How to Create Ad Cocaine
Creating a short-term successful hype ad is simple.
Here’s all you need:
1. Intrusiveness. You’ve got to get their attention.
2. Offer. Make it too good to pass up.
3. Logic. Add supporting evidence to make doubters believe.
4. Urgency. There’s got to be a time limit.
Plus
5. Frequency. Lots and lots of frequency.
Leave out any of these ingredients, and you’re dead in the water.
The trouble is with Ad Cocaine the advertiser becomes instantly addicted. But the Law of the Universe says, “Anything that works quickly will work less and less well the longer you keep doing it. The magic always fades. Sadly, like all addicts, these advertisers resist taking the long-term view, and they continue to measure success on an extremely short time horizon.
Mitigating Cocaine’s Danger
Have you shouted “Sale!” so often that customers now ask your salespeople, “When will this go on sale?” Do you find it more and more difficult to sell products that aren’t on sale? Do you have a business cocaine habit you would like to kick, but worry about the financial withdrawal pains?
Do you remember the 3 types of customers?
You’d like to begin branding your name in the better customer’s long-term (chemical) memory instead of depending on a series of short-term (electrical memory) promotions targeted to the switchable for-reasons-of-price-alone customer. But you’re afraid to quit the short-term gimmicks because you’re worried that you won’t be able to survive the chickening-out period between seedtime and harvest, right?
Another thing that worries you is how long it’s been since you met anyone willing to pay full price. Down deep, you worry that all customers are coupon-clipping, grave-robbing, bargain-hunting predators who will never agree to buy from you unless they’re convinced they’re getting “the deal of a lifetime.”
Bottom line: You have a history of attracting customers for reasons of price alone. So how can you now begin attracting better customers without losing the coupon-clipping grave robbers too soon?
Answer: Use a visual recall cue in a non-intrusive (silent) medium. Run a newspaper ad with a large picture of what’s “On Sale!” but with your company’s name buried in the fine print. The only people who will know it’s your company having a sale will be those looking for your product.
The newspaper’s lack of intrusiveness, its principal weakness in long-term branding, now lets you advertise your Hurry! Hurry! Once in a Lifetime Sale “anonymously.”
Humans don’t see unless they’re looking. The only people to notice the visual recall cue, the photo of your product, will be those looking to buy your product. But humans hear and retain information even when they are not listening, so above all, DO NOT use TV, or radio ads to stimulate response to the newspaper ad. Unless, of course, you want to train everyone who is not now in the market to wait for your next sale.
During this newspaper-advertised “sale,” allow your broadcast ads to continue building long-term brand awareness in the minds of the not yet in the market majority.
The downsides of this technique:
1. You can’t get away with it forever if you keep it up, and soon you’ll be right back where you started.
2. Because you will be maintaining two separate ad campaigns, your advertising costs will be way out of line throughout the three to six month period of transition.
3. It isn’t painless and easy - it’s painful and hard - because sometimes the newspaper ads don’t pull.
But if you’re truly committed to taking your company in a new direction, you will survive this difficult transition period and emerge from it more profitable, with more consistent customer traffic patterns and more stability throughout your customer base.
Here’s all you need:
1. Intrusiveness. You’ve got to get their attention.
2. Offer. Make it too good to pass up.
3. Logic. Add supporting evidence to make doubters believe.
4. Urgency. There’s got to be a time limit.
Plus
5. Frequency. Lots and lots of frequency.
Leave out any of these ingredients, and you’re dead in the water.
The trouble is with Ad Cocaine the advertiser becomes instantly addicted. But the Law of the Universe says, “Anything that works quickly will work less and less well the longer you keep doing it. The magic always fades. Sadly, like all addicts, these advertisers resist taking the long-term view, and they continue to measure success on an extremely short time horizon.
Mitigating Cocaine’s Danger
Have you shouted “Sale!” so often that customers now ask your salespeople, “When will this go on sale?” Do you find it more and more difficult to sell products that aren’t on sale? Do you have a business cocaine habit you would like to kick, but worry about the financial withdrawal pains?
Do you remember the 3 types of customers?
You’d like to begin branding your name in the better customer’s long-term (chemical) memory instead of depending on a series of short-term (electrical memory) promotions targeted to the switchable for-reasons-of-price-alone customer. But you’re afraid to quit the short-term gimmicks because you’re worried that you won’t be able to survive the chickening-out period between seedtime and harvest, right?
Another thing that worries you is how long it’s been since you met anyone willing to pay full price. Down deep, you worry that all customers are coupon-clipping, grave-robbing, bargain-hunting predators who will never agree to buy from you unless they’re convinced they’re getting “the deal of a lifetime.”
Bottom line: You have a history of attracting customers for reasons of price alone. So how can you now begin attracting better customers without losing the coupon-clipping grave robbers too soon?
Answer: Use a visual recall cue in a non-intrusive (silent) medium. Run a newspaper ad with a large picture of what’s “On Sale!” but with your company’s name buried in the fine print. The only people who will know it’s your company having a sale will be those looking for your product.
The newspaper’s lack of intrusiveness, its principal weakness in long-term branding, now lets you advertise your Hurry! Hurry! Once in a Lifetime Sale “anonymously.”
Humans don’t see unless they’re looking. The only people to notice the visual recall cue, the photo of your product, will be those looking to buy your product. But humans hear and retain information even when they are not listening, so above all, DO NOT use TV, or radio ads to stimulate response to the newspaper ad. Unless, of course, you want to train everyone who is not now in the market to wait for your next sale.
During this newspaper-advertised “sale,” allow your broadcast ads to continue building long-term brand awareness in the minds of the not yet in the market majority.
The downsides of this technique:
1. You can’t get away with it forever if you keep it up, and soon you’ll be right back where you started.
2. Because you will be maintaining two separate ad campaigns, your advertising costs will be way out of line throughout the three to six month period of transition.
3. It isn’t painless and easy - it’s painful and hard - because sometimes the newspaper ads don’t pull.
But if you’re truly committed to taking your company in a new direction, you will survive this difficult transition period and emerge from it more profitable, with more consistent customer traffic patterns and more stability throughout your customer base.
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