Blog

Sex or money?

September 15, 2006

Depending on the specifics, both can be pretty motivating, can’t they?

Actually, sex and money are two of the eight key benefits that trigger us to buy something. Heck, they trigger us to buy just about everything. Want to know the other six?

Drew’s Eight Emotional Buying Triggers

1. Time/convenience

2. Money

3. Recovering something lost (like your youth)

4. Sex

5. Knowledge/self improvement

6. Security/safety

7. Comfort

8. Care of loved ones

Marketers love to list features. That’s because they are too lazy or too egocentric and can’t stop thinking from their own point of view. When a marketer is smart and thinks from the buyers’ shoes, they talk benefits. Help your customers achieve one of the above motivators and you have a sale.

Want to read more about the subject of emotional buying? Check out Daniel Goleman’s "Working With Emotional Intelligence." It’s a fascinating read.

Don’t make your potential customers figure it out for themselves. Whether you are offering them an hour to spend with their kids, sex appeal, or an extra $20 in their pocket — tell them!

More

Beware of the duh factor

September 2, 2006

I recently saw an ad with the tagline "the difference is our people!" It doesn’t matter what business it was for because many businesses claim this as their unique point of difference. No offense to all of the businesses that think this is what makes them stand out from their competition — but duh. Everyone claims that they have great peopler, ergo great customer service. And the truth is…most of them do. To break through the marketingplace, we need to be about more than good customer service.

Why? Don’t people want good service. Sure. But they also expect it. It’s a duh. A given. If you don’t provide good customer service, you’re not going to keep their business. Don’t you think most businesses are hustling to serve their customer? That’s not a brand — it is a cost of doing business. An expectation.

Another popular duh is competency. Companies will tout their expertise as though their competitors are completely incompetent. The reality is that’s just not true. To create marketing materials or ads that claim "we’re good at what we do" is a waste of resources. Again, your consumer assumes you’re qualified to do your job. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be even under consideration. Skill-level or competency is a show me message, not a tell me. It’s a little like honesty. If someone has to keep telling you that they’re honest, pretty soon you wonder why they are making such a big deal about it.

So why do companies rely on "duh" level taglines or promises? Because it’s easy. It doesn’t require digging deeper to find out what really does set them apart from their competition. Double-check yourself. Are you taking the easy way out and making a duh promise?

More

Welcome!

September 1, 2006

Welcome to the blog of Drew McLellan, author of 99.3 Random Acts of Marketing and owner of McLellan Marketing Group, where strategy and passion collide!

My goals for this blog are simple — to have a dialogue. To share my thoughts and expertise. And to learn from yours. I’m open to using this forum to answer questions, to explore possibilities or just to rant a little!

I hope you’ll come back often. Invite your friends. Make a few new ones here.

More

« Previous 1 … 179 180 181