Marketing Tips from Seth Godin*
*Not really. They’re from me, not Seth. But since I now have your attention, you might want to listen to what I have to say. I think I have some good advice. See, I’ve been intrigued by marketing/PR/advertising since I first learned that toy companies were seeking advice on how to influence kids to whine for their products. And become attached to brands.
So, if you want to sell me something:
Don’t send me a holiday card. You don’t know which holiday I celebrate, or if I celebrate any at all. I don’t care if it is signed by hand — I picture an overworked assistant who has to put off his or her real work in order to sign 8,000 cards with the boss’ name. I know, I’ve done it. I’d rather you save a tree.
Do not personalize a direct mail piece just for me. Sure, you’ll probably get my name right, but you’ll never spell my husband’s correctly. And that just looks stupid. And do you really want your company name splattered all over some “goofs” page when your mailing list is inaccurate and you send something to the family dog?
Do not use dead people to sell something. It’s creepy. The only time it is acceptable to use a dead person in an ad is if they died of a terrible disease and you’re raising money for that cause. Even that’s iffy.
And stop with the stock photos! The multicultural stock photos! Even worse – the photos you probably paid a photographer and an agency about 3 zillion dollars for and spent several 18-hour days trying to get the perfect shot. But you know what? They all look the same.
Ack! Do not try to inspire me to believe in your company! I can smell a branding campaign a mile away. I don’t trust your press releases, I don’t trust your real-person testimonials, and I certainly don’t trust your new-found ethical responsibilites toward social change.
P.S. And if I do buy something from you? Do not ask me to take a survey about my experience and say that I may win something for doing it. I won’t win. No one ever wins. Ditto for a whopping dollar off my next purchase.
And I’m just getting started.
December 21st, 2006 at 11:35 am
Hey, TwoKnives. Be more than happy to show you my financials and the results my campaigns have done for my clients. Proof’s in the pudding, and I have the stuff to back it up.
GL
December 21st, 2006 at 12:37 pm
Hey Ad Man, I have no doubt that you have the stuff to back it up. These approaches must work, otherwise no one would use them. Which leads me to the conversation I was hoping to have — maybe I’m nobody’s target market? Or maybe I fall into that slump in the bell curve of “will not ever buy in”?
Great blog name, by the way.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Cool. I am sure you are someone’s target. Aren’t we all? THey probably want your dollars to buy kid stuff, or resume services.
The way I try to apprach marketing is to infuse a level of old fashioned public information to it. That’s to say, you as a buyer are educated, used to shams, and don’t want a bunch of BS. More often than not, you already know what you want or need before you even see a stry or an ad. So my spin is to provide factual information to you the target so you can make an educated decision.
I always warn my clients if your pushing garbage, this is going to blow up in your face. So far, no one has had a “false product”, and that is largely why we are successful. I also try to avoid projects where I think the product is false or won’t work. It’s not a good use of my talents.
December 22nd, 2006 at 9:36 am
I think a lot of companies who don’t have “false products” act like they do. I appreciate your focus on public information — that is exactly what I’d like to see. If I were someone’s target. Thanks for the replies.
December 22nd, 2006 at 10:25 am
Lisa Ray, I couldn’t help but notice a couple of DofAM’s clientele. Check out the cool photo at ManTech. I hope that guy’s next gig back in the homeland involves no sudden car backfires or passing late-night joggers named Muhammad.
ManTech (oh yeah, baby) proudly “provides Interceptor body armor currently used by our troops.” Let’s pray that includes Kevlar jock straps for sweaty frontline male GIs whose main fear is getting shot in the balls (see Stephen Ambrose, Citizen Soldier, chapter 1). “Like all men at war, they feared above all getting hit in the testicles. Ground maintenance men eased their worry by welding steel plates under their seats.”
More to the point here, DofAM’s client Benyamin “The Bibster” Netanyahu’s 3-year stint as Israeli right-wing PM was nothing but tsuris for the secular left and even moderate peacenik movement. “. . . greatly exacerbated these internal divisions by his paranoid personal style, by his duplicity and deviousness, and by exploiting the prejudices and the resentments of the various groups for his own ends. Along the way he alienated most of his senior colleagues and all but destroyed his party.”
The PM was investigated Nixon-Checkers speech style for accepting personal moving and cleaning services contract in exchange for a government contract. Bibi and his wife, Sara, were said to have violated Israeli law by keeping gifts they received, a violation of Israeli law (and we’re not talking chocolate Chanukah gelt).
The gifts, according to CNN.com, “reportedly included candlesticks, silverware, candelabras, carpets, pictures, scarves and a gold letter opener that was a gift from U.S. Vice President Al Gore.” No spaniel named Checkers, but all worthy of a PR nightmare for the smooth-talkin’ Orthodox right-winger.
Enter your PR guy: “A PR person’s job is to be a conduit between a company and the public, and to present factual information that would be useful to the public in a manner that’s also beneficial to the company.”
Or, as crisis management maven Howard Rubenstein offers, “We are highly skilled in quickly identifying the salient points that must be addressed and in determining the manner of delivery most likely to counter the crisis at hand. By disseminating the correct message to key journalists, we are able to help significantly reduce the intensity of a crisis so that an organization may return as swiftly as possible to its day-to-day business operations.”
Wait, Howard Rubenstein. Isn’t he Michael “I am not a racist” Richards’ PR guy?
What we need hear is some correct, factual information.
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Keep the blogging going, and thanks for not mentioning the typos. Thank God for proofreaders.
Merry Christmas.
GL
December 24th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
Good idea to mention Seth Godin. That guy’s got readers up the wazoo. I’m one of them. Also totally fascinated by marketing, but I’m very hard to market to because there isn’t a whole lot I feel I need and I don’t fall for advertising tactics.
P.S. Your feed is now working fine on Bloglines!