KFC’s are claiming that their brand new logo is the very first to be visible from space, although I had a feeling that’s been done before (I can almost spot the deckchairs on my roof from Google Earth). Now my suspicions are confirmed and KFC’s claim is in serious doubt!
In any case, I was wondering if they intend to make deliveries to outer space. Just think of those hungry astronauts spotting this latest publicity stunt from orbit and fancying an alternative to dehydrated space rations. Can’t disappoint them can you?
Besides, I’m sure that space-age insulation technology will come in handy to make sure that that bucket of chicken arrives nice and warm.
November 16th, 2006
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Sometimes people write words that mean nothing at all. And racking your brains on nothing is just like trying to divide by zero. All you end up with is a blinding headache.
That’s just what happened to Lewis Green when he read this article called Top 10 Marketing Processes for the 21st Century. Lewis’ blog post about his experience reminded me of a Richard Dawkins article called Postmodernism Disrobed, a review of the book Intellectual Impostors by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont. Richard doesn’t mince his words in his insightful opening paragraph.
Suppose you are an intellectual impostor with nothing to say, but with strong ambitions to succeed in academic life, collect a coterie of reverent disciples and have students around the world anoint your pages with respectful yellow highlighter. What kind of literary style would you cultivate? Not a lucid one, surely, for clarity would expose your lack of content.
Take this quotation from the psychoanalyst Félix Guattari, for example.
We can clearly see that there is no bi-univocal correspondence between linear signifying links or archi-writing, depending on the author, and this multireferential, multi-dimensional machinic catalysis. The symmetry of scale, the transversality, the pathic non-discursive character of their expansion: all these dimensions remove us from the logic of the excluded middle and reinforce us in our dismissal of the ontological binarism we criticised previously.
Enough to give you a bad migraine on a good day! Maybe people like this are just hoping that when you give up trying to figure it out, you’ll assume that you’re the dumb one and leave it at that. The best cure for this kind of headache is prevention and the trash bin is the doctor I’d recommend.
Of course the very same thing happens in advertising - not necessarily because there is nothing to say about a company or product, but because the marketers don’t dig deep enough to find the gold. Sometimes it’s down to there not being enough budget for proper research, other times it’s just lazy marketers to blame. After all it’s easier to weave a web of spin than to build upon solid, convincing facts.
Take the trouble to make every communication with your prospects and clients as clear and meaningful as possible. Find out what you really want to say and carefully choose the best words to express your ideas in a way that is easy to understand.
Of course you can be creative! And by all means use words that conjure vivid images in your reader’s mind. But make sure that the solid foundations your argument is based on show through. Your audience will respect and trust you for that.
October 19th, 2006
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Branding done well can work wonders for your company’s image.
Your business will look better, smarter, more desirable – anything you want. Invest enough in expert brand consultancy and your competition will be left to eat your dust.
But if it’s only skin deep, you’re in big trouble.
***
Seth Godin remarks about the latest ‘slimming’ feature on the new HP cameras. It doesn’t lower your cholesterol. It doesn’t make you any less prone to heart disease or diabetes either. It just makes you appear more attractive to people who don’t get to meet you in person.
***
No amount of branding can cover up bad business practice. If your products don’t perform, if your customer service is lousy… if you are not actively being your brand right down to the core, in every way and every aspect, your customers will find out.
Sooner, or later.
And when they do, all your branding efforts will only serve to bring your shortcomings into stark relief!
October 5th, 2006
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Bob Bly posed an interesting question last week, about grammar and ad copy.
Grammarians, he says, would point out that the word ‘free’ in the term ‘free gift’ is redundant because a gift is, by definition, understood to be free. I think another thing that’s redundant is pointing out that such grammarians are also annoyingly pedantic. It’s also understood.
The word ‘free’ is a recognised eye-catcher and is considered by many to be one of the most powerful words in the advertiser’s toolkit. Far from redundant!
The fact is that there are far more serious grammar rules that get sacrificed in the interest of writing compelling copy. Like using incomplete sentences such as this one. Or this other one. It happens all the time.
Often this deliberate disregard for the very rules so painstakingly drilled into many a young child is necessary to make the writing more interesting, create effect, or simply help it flow.
And yet it drives many a grammarian hopping mad. It’s hardly surprising they don’t get to write ad copy – not even for free!
September 18th, 2006
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Whether you like them or not, puns are part and parcel of the advertising world. Used wisely, they can work well to attract attention or to make a product that much more memorable. Other times they fall flat. But the worst kind of pun has to be the one that creeps in completely unnoticed to undermine the very thing that your advert is trying to promote.
I recently came across one of these little horrors while waiting for my luggage to show up on the conveyor belt at the airport. “The car you need, just 40 steps away!” announced a car rental ad running along the conveyor. It obviously meant to say, “40 paces away”, but I could not help thinking of the kind of steps of the bureaucratic persuasion.
Call me pedantic if you like, but that was the thought that sprang to my mind as a potential client – and it was the exact opposite of what the advertisers intended. What’s more, in our impatient world where the time conscious measure efficiency in mouse clicks and milliseconds, I’m sure I’m not alone!
September 6th, 2006
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It’s been a lot of work immediately before a lot of travelling and the result is that over a month has passed since my last post and, while there are reasons, I have no excuses. I have broken the ‘blog regularly’ rule – the first rule of blogging.
Last week I ran into a couple of Spanish estate agents who blatantly broke the first rule of selling.
My wife and I were in the southern Spanish countryside, looking to buy a plot of land. We had exactly one week to see as much as possible and try and choose the place where our house will one day stand when we move to be closer to her family. A hectic task – and doubly so with a 20-month old child in tow – but we managed it. In the meantime, we got to compare the sales skills of well over a dozen estate agents, and two in particular stood out for entirely the wrong reasons.
One insisted on showing us the part of the countryside where he had grown up, even though we thought it was too far away. Our opinions didn’t matter and we had to politely go on his tour and listen to how great it all was (from his point of view). That over and done with, we asked to see land in another area, closer to the town. ‘I don’t usually take people there because it’s too expensive,’ he said. Needless to say, we were shocked, and I made a mental note not to bother with this guy if I ever had anything ‘expensive’ to sell.
A girl at another agency spoke enthusiastically about how she loved this one house (never mind that we were only interested in land) and thought it was very homely because the front door led to – wait for it – the kitchen! My wife and I looked at each other in stunned desperation at how our precious time was being wasted.
And what about you? Do you offer your customers what they want or try to sell them what you think (or worse, hope) they would like? Remember the first rule of selling: find out what your customers are after and focus on how you can provide it. It sounds so simple that it is so often overlooked.
August 18th, 2006
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There’s a big headline debate raging in the copywriting circles. It’s not about whether the clever-sounding ones are better at getting people to read the rest of the copy. They’re usually not, like I pointed out a couple of weeks ago. And that’s a fact.
The hot question is whether long headlines are more suited for the job than short ones – you know the kind I’m talking about. You probably have seen websites with a bright red headline that goes something like this one I made up:
Top businessman reveals 5 quick and easy marketing strategies that will supercharge your business and make you up to 132% more profit in just 20 minutes a day. (So that you earn tons of money and still have plenty of time to spend it!)
Long headlines like these are common in direct mail, where they often out-perform shorter alternatives, but you’ll find them on many websites too. So, do they really work better online than a five or ten word job? Or rather, when do they work better?
I have just come across this excellent article by Michel Fortin, titled The Truth About Mega-Headlines, which sheds some much-needed light on the topic.
If you’re in charge of writing or choosing online headlines, you really must read it. I know it thought me a thing or ten.
And don’t let the article’s length put you off. It’s all juice!
July 13th, 2006
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I recently commented about the unfortunate fact that many businesses lose sales by failing to recognise the value of good copywriting.
And in another post, I touched upon the importance of testing your advertising so that you find out what works best in a particular circumstance and do more of that.
It all makes sense when you think about it.
But wouldn’t you expect me, a copywriter, to push my own trade and to even suggest that you get me to write multiple versions of your copy so we can choose the winner? After all that would mean more business for me, right?
Well, Armand Morin, one of the world’s top Internet marketers, stresses these two points when he asks, “Why is copywriting always last on the list?” I suggest you read his post and get some fine marketing wisdom straight from the horse’s mouth!
July 5th, 2006
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The realm of the esoteric seems to have invaded that icon of modern technology that is the World Wide Web. CNN reports that some Indian web designers are advocating the use of the ancient philosophies of Indian Vaastu Shastra and Chinese Feng Shui to resolve the harmony imbalances that, they say, cause websites to perform poorly.
Earth is the layout, fire is the color, air is the HTML, space is name of the Web site, and water is the font and graphics,” says [Dr. Smita] Narang, adding that each must be chosen carefully and strike a balance with the other.
Narang, a vaastu expert who has spent four years analyzing around 500 sites, says a Web site that is not designed according to vaastu rules will have few hits and will negatively affect the business.
What ever is the world coming to?
As Seth Godin aptly comments, “it’s easier than working on content”, and besides, this new craze is bound to make its proponents some nice and easy money at the expense of naïve business people who should know better.
All this kind of reminds me of what often happens with many advertising campaigns, where there is too much emphasis on ‘cool’, impressive ideas. After all, even in my own field of copywriting, it is easy to come up with a cunning play on words for a headline or caption. The real challenge is to write one that actually yields results by making the reader itch to read the rest of your copy.
Unfortunately these kind of headlines are on the rare side and ‘Feng Shui’ headlines that sound nice, but do little else, are often preferred – an all too common mistake.
June 28th, 2006
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Seth Godin blogs about the two sides to the marketing coin. Attracting attention, making an impact and creating buzz are fine, but that’s just scratching the surface. Marketing is much more than that.
The most successful marketing comes as a result of delving deeper, to present perspectives and tell stories that are truly worthwhile and so create a brand of lasting appeal.
The trouble is that many marketers simply fail to do so.
June 23rd, 2006
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