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 9 secrets Mark Twain taught
us about advertising
“Many a small thing
has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”
Advertising is life
made to look larger than life, through images and words that promise a wish
fulfilled, a dream come true, a problem solved. Even Viagra follows Mark
Twain’s keen observation about advertising. The worst kind of advertising
exaggerates to get your attention, the best, gets your attention without
exaggeration. It simply states a fact or reveals an emotional need, then
lets you make the leap from “small to large.” Examples of the worst:
before-and-after photos for weight loss products and cosmetic surgery—both
descend to almost comic disbelief. The best: Apple’s
"silhouette" campaign for iPod and the breakthrough ads featuring
Eminem—both catapult iPod to “instant cool” status.
“When
in doubt, tell the truth.”
Today’s advertising is full of gimmicks. They
relentlessly hang on to a product like a ball and chain, keeping it from
moving swiftly ahead of the competition, preventing any real communication
of benefits or impetus to buy. The thinking is, if the gimmick is outrageous
or silly enough, it’s got to at least get their attention. Local car
dealer ads are probably the worst offenders--using zoo animals,
sledgehammers, clowns, bikini-clad models, anything unrelated to the
product’s real benefit. If the people who thought up these outrageous
gimmicks spent half their energy just sticking to the product’s real
benefits and buying motivators, they’d have a great ad. What they don’t
realize is, they already have a lot to work with without resorting to
gimmicks. There’s the product with all its benefits, the brand, which
undoubtedly they’ve spent money to promote, the competition and its
weaknesses, and two powerful buying motivators—fear of loss and promise of
gain. In other words, all you really have to do is tell the truth about your
product and be honest about your customers’ wants and needs. Of course,
sometimes that’s not so easy. You have to do some digging to find out what
you customers really want, what your competition has to offer them, and why
your product is better.
“Facts
are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.”
In advertising, you
have to be very careful how you use facts. As any politician will tell you,
facts are scary things. They have no stretch, no pliability, no room for
misinterpretation. They’re indisputable. And used correctly, very
powerful. But statistics, now there’s something advertisers and
politicians love. “Nine out of ten doctors recommend Preparation J.” Who
can dispute that? Or “Five out of six dentists recommend Sunshine Gum.”
Makes me want to run out and buy a pack of Sunshine right now. Hold it.
Rewind.
“Whenever you find
you’re on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.”
Let’s take a
look at how these stats—this apparent majority—might have come to be.
First off, how many doctors did they ask before they found nine out of ten
to agree that Preparation J did the job? 1,000? 10,000? And how many
dentists hated the idea of their patients chewing gum but relented, saying,
“Most chewing gum has sugar and other ingredients, that rot out your
teeth, but if the guy’s gotta chew the darn stuff, it may as well be
Sunshine, which has less sugar in it.” The point is, stats can be
manipulated to say almost anything. And yes, the devil’s in the details.
The fact is, there’s usually a 5% chance you can get any kind of result
simply by accident. And because many statistical studies are biased and not
“double blind” (both subject and doctor don’t know who was given the
test product and who got the placebo). Worst of all, statistics usually need
the endless buttressing of legal disclaimers. If you don’t believe me, try
to read the full-page of legally mandated warnings for that weight- loss
pill you’ve been taking. Bottom line: stick to facts. Then back them up
with sound selling arguments that address the needs of your customer.
“The difference
between the right word and almost right word is the difference between
lightning and a lightning bug.”
To write really
effective ad copy means choosing exactly the right word at the right time.
You want to lead your customer to every benefit your product has to offer,
and you want to shed the best light on every benefit. It also means you
don’t want to give them any reason or opportunity to wander away from your
argument. If they wander, you’re history. They’re off to the next page,
another TV channel or a new website. So make every word say exactly what you
mean it to say, no more, no less. Example: if a product is new, don’t be
afraid to say “new” (a product is only new once in its life, so exploit
the fact).
“Great
people make us feel we can become great.”
And so do great ads.
While they can’t convince us we’ll become millionaires, be as famous as
Madonna, or as likeable as Tom Cruise, they make us feel we might be as
attractive, famous, wealthy, or admired as we’d like to think we can be.
Because there’s a “Little Engine That Could” in all of us that says,
under the right conditions, we could beat the odds and catch the brass ring,
win the lottery, or sell that book we’ve been working on. Great
advertising taps into that belief without going overboard. An effective ad
promoting the lottery once used pictures of people sitting on an exotic
beach with little beach umbrellas in their cocktails (a perfectly realistic
image for the average person) with the line: Somebody’s has to win, may as
well be you.”
“The
universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.”
We’re all
part of the same family of creatures called homo sapiens. We each want to be
admired, respected and loved. We want to feel secure in our lives and our
jobs. So create ads that touch the soul. Use an emotional appeal in your
visual, headline and copy. Even humor, used correctly, can be a powerful
tool that connects you to your potential customer. It doesn’t matter if
you’re selling shoes or software, people will always respond to what you
have to sell them on an emotional level. Once they’ve made the decision to
buy, the justification process kicks in to confirm the decision. To put it
another way, once they’re convinced you’re a mensche with real feelings
for their hopes and wants as well as their problems, they’ll go from
prospect to customer.
“A
human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he
needs.”
Ain’t it the truth.
More money, more clothes, fancy car, bigger house. It’s what advertising
feeds on. “You need this. And you need more of it every day.” It’s the
universal mantra that drives consumption to the limits of our charge cards.
So, how to tap into this insatiable appetite for more stuff? Convince buyers
that more is better. Colgate offers 20% more toothpaste in the giant economy
size. You get 60 more sheets with the big Charmin roll of toilet paper. GE
light bulbs are 15% brighter. Raisin Brain now has 25% more raisins. When
Detroit found it couldn’t sell more cars per household to an already
saturated U.S. market, they started selling more car per car—SUVs and
trucks got bigger and more powerful. They’re still selling giant 3-ton
SUVs that get 15 miles per gallon.
“Clothes
make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
Who gets the girl?
Who attracts the sharpest guy? Who lands the big promotion? Neiman Marcus
knows. So does Abercrombie & Fitch. And Saks Fifth Avenue. Why else
would you fork over $900 for a power suit? Or $600 for a pair of shoes?
Observers from Aristotle to the twentieth century have consistently
maintained that character is immanent in appearance, asserting that clothes
reveal a rich palette of interior qualities as well as a brand mark of
social identity. Here’s where the right advertising pays for itself big
time. Where you must have the perfect model (not necessarily the most
attractive) and really creative photographers and directors who know how to
tell a story, create a mood, convince you that you’re not buying the
“emperor’s clothes.” Example of good fashion advertising: the Levis
black-and-white spot featuring a teenager driving through the side streets
and alleys of the Czech Republic. Stopping to pick up friends, he gets out
of the car wearing just a shirt as the voiceover cheekily exclaims,
"Reason 007: In Prague, you can trade them for a car."
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