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Do you buy advertising like you buy gum?

Samantha: It was an impulse purchase!
Carrie: Gum is an impulse purchase… this is more than gum!

Samantha trying to justify her cosmetic chemical peel decision
as an impulse purchase she has on Sex and The City.

Carrie has perfectly expressed the reasonable expectation of an “impulse purchase.” Much the same can be said about impulse purchases with your business’s marketing – they should be strictly reserved for stands in grocery shopping lines.

There are many scams, tricks, sneaky tactics, dodgy offers, (you get it…), out there – victims often being new businesses. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.

The issue you face when making an impulse purchase is that you aren’t efficiently thinking about the resulting consequences of this decision, resulting in actions that aren’t working towards the needs of your business as well as wasting a huge amount of money… You need to ask yourself every time, “Is this the highest and best use of my money?”

Stoking your impulses

Sales reps use a lot of tactics in order to sell you something. Some of the common ones include:

Offering “free” editorial with your print Ad purchase, therefore making the “package” more appealing. It can be appealing to have the opportunity to write more about your business, but be warned – the publication usually will have no obligation to print your editorial exactly as you have supplied and may change if they wish. You haven’t paid for the editorial space so it leaves the door of your business wide open.

The allure of “distress rates” which are the rates that are discounted at the 11th hour just before the publication needs to go to print, whereby spaces need to be filled and therefore prices cut. The main issue is you will most likely not have sufficient time to produce a well-structured message and attractive Ad, therefore you are really just placing an Ad for the sake of it.

With broadcast media, (i.e. radio and TV), bundling a schedule with a lot of bonuses. Bonus spots are not paid for by you; therefore the station has no obligation to actually run them. They are the push up bras of the broadcasting world – FILLERS that are all for show – used to make things look bigger, better, and more attractive but when it’s time for action, they seem to disappear… Also, bonus spots cannot be scheduled to the time slots/shows as paid spots can – they can play at any time and therefore you aren’t getting the consistency and repetition required for effective advertising.

Advising you “your competitors are doing it.” This is an all time pet hate tactic used by reps which comes back to the old adage your Mum would have said to you, “If little Jimmy was going to jump off a bridge, would you?” Just because your competitors are, doesn’t mean you should or have to. And being in the same places as your competitors can often work AGAINST you.

If you don’t have an effective marketing message and strategy the above sales rep tactics will cause you to make impulse purchases. The result being, more wasted marketing dollars.

So, keep impulse purchases for the grocery store and out of your business – even if it does sound amazing, as chances are, your impulses will stifle your business’s growth.

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sarah Ripley, Wizard of Ads Australia
Sarah is a young marketer who attempts to challenge the “grey hair syndrome” where you need to be middle-aged and balding to know how to market a business.
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Be aware
Observe and reflect the market you operate in

Number 6 on my Ten Be’s of Better Branding. is well illustrated by this cautionary tale of what happens when you don’t observe and absorb. We’re living in an abbreviated world. The internet and texting is infecting our language with commonly known abbreviated shorthand. Except, maybe it’s not so commonly known.

A friend’s mom thought she was expressing sympathy in an email to someone who’d received news of a tragic loss. While she meant “Lots Of Love,” she was unaware the rest of the world knows LOL means “Laugh Out Loud.” Slightly different message.

Bath and Body Works is similarly unaware. This point-of-sale display in one of their stores left me chuckling. They didn’t know the slang meaning of BBW. Go Google BBW. You won’t find Bath and Body Works. Instead, you’ll find something truly LOL.

Of course, it’s possible Bath and Body Works was engaged in BE #10: Be Playful. Doubt it. There’s no mention of BBW anywhere on their site or stores. Even so, I doubt there’s an optimization plan on earth able to overcome the term’s commonly known meaning.

Be aware of your world. A simple Google search can help you avoid similar mistakes. FYI.

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Play angle of approach for fun and profit

By what magnetic power can the same car be a dream come true to one customer and a rolling piece of scrap to the next? It’s called angle of approach; how you come at something. It’s how you add magnetic appeal to your marketing.

Our point of view is one angle of approach. How you present something is another.  Understanding angle of approach lets you transform an every-day offer into a compelling must-have.

Pitching with magnetic intrigue

A used car salesman in Springfield, Vermont taught me this principle. Looking at a green AMC Gremlin on Jim’s lot, I wondered out loud who would buy such an eyesore. He flashed his used car salesman smile saying, “There’s a butt for every seat.”

But, how could angle of approach make an ugly duckling Gremlin appealing? First, let go of what you see and look through the customer’s eyes. I saw the geekiest ride ever inflicted on America’s highways. But, to a customer looking for a car to ferry family and cargo for a less than the cost of a truck, that green Gremlin was a beautiful sight.

A product or service isn’t good or bad, right or wrong; it is what it is. What separates a runaway success from so-so performance is often an intriguing angle of approach. Do it well and you can give any product magnetic appeal.

Sell better with angle of approach

Let’s say you’re Vivitar. You have a supply of outdated point-and-shoot film cameras. They use this stuff called film. You expose it, spool it back into a canister, take it to the drug store and wait a couple hours to see your pictures.

Who wants those?

How about seniors easily frustrated by technology. What you and I see as a throw-back, a senior will see as a familiar technology they can operate. No confusing software. No tangle of cables. Best of all, you can use it again and again.

“Here’s a camera that works just like the ones you’ve used for years. Point, shoot, get prints to share. Best of all, it’s only $10—0r, two for $5.”

You think I’m kidding? Watch angle of approach at work in this ad found on Engadget:

 

See their way, sell that way in three steps

Getting angle of approach right means seeing it from your customer’s point of view. Maybe that’s how Vivitar saw obsolete cameras as an appealing solution for seniors. You have to look at a problem from other angles; inside-out, from behind, in reverse.

Get the answers to these questions to identify an angle of approach that will move the sales needle:

  1. What do your customers love about what they buy?
  2. How does it improve their daily life?
  3. How would they defend their purchase choice if challenged?

A word of warning about the answers you’ll get: 1) They may not make sense to you. No big. You’re not the customer. And, 2) These answers are only the stepping off point for shaping your presentation, they’re not your marketing destination.

Shaping your marketing with an effective angle of approach magnetizes your message. You’ll know it’s working when you stop saying what’s important to you and begin speaking to the heart of what your customer truly wants.

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Paid vs. earned: secrets of better advertising ROI

Social media solutions are peddled the same way as quick weight loss programs. And, we buy into both for the same reason: we want to believe there’s a quick, instant, easy way to get a better return on our advertising investment. Sure you can. Just like you can get buff without workouts and responsible eating. As one who’s been (and still going) through the fitness mill, I find it particularly satisfying to see a universal truth of the gym proven in advertising: you gotta workout to work it off.

Social media’s Kool-Aid sweet treat is seductive. Who wouldn’t want the viral impact of the Coke Zero-Mentos campaign, or sex appeal of Old Spice’s shower guy ads. But, is it really more cost-effective to earn exposure instead of just paying for it?

While social media’s viral engagement may occasionally generate miraculous results, experience proves it can’t predictably deliver the round-house reach punch of paid media. Evidence is mounting that earned media’s cost-efficiency is best realized as a compliment to paid media; paid drives the eyeballs, social earns engagement.

Co-created engagement

Ray-Ban, Levis, Activision, and Nike are some of the examples used in this discussion where even the largest social media efforts still require paid support to initiate the wave of earned distribution. What does this have to do with your advertising? Invest time to watch this round table on the topic.

Push with paid, pull with earned

You don’t have to be Activision or Nike to apply these same principles. But, you do have to think ahead to synchronize your advertising and social media messaging. Here are five ways you can leverage better results from both:

  • Synchronize messaging. Populate your blog with content tied to your advertising message: when putting specific products on sale, create authentic consumer-centric stories about them on your blog. Speak to your customers’ WHY.
  • Be engaged. Customers will give you their spark, you must provide the fuel.  Monitor comments on your blog to isolate points of interest and pour gas on the fire: join the conversation, add information. You will be communicate with greater connectedness and cement a deeper relationship.
  • Take a stand. Shamelessly take a stand for what you believe. Yes, you will hack off some people. But, you will define yourself clearly to those who agree. Being liked is nice. Being loved is better. My partner Tom Wanek illustrates this point brilliantly in his book Currencies that buy Credibility. Read the chapter about Patagonia. Where do you draw the line?
  • Invite participation. This one is tricky. New Coke is a cautionary tale of what happens when customers are asked what they would like in a new product. Don’t go there. Customers only know about what they already know. Instead, ask how they use your product in unexpected ways, how it has made their life better, why they gladly pay for it. “What do you like about….” If you have done the first three things listed here, you will get answers.
  • Expose yourself. Put a face on your company. Whether you use pictures, Flip videos, or professionally produced videos, bring customers behind the curtain to see who you are. People do business with people. Be personable. Be real. Be available.

Please pass on the Kool-aid

There’s no denying the benefits of earned media. But, it’s only part of the equation. Paid and earned media is like diet and exercise. You build muscle with exercise. You shape up with diet. Paid media is the exercise. Social media is the diet. The work best when you work them together. Just another one of those pesky universal truths.

By the way, the difficult truth about universal truths is, they’re universal. Which brings us to another one: you get what you pay for. How much do you suppose this cost?

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