How to be Compelling When You Communicate the Benefits of Your Product or Service

It’s difficult in the marketing world to define marketing principles that are truly more than mere theories…

But the Eureka! Ranch has managed to do it.  Over the last decade, it has compiled and analyzed thousands of client cases related to the introduction of new product/service concepts and new marketing messaging for existing products/services.

This research has produced and quantitatively validated a number of well-proven and very practical conclusions for marketers of all types.

One of the key principles that emerged from this research dispels a dangerous marketing myth and therefore needs never-ending reinforcement. And it applies consistently across industries and consumer/business segments.

I’m referring to the critical importance of communicating what the Eureka! Ranch folks call your “overt benefit.”

The value of communicating benefits rather than mere features is hardly a breakthrough discovery.  The NEW news is just how overt that communication of benefits needs to be in order to produce a consumer response.

As consumers, we utilize only 2% of the information to which we’re exposed.  In the clutter of the marketplace, we need to “get it” quickly – in a matter of seconds.  In order for this to occur, marketers must be direct and focused on their most compelling one or two benefits.

Contrary to popular belief, there is a negative correlation between number of benefits presented by marketers and success in the market place.  Benefits more numerous than two actually tend to produce diminished results.  Therefore, marketers need to discipline themselves to capture the essence of their offerings in one or two easily observed benefits.

The communication philosophy that we must have the courage to embrace is to set a prospect say “no” because what you offer does not apply to her – NOT because she does not understand what you offer.

How do you build “overtness” into your marketing copy?

Add directness, bluntness, and specifics to your generic promises. (i.e. It’s not a “fast car wash,” it is a “6 minute car wash.”) Straight talk wins. Direct, to the point language out performs fancy word play in the minds of consumers.

8 More secrets from the Eureka! Ranch:

1. There is no difference in effectiveness between rational and emotional benefits.  HOWEVER, when rational and emotional benefits are combined, effectiveness suffers. You must make a clear decision to appeal to your consumer’s heart or mind – not both.
2. Benefits are relative to a specific target audience. When you focus clearly on a specific audience, you create expert credibility. And guess what… consumers expect to pay more for specialized expertise than generalist offerings.
3. When a customer buys your product or service, she’s often buying a moment that she has visualized in her mind.  To the extent that you can provide visualization of the moment of overt benefit (the defining moment of success for your product or service), your communications will be significantly enhanced.
4. Confusing people is NEVER a good strategy for winning their interest or patronage. Clever and obscure communication does not create consumer interest or curiosity.  It leads to rejection.
5. Benefits should be reduced to not more than 10 clear and focused words for maximum impact.
6. Beware of solving a problem that is not a real problem.  For a benefit to have motivational power with consumers, it must be relevant to their true needs – yet unexpected in that it offers a new insight or approach to addressing their needs.  The greater the anxiety that your prospects feel relative to a particular problem, the greater the chance that they will rush to the solution.
7. Beware of selling the absence of a problem instead of a positive benefit. There is far greater power in selling the positive than the absence of a negative.  Selling the absence of a negative requires that customers know that negative exists elsewhere in the marketplace. When prospects have to do more work, you generate less sales.
8. Beware of assuming knowledge. Do not assume consumers are aware of anything or anyone.

The Importance of How You Describe Yourself

Saranne Rothberg is the Founder and CEO of The ComedyCures Foundation. Her blossoming non-profit brings laughter and therapeutic humor programs to children and adults living with illness, trauma and disabilities through large and small-scale comedy events.

She founded the organization from her chemo therapy chair in 1999 (she is a stage-4 breast cancer survivor) as a manifestation of her own experience with the healing power of laughter. Since then she has been featured on Good Morning America, Oprah, and most every other major news media you can imagine.

Her awards are too numerous to list, but Oprah has featured her as her “Hero” in her book Live Your Best Life.

(more…)

Who Is Really In Charge of Marketing?

I’d hate to be responsible for marketing at Sprint (together with Nextel). There are people at Sprint dedicating their lives to trying to make people like this company – to say nothing of the millions they spend in that effort.

And for what??? To have it all ruined the moment someone walks into one of their retail locations and tries to transact business with any one of the battalion of thoughtless morons that they employ (or allow to conduct themselves draped in the Sprint brand).

You can tell I’m a little agitated.

(more…)

Using Law Suits to Stimulate Word of Mouth

I played golf this weekend with an attorney that represents the recording industry in its fight against the online piracy of music. As I listened to his story about their work, what was particularly interesting to me as a marketer was the fact that the legal battles he is fighting are not intended to generate financial restitution for the harmed industry players.

Quite the opposite…  In fact, the cases (even the victories) are a loss. The proceeds aren’t sufficient to pay for the legal expenses incurred in the fight.

So what’s the point?

The industry is hoping to stimulate buzz discouraging the piracy of music online.

Here’s how it works.

The industry employs a team of computer forensics people to somehow extract from sites like Kazaa.com (a well known peer-to-peer file sharing service) the email addresses of participating account holders along with some history of their transactions.

The attorneys then file what is called a “John Doe” law suit (against an unknown person) for stealing music.  This enables them to go to the ISP behind the email address and subpoena the identity of the account holder.

With the perpetrator’s identity (or the perpetrator’s parents’ identity) in hand, the attorneys file suit. The established penalty for this type of piracy is several hundred dollars per incident, and the average bill to the defendant winds up at $5-7,000. The cases are almost always found in favor of the industry, yet the awarded damages don’t cover the expenses of the case.

So here is the underlying premise.

As a parent, if I get socked for $5,000 out of the blue for something my kid has been doing online, I’m pretty likely to tell every other parent I know. Likewise, my kids who are watching this nightmare unfold are going to spread the word among their peers.

Lighten the wallets of enough parents in this way, and eventually the word will get out that music isn’t free.

It’s even starting to work among college students (with a twist). If you’re a student in college, as the school is handing your identity over for prosecution, you’re likely to get hit with an honor violation.  Stealing is after all a violation of the honor codes of pretty much every institution in the country.

I suppose it’s too early to say whether this will yield the intended result, but it will certainly be interesting to watch.  I have to admit, I’m surprised that I haven’t seen anything about this in the press.  (Or maybe I just haven’t noticed.) It seems like we should be seeing some of these parents popping up on the Today show to tell their story. If you have heard or seen anything in the press about this, please comment.

I wonder if the recording industry should divert a little of its clearly massive legal budget to PR to fuel the spread of this message.

The 5 Requirements of Any Great E-commerce Site

In case you haven’t noticed, e-commerce has gotten seriously competitive.

I’m managing a pay-per-click campaign right now where I’m bidding $7.15 per click for a 9^th place listing on Google Adwords. When you’re spending $7.15 for a click, you become HIGHLY conscious of what it takes to turn that click into a sale.

So, let me offer you five things that make an e-commerce site great – and turn a $7.15 click into a high-yield marketing investment.

(more…)