3 Things About Marketing Every Marketer Should Know, But a Lot of Them Don’t
by 411 Locals | Jul 14, 2014 | Marketing
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Customers don’t care if a business is number one… no really they don’t. In fact a large part of the U.S. psych is dedicated to rooting for the underdog, so if anything being number 1 is a negative in the eyes of most consumers. So why is so much time and effort dedicated to being “Number 1!” Good question. It sounds good right? Number one car seller. Number one plumber. Number one dog walker. And certainly there is a large portion of the general population impressed by it. It’s just that there are a whole lot more people not impressed by it.There are a whole lot more people sort of annoyed with all the number ones going around. Yep, for most Number 1 is just an annoyance.If “Number 1” is not followed by some relevant information, you are wasting your time. Don’t say it. Say something else instead, no matter how much you want to say it. Here’s the other problem, every business says it so even if it happens to be true for one of them, which statistically it has to be, it doesn’t matter because no one believes them when they say it.Here are some simple questions to ask prior to saying “Number 1”- Is there absolutely nothing original you could possibly say that gets the point across in a more interesting way? No? Okay next hurdle.
– Is the sole purpose to build trust and absolutely nothing else? Yes? Okay so far so good.
– Are you really number 1? Just between me and you, seriously, really? Yeah? I like the majority of humans on earth are filled with doubt, but if you insist…
– Can you prove it? If yes you might have a case for saying “Number 1!” But hold on there’s more.
– Do you really want to be the least interesting and least memorable of all of your competitors?In 1962 Avis had 11% of the rental car market. They hired an ad agency called DDB who came up with a campaign theme 99.9% of businesses would probably be furious about and immediately fire the agency, “We’re Only Number 2, We Try Harder.” But they did not and it became one of the most successful campaigns in history. Within four years of running the campaign they had 35% of the entire rental car market.
- For this one we’ll start with the example: In the 1970’s Charmin introduced Mr. Whipple. Mr. Whipple quickly became one of the most disliked individuals on television. Focus groups tried to kill him, the customers complained about him, and even Charmin had enough of him… that is until the sales figures started coming in. By 1975 Mr. Whipple was selling Billions of rolls of TP every year. Not only did they not make everyone happy, they didn’t make anyone happy… and it worked.Don’t try to make everyone happy. In fact, sometimes it’s even okay to piss them off a little. Here is a rule about advertising with absolutely no exception (and there are exceptions to just about every rule in advertising),“When you try to make everyone happy in a marketing campaign, the very best you can do is make everyone indifferent.”
- There were two pictures of the same man hitchhiking. Both had a blank sign. The salesman wrote in the sign, “To Jacksonville” in huge letters because it’s important to get to the point quickly and to make sure everyone sees exactly what you are doing. The salesman, then having passing driver’s attention with the giant letters wrote several paragraphs about what a great co-pilot this hitchhiker is, waxed poetic details about all of the benefits of picking up this hitchhiker, and ended with a strong call to action warning it was the last chance to give this amazing person a ride to Jacksonville.The advertiser wrote in the sign, “To Mom’s for Christmas.”The salesman followed all of the rules of advertising. Simple to the point headline, benefits benefits benefits, call to action. But that’s not advertising, regardless of what the rules might be, and it shouldn’t be marketing. “To Mom’s for Christmas” is what people want to buy. A story. A feeling.
