Month: February 2017

Why is it so hard to sell a Corporate Training, an Insurance or a Diet Plan?

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Human beings are terrible at buying these things, simply because it is almost impossible to sell the future.

What we’re good at is the ‘now.’

Right now!

When we buy a stake in the future, what we’re actually buying is how it makes us feel TODAY.

We move up all the imagined benefits and costs of something in the future and experience them now. That’s why it’s hard to stick to a diet (because celery tastes bad today, and we can’t easily experience feeling healthy in ten years). That’s why we make such dumb financial decisions (because it’s so tempting to believe magical stories about tomorrow).

If you want people to be smarter or more active or more generous about their future, you’ll need to figure out how to make the transaction about how it feels right now.

(Seth Godin)

4 Valentine’s Day Campaigns that will knock your socks off

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If you’ve had enough of mush yesterday and yet crave for some more love, here are some campaigns to warm your heart. I bet you haven’t seen most of them.

Campaign 1: The Ad council did this brand activation titled #lovehasnolabels. It delivers a powerful message on diversity and inclusion. Watch it here.

Campaign 2: Here is another shade of love. A love that is around us but we tend to ignore. Caratlane opened our eyes to this charming angle. Watch it here.

Campaign 3: Some practical tips to stop being tongue tied on Valentine’s day while hardselling the product. Nestle tied up with Anuja Chauhan and managed this tightrope walk. Watch it here.

Campaign 4: And here is my favourite! MTV delivers a blow to the guts with this superbly conceptualised film. Watch it here.

The two ways to talk to the two different audiences

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early-adopters-vs-mass-marketEarly adopters want to buy a different experience than people who identify as the mass market do.

Innovators want something fresh, exciting, new and interesting.

The mass market doesn’t. They want something that works.

It’s worth noting here that you’re only an early adopter sometimes, when you want to be. And you’re only in the mass market by choice as well. It’s an attitude.

The people bringing new ideas to the public are early adopters themselves (because it’s often more thrilling than working in a field that does what it did yesterday), and often default to using words that appeal to people like themselves, as opposed to the group in question.

More rarely, there are a few people with a mass market mindset that are charged with launching something for the early adopters, and they make the opposite mistake, dressing up their innovation as something that’s supposed to feel safe.

When you bring a product or service or innovation to people who like to go first, consider words/images like:

  • New
  • Innovative
  • Pioneer
  • First
  • Now
  • Limited
  • Breakthrough
  • Controversial
  • Technology
  • Brave
  • Few
  • Hot
  • Untested
  • Slice/Dominate/Win
  • Private
  • Dangerous
  • Change
  • Secret

On the other hand, people who aren’t seeking disruption are more likely to respond to:

  • Tested
  • Established
  • Proven
  • Industry-leading
  • Secure
  • Widespread
  • Accepted
  • Easy
  • Discounted
  • Everyone
  • Experienced
  • Certified
  • Highest-rated
  • Efficient
  • Simple
  • Guaranteed
  • Accredited
  • Public

Of course, it’s important that these words be true, that your product, your service and its place in the world match the story you’re telling about it.

Once you see this distinction, it seems so obvious, yet our desire to speak to everyone gets in the way of our words.

(Seth Godin)

A great tool for brand building – Story Telling!

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If you were fortunate enough to be raised in the pre television days, you would definitely understand the power of story telling. Most probably, your grand father or mom would spend time telling you a story, either in a gathering with other kids, or as they put you to sleep.

GCPL’s Sunil Kataria says – Research shows that we retain facts more readily if they are presented in narrative form. The very act of listening lights up the brain, persuading it to share in the emotions of well-etched characters.

That’s why, great brands fully grasp the importance of good story telling.

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Take this TVC for instance. Fittingly, it is titled – Never underestimate the power of a great story.

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Or consider this TVC for Ericsson Mobile Phones that happened to be the first one to win a gold at Cannes – One Black Coffee Please. You might be interested to know that it was done at an agency called Nexus Equity in 1996, where I cut my teeth as a copywriter.

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My favourite of course is the TVC created by O&M. A heartwarming tale of two separated friends, it has been executed on a large canvas. And rightly so, because the brand which is telling this story is none other than Google. It is titled Reunion.

As Seth Godin puts it crisply – people do not buy goods and services, they buy relations, stories and magic.

The good news is, that it can work even if you do not have huge budgets to spend. So, do you think it’s time to put that magic to work for  your brand?