“Advertising says to people, here’s what we’ve got. Here’s what it will do for you. Here’s how to get it.” – Leo Burnett, Advertising Pioneer
The late Leo Burnett was an advertising superstar.
Burnett is the guy who created such famous ad campaigns as “Charlie the Tuna,” “The Marlboro Man” and “The Pillsbury Doughboy” – as well as, interestingly enough, “The Lonely Maytag Repairman.”
He often said, “Before you can have a share of the market, you must have a share of mind.” Leo knew his business. He understood people. And that’s the key.
The foundation of all customer relationships are the words we use in our advertising and how we use them. Advertising is applied psychology using the media.
Here’s the basic advertising formula:
Knowledge of Human Psychology + Very Effective Communication = Effective Salesmanship.
That’s it. Sounds simple, right?
It’s not. You’ve really got to work at it. It’s all about being psychologically technically correct in your ads. Unfortunately, many business owners are not.
Numerous mistakes are made in advertising by owners lacking the understanding of the psychology of advertising. That can cost you big time – and put you in a real bad mood as well.
As a result, I’m going to point out what I believe to be the five most common (and costly) mistakes for businesses, so you can avoid these pitfalls, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your advertising, and of course get more bang for your advertising buck:
1. Focusing on features, rather than benefits.
This is a classic advertising sin. It’s very common. It happens all the time with all small businesses.
The usual cause is not understanding that people (all people, including you) consistently listen to the same radio station. The call letters are WII-FM, which stands for “What’s In It For Me?”
Many business owners are preoccupied with the various “cool” (in their minds) features of their business because they paid to have them, and they want to talk about them. Unfortunately, they advertise them from their own personal perspective as a store owner – not from the viewpoint of a customer.
Imagine walking into a Laundromat and see that the signs over the washers have said things like “Holds 40 Pounds,” “Holds 20 Pounds,” etc. Informing customer of the machine capacities in terms of pounds is a complete waste of time.
People don’t weigh their clothes. They just want to know how many loads a machine will hold. In other words, what’s in it for them?
Therefore, instead of indicating the poundage, the signs should say something like “Holds Up to 4 Loads” or “Holds Up to 2 Loads.” You get the idea.
In other words, drive home the benefit, not the feature. Although they may have been impressed with a technical feature when they bought a particular machine because that’s how the equipment salesperson likely sold it to them, the customer won’t be.
There are many other examples of emphasizing benefits over features, such as:
• Instead of saying your Bakery has a lot of variety of bread you can say,” Have you tried making a grilled cheese with our rolled foccacia” (WII-FM benefit: Convenience)
• Instead of advertising that you have spa packages, you can say, “Combining a nail treatment, pedicure, and massage will help you feel good inside and out. WII-FM benefit: Happiness)
• Instead of ignoring the fact that your store has air conditioning, promote that very fact in your window signage during hot-weather months so that customers (and potential customers) know they will be comfortable in your laundry. Many stores simply don’t have air conditioning, or they just don’t use it. (WII-FM benefit: Comfort.)
If you have any comments please post them below.
To Your Prosperity
Ken Barrett
P.P.S Are you a business and need to improve your online presence? Maybe I can help START HERE
