Blog - Marketing Beyond Advertising: Principles to elevate trust and credibility with your customers

Thursday

05Mar

Contrasting to Become the Unmistakable Choice

Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 12:54PM

Contrasting in marketing and advertising Contrasting in Marketing and AdvertisingThe Contrast Principle states that decisions are not made in isolation. Rather, we look for the differences between our available choices.

Contrasting in marketing is the degree to which your message strikes a clear and unmistakable difference between you and your competition. And as a marketer, it’s your job to frame the buying scenario for the consumer. The objective is to clearly demonstrate how your product or service differs and why this makes you the superior choice.

But allow me to warn you upfront: Contrasting is only effective when you demonstrate these differences using specifics not generalities. And, the first company -- competing in a given market -- to successfully define their position and that of the competition typically wins the game.

Want an example of contrasting in action?

Ask and ye shall receive. Take a gander at the ad copy for 5-Hour Energy:

A typical energy drink comes with a lot of extra baggage 12 teaspoons of sugar, 200 calories, herbal stimulants and 16 ounces of fluid. This combination can make you feel wired up then let you down with a crash. So don’t drink energy drinks. Drink a 5-Hour Energy shot. It has zero sugar, zero herbal stimulants and as much caffeine as a cup of the leading premium coffee. And best of all only four little calories. - Source: http://www.5hourenergy.com/

Using 77 words -- the approximate length of a 30-second ad -- 5-Hour Energy clearly contrasts the difference between their energy shot and those “canned” energy drinks swimming in calories and sugar. And notice the impressive amount of details provided:

12 teaspoons of sugar
200 calories
Herbal stimulants and 16 ounces of fluid
Zero sugar
Zero herbal stimulants
As much caffeine as a cup of the leading premium coffee

The added whammy is the natural language and conversational tone used in the copy. Words like, “extra baggage” and “wired up” provide a clean break from the ho-hum clichés one typically finds in marketing and advertising.

So here’s the bottom line: 5-Hour Energy successfully uses contrasting to position their product and provide consumers with concrete, compelling reasons to buy from them. They are no lingering questions. No branding campaigns using silly mascots. And no attempts to dazzle you with baloney and hype.

Give your customers this same type of clarity. They’re thirsting for it.

Tom Wanek |

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Thursday

05Feb

Wizards on the Road

Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 11:04AM

There's some pretty scary stuff out there in the world -- from salmonella-tainted peanut butter to terrorism and global warming.

But this economy is a real nightmare.

Hey, don’t panic! Simmer down for a bit. Before you run shrieking in horror, let’s look at the situation from a scientific viewpoint.

Did you know there’s a formula that describes how all of the elements in your marketing relate directly to your top-line sales revenue?

Advertising
Word-of-mouth
Copy-writing
Merchandising
In-store experiences and more?

It’s like a chemical compound producing a marketing gestalt.

I know. I know. You think of marketing as a crapshoot. Something akin to a monkey throwing darts. Poof! There’s a ton of smoke blown. And yet, nothing happens.

Listen, if you want to throw up the little white flag that’s cool with me. I won’t hold it against you. But, if you rather get the marketing monkey off your back, join me and several of my brightest colleagues for the Marketing Performance Equation 2-Day Workshop on February 19th & 20th, 2009 in Denver, Colorado.

We have plenty of marketing mojo to share that’ll prepare you for this terrifying economy. We can't promise it'll do anything about terrorism and global warming, but it certainly can't hurt, right?

Tom Wanek |

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Thursday

29Jan

The Collapse of Trust

Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 01:50PM

After waiting around, twiddling my thumbs, it’s finally been released.

That’s right...it’s time for the Edelman Trust Barometer 2009.

The Edelman Trust Barometer is an annual credibility survey performed by the world’s largest independent public relations firm.

So here’s the deal: as one might expect, we live during an era where the importance of trust in business cannot be underestimated. The Edelman report had this to say:

“The 10th edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer reports on a year unlike any other. Government bailed out banks in New York and London. Melamine-laced baby formula rolled off assembly lines into the homes of Chinese parents. American auto executives descended on Washington hungry for handouts. An Illinois governor was led away in handcuffs. And as a $50 billion Ponzi scheme collapsed, an Indian tech mogul’s fraudulent enterprise started to crumble. This year, the world had more reasons than ever before to suspend its trust—and for the most part, our data reflect this.”

- The Edelman Trust Barometer ’09

Fostering trust is a garden-of-Eden breath of fresh air that is all too often ignored or forgotten in business and marketing. And here’s why trust in business is critical: Neurologists are now discovering that humans are uniquely gifted to detect and respond to trust in other humans and we use these abilities to reduce uncertainty or to avoid risk and the pain of loss. Which means your customer relies on these same abilities when making buying decisions.

The bottom line: consumers are more likely to buy from companies they trust.

Sounds simple, right?

Then tell me, why do so many companies screw it up?

Subscribe and in the coming weeks I’ll discuss the most common credibility killers in marketing today.

Tom Wanek |

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Wednesday

14Jan

Beauty Isn't the Message

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 04:52PM

Signaling Strategy A recent blog post by Seth Godin called, “Beauty as a signaling strategy” had this to say:

“Human beings have adopted this signaling strategy with a vengeance. I know a woman who is going to spend more than $9,000 having her hair styled in 2009 (hey, that's less than $200 a week). Entire industries are based on human beings spending time and money in order to manufacture temporary physical beauty.

Businesses build lobbies that they rarely use, giant atriums with big windows and lots of empty space. It's a waste, it's expensive and it's beautiful. It's beautiful because it's expensive.”

Allow me to be clear: Beauty isn’t the message.

Seth is describing conspicuous consumption. Introduced by economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen in his 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, conspicuous consumption explains that wealthy individuals communicate their status by wasting money on expensive things: First class trips to Europe. BMW’s. Lavish homes.

Likewise, the woman described in Seth’s blog doesn’t spend $173 per week on her hair to demonstrate her beauty. No, $50 bucks can accomplish that.

Wasting a ridiculous amount of one’s wealth on hair styling is a status symbol. Seth’s acquaintance wants the world to know that she’s wealthy. That’s why she spends the money. You know it. I know it. And she knows it.

Here’s how this concept applies to business: Large banks spend money on ornate marble lobbies to communicate success and prestige. A transfer of confidence.

You see, banks aren’t in the business of beauty. They’re in the business of investing money. And they want your trust. End of story.

Tom Wanek |

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Wednesday

07Jan

Walking the Walk

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 11:04AM

Street gangs use an initiation rite called a “beat in” to determine if an inductee is mentally and physically strong enough to become a member. Inductees must risk safety & well being by enduring a physical bashing from several gang members.

Richard Davis, the founder of bulletproof vest manufacturer Second Chance®, proves the safety of his product by shooting himself at point-blank range while wearing his company’s body armor. No, I’m not joking.

He began risking his personal safety & well being to demonstrate the stellar performance of his company’s vests. It was 1971 - a time when no one believed a Kevlar vest could stop a speeding bullet. To stay in business, Richard had no other choice but to “purchase” credibility by risking his own safety and well being. He realized advertising wasn’t going to convince law enforcement officials of the merits of wearing Kevlar to stop bullets and save lives. Just not gonna happen.

Since 1972, the company has tracked 1,000 documented “saves” among law enforcement professionals wearing its bullet-resistant vests.

Yes, this is an extreme example of the six currencies of credibility. But do you walk the walk when it comes to your product or service?