ART
& EMOTION
The first step is to have
a list with powerful, preferably unique benefits for your clients.
Any advantage that you can think of - please write it down, or tell us
about it. From a list of logical features, we'll choose together
the best ones and we'll make our point.
The other important factor
is the "emotional packaging" - because most buying decisions are based
on emotion. In a marketing class at UCLA, where I was a student,
we were asked why the audio CD became such a successful product, replacing
the vinyl records in less than two years. We all came up with logical
answers - random access, great fidelity, etc. All those answers were
correct, but nobody came up with the MAIN reason: "It was a sexy product".
You can define media as
"anything that carries information about your business". It doesn't
only meant TV, radio, or Internet. It includes packaging, stationery,
the way a commercial or office space looks - plus the social presence of
the business, or the look and fill of its products. Sometimes even
the smell!
If everything depended
only on logic, all you'd need is someone just showing up in front of the
camera and read from a list. Some TV commercials are still done that
way. Compare the following two examples:
This is incredible, but
real: in my city there's a podiatrist who shows himself on TV operating
on someone's toe! An off-screen voice delivers a blurb, while the
patient's toe, split in two, is magnified across the screen!!! Ouch!
Those poor viewers who are just having dinner!
The other case: an award
winning cinematographer sends me a demo reel with a few segments.
The first subject listed on the cover is called "Dental Implants".
I asked myself why would someone choose such a subject for a demo.
Well, it turned out that there wasn't a single tooth implant shown on that
segment. Only beautiful looking people having fun at the beach, riding
horses, kissing, enjoying parties... while the sound track talks only about
THE FREEDOM OF KNOWING THAT YOU LOOK SO GOOD.
So you see the difference.
Finally, the third element
(after logical motivation and emotional language) is a powerful call to
action. What exactly do you want the
people to do after seeing your message? Immediate actions work better
- "call us now" vs. "remember to visit us tomorrow". Some large companies
can afford to run commercials just to maintain their image - but usually
a marketing message needs to be justified by a response action.
The logic is, for the
human mind, like the top of an iceberg - there's a lot more iceberg under
the surface. Of course, we don't recommend purely artistic/emotional
approaches. The logic of the message has its role. (At least
it helps people justify their emotional decisions - to themselves.)
So the "emotional packaging"
is very important, even for messages that are logically "rock solid".
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