Zazou Marketing

Good writing is getting its due once again. Every year Advertising Age publishes an issue called the “Book of Tens,” in which they create lists of everything from “Ad Songs of the Year” to “Dubious Attempts at Public Relations.”

This year they are planning to add a new category: “the 10 most intriguing, funniest, scariest, most compelling or most surprising magazine cover lines of the year.”

Ad Age’s 2008 “Book of Tens” included a list of “Covers We Loved,” which included this coverline-less Willie Nelson cover. Now a new category will celebrate the power of coverlines.

While coverlines are not written by copywriters, they do require the same skill. In order to write a cover line that sells a magazine, it needs to grab your attention and get you interested enough to pick up the magazine and buy it — usually in just a handful of words.

Yeah for Ad Age for recognizing the power of a few well-written words!

Do you ever dream about the time in your future when all of your marketing pursuits will have paid off and you’ll be able to take a marketing break? Ah, yes, it does sound divine. But here’s the reality check: Even when things are clicking along and you have more work than you can handle, you can not take a break from marketing. Want proof? Even “Harry Potter” needs to do marketing. Yes, that’s right. Even the boy wizard who is known worldwide has to do marketing.

Even "Harry Potter" needs to do marketing

What’s next on the “Harry Potter” marketing initiative? Getting people to the 6th movie this summer. What are they up against? By some accounts, the “Twilight” franchise, whose vampires have a major cross-over audience.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

Hollywood marketing executives say that these days the “Twilight” franchise has influenced almost every studio marketing campaign that targets teenage girls. Some posters for the upcoming “Potter” film echo “Twilight”’s emphasis on romance. One features Harry and his crush, Ginny, gazing longingly into each others’ eyes, in a pose reminiscent of “Twilight”’s now-iconic image of its star-crossed lovers, Bella and Edward. Another shows Harry’s friend Ron with his girlfriend Lavender, while a jealous Hermione scowls in the background.

Still, the “Harry Potter” marketing team says that they didn’t consider “Twilight” when creating their marketing campaign. More from the article:

Warner Bros. and the team behind “Potter” say they didn’t take the “Twilight” franchise into account when designing their marketing materials for “The Half-Blood Prince.” Instead, they crafted a campaign aimed to resonate with previous “Potter” films, the executives and filmmakers say, dismissing the notion that there is a rivalry between the franchises among fans.

“With all due respect to “Twilight,” the longevity and world-wide success of the Harry Potter franchise speaks for itself,” a studio representative said.

Whether they considered “Twilight” or not when creating a marketing campaign, you will notice that they are doing marketing. They are not saying, “We’re so famous, we don’t need marketing.”

So, sorry to burst your marketing-break bubble. But if “Harry Potter” needs to continue to market even with the success he has had, so do you.

If you’re trying to build up your business, you should always focus on your target market. No question. But do you have a segment of your target market that doesn’t make up the bulk of your business (that also generally gets ignored when you do a marketing push)? It may be time to spend a little energy focusing on them.

And if Boomer Men is an aspect of your target market that you generally ignore, then the Natural Marketing Institute is definitely recommending that you put a little bit of marketing effort their way. According to a story in MediaPost’s Marketing Daily:

“Even though men may amount to a minimum of purchases for a product or service, they should not be forgotten,” says Steve French, executive vice president and managing partner at the Natural Marketing Institute, which recently conducted a survey of more than 3,000 adults about the economy. “If you’re never targeting them, you’re never going to get the purchase.”

According to the NMI survey, 40% of men over the age of 50 said they are not feeling increased stress because of the economy, compared with 30% of women in the same age group. In addition, Baby Boomer men are taking on more family shopping roles and are more likely to buy brand-name products. The survey found that about one-third of Baby Boomer males are the main household grocery shopper, up from 20% ten years ago. While in the store, about half (46%) of these men are willing to purchase brand names over store brands, compared with about 26% of women.

While this study was specific to Boomer Men, it is a good reminder that the aspects of your target market that get ignored aren’t going to find out about your product or service until you do put a little of your marketing efforts their way.

If you’ve ever seen a Starburst advertisement, you know that they are usually a bit zany. For example, a recent ad showed a man trying to make a friend feel better by offering him a Starburst candy. But both men had really, really long arms, so the candy fell into a sewer.

Now, though, the company is launching a marketing campaign that is still silly — but talks about the product more. The crux of the new marketing message is the “contradiction” between the candy’s hard outer shell and the chewy center.

According to Brandweek:

One new TV spot features a kilt wearing and bagpipe-clad Korean man admonishing a child for eating Starburst. “Look at this! One contradiction eating another!” the man says. “What do you mean?” the boy asks in bewilderment. “You’re Scotch-Korean. You don’t make a wee bit of sense. And neither does Starburst. Starburst is a solid. It’s juicy. Like a liquid,” the musical player replies in a thick, Scottish accent.

Where did the idea for this marketing campaign come from? You guessed it: The customer.

Again, from the Brandweek article:

Starburst marketing director Trish Trecartin said the “contradiction” insight came from consumers. “Each time someone unwraps a piece, they are greeted with a mouthful of contradictions or surprises—a solid candy that is chewy, a treat meant for sharing that is hard to give away, and an instant burst of juicy flavor that lasts a long time,” she said via e-mail.

So, when you are coming up with your marketing message, feel free to include some zany copywriting. But also remember to ask your customers what makes them buy your product or service. And once you find out, figure out how to include those insights in your marketing message and copy.

Tell me the truth: Are you more likely to buy a camping chair because it is made of polyester/nylon mesh or because the fabric dries quickly and won’t puddle water when left out in the rain? If you chose the latter, that’s because you are like everybody else in the world — you like to know how a product will benefit you.

Luckily for REI, I got this example from their website, where they did it right: Their description focused on the benefits of the chair (that the material dries quickly), instead of just listing the features of the chair (that the material is polyester/nylon mesh).

REI successfully touts this chair's benefits, not features, on its website

But just because REI succeeds in giving benefits over features, doesn’t mean that all the big companies do so in their marketing materials. In fact, the New York Times just ran a blog posting about how Ford forgot this very important aspect of marketing and copywriting.

The posting is about the company’s new van that gets 22 to 25 miles per gallon, and it’s being marketed as a small-business delivery van. Here’s a portion of the blog:

“When I looked over the marketing sheet for the trucks before they got here, I couldn’t help but notice that Ford’s marketing people don’t really know how to talk to their customers — they don’t speak “entrepreneur.” It was a classic case of selling the features instead of the benefits….

For instance, they say, “The power train was upgraded to include a proven Duratec 2.0 liter dual overhead cam (DOHC) I-4 engine …” What does that mean? But then I drove the truck and noticed the pick up. Me understand. Me go fast. Me want. How many people even know what a power train is? Or a dual overhead cam? Oh, excuse me, a DOHC.”

The posting goes on to cover point by point how the brochure fails to sell this van to its customer.

Luckily for Ford, the writer actually saw the van in person and didn’t have to rely on the marketing materials to discover that it’s a perfect fit for his needs (and then went on to write about that in the New York Times).

But how many of their potential customers are going to have that same opportunity? And how many of their potential customers will have the chance to tell so many people about the vehicle’s benefits?

According to the NY Times, Ford's brochure for this new van fails to tell its potential customer how he or she will benefit from buying this vehicle.

So take this as just another reminder that if you offer a product or service, you need to find out how it benefits your customer — and then tell your customer all about that in your marketing materials.