind to seek opportunities and
solutions to your problems just like you looked for the colored objects? It’s
impossible to find solutions while your mind is tuned to problems. It’s also
impossible to find solutions when you are looking for reasons why your problems
are the problems they are. Instead, what are some solutions that might work?
In this case, listening may be the mode that will attract the best
solution.
When you are
having a 'bad day,' try taking a mental inventory of everything that is
working in your life. Remember to be grateful to those who provide the
good stuff. Acknowledge your gratitude for your 'luck,' what does work,
who is doing a good job, that you can see this page, and even that you
live on high ground this week.
Anytime you’re having
a bad day, look to see what you are focused on. See what happens when you
shift focus. Change colors. If you have invested a little time in analyzing
the problem and clarifying any assumptions, this process of finding a solution
or achieving your goal will become easier.
Nature is constantly talking
to you—with answers and directions
Ever wonder why you hear a certain song over and over again? Ever wonder why
different people make similar comments to you? Ever wonder why particular situations
repeat themselves?
Finish reading this chapter
http://www.jian.com/support/answers.html?category=Business+Black+Belt+Chapters#faq1026089810
Support Spotlight
 MMACS - Computer
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Tax Tricks
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