Advertising 201
Here’s the second in a series of simple tips to improve the quality of your advertising. We focus on the power of emotion and the appropriate use of facts and logic.
As much as you’d like to communicate all of the things that make your business special, your best message is one that makes your strongest differentiator undeniably clear. If you can express this difference in emotional terms – specifically as a benefit that has emotion at its core, you’ve got it made.
Remember, for every charming gecko, memorable slogan, or unforgettable jingle, thousands of businesses advertise very effectively by being authentic, direct, and adhering to a couple of simple ideas. You don’t have to be a creative genius to use advertising effectively!
Do: Use copy/dialogue, tone, and sound to tap emotion. Contrary to what we generally believe about our decision-making, most of us act on emotion more often than we act on cold hard logic. Most of us are all to familiar with the way that emotions can over-ride logic. Logic, more often than not, acts as a brake on our actions. Emotion, more often than not, accelerate our actions. Advertising that taps into an emotion is almost always more powerful than a similar campaign that focuses strictly on reason, fact, and provable claims. Logic is certainly important: we want things that last, we want things that works better, we want things that will make our lives easier. Those are all logic-driven wants. But more often than not, it will be an emotional lever that gives us permission to actually take action and purchase those things.
Don’t: Use emotional levers that aren’t really part of your DNA. Emotional levers should support the experience of using your business, including the tone and values that customers would see in your staff, your store, or your service operations. Be careful when using emotions like fear. A negative vibe can literally give consumers the creeps when they think about your brand. If your strongest, or only lever is fear, make certain that the emotional tone of your ad speaks loudly to the emotional positive – security, safety, or comfort.
Don’t: Ignore logic and facts that articulate your uniqueness in consumer-benefitting terms. But think of facts as the “content” and emotion as the “tone and a context” in effective advertising. You have to explain what you do and who you are, and facts are the most credible ways of doing that. It’s a matter of balance.
Do: Focus on one idea – ideally the most powerful competitive advantage or unique consumer benefit that you deliver. Use your ad time or space to convincingly explain a single, compelling benefit (remember that people don’t buy “features,” they buy benefits). Always make your point in terms that enable prospects to understand ‘what’s in it for them.’ This is obviously an opportunity to leverage emotion.
Don’t: Try to tell prospects everything that is great about your brand, service or business. Too many ads throw the veritable kitchen sink of benefits at consumers, striving to overwhelm them with great reasons to favor a product or service. It’s extremely easy to lose the prospect’s attention, or blend into the crowd, when you tout a laundry list of familiar benefits (many of which aren’t credible without facts or examples). If you happen to be the location, price, service, and quality leader (you’re awesome), wrap all three into a larger concept like ‘excellence’ or ‘proven performance.’ Use several ads to support your awesomeness campaign with different sub-themes – “because no one beats us on price or quality”, “because no one makes it easier or more convenient to buy our widget”, etc…
