Category: Marketing

Is ESPN Selling What World Cup Fans Want to Buy?

Copywriting guru Dan O’Day likes to advise his students that in an ad, you’re not selling features, or benefits — you’re selling results.

ESPN‘s new World Cup Soccer ad is a great illustration of the difference.

  • The feature ESPN is selling is World Cup Soccer coverage.
  • The benefit to watching soccer, the ad implies, is sex.

So far, so good — I’m reaching for the remote.

But at the end, you see the result. View the ad, then discuss.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2FRXmjfVaE]

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Portland Mattress Store Matches Message to Market

When I consult with local business owners around the country about their advertising, I advise them that their message must be distinctive and meaningful — they need to say something that nobody else in town in saying, and it needs to be of value to their target.

Here’s a great example of this from my hometown of Portland.

Mattress Lot is a small, family-owned mattress retailer on the Northeast side of town. There’s a lot of competition in this category here — multi-location chains such as Sleep Country and Mattress World have large advertising budgets. Going after the mass market, they’ll drown out anything a small operation that Mattress Lot could put out there.

But Mattress Lot has discovered a very interesting niche. Portland has a large, loud, and passionate bicycle community — the kind of community that speaks up, and gets a lot of attention from city government. The kind of community that just might devote its dollars to a local business that speaks its language.

So Mattress Lot is now delivering mattresses by bicycle:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOv4r1NMuZA]

Marketing guru Chris Lytle likes to say that the human mind is a card file, and most consumers only have room for a couple of “cards” in any category. If you’re the fifth place a customer might think of in your category, you’re often out of the running.

Mattress Lot may never be one of the top two cards in the general mattress category. But if they do this right, they have a chance to become the first place a Portland bicyclist thinks of when it’s time to buy a new bed.

They have created a new category, and have a chance to own it.

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What It Takes

The retail and airline industries are not, in general, known as bastions of great customer service. A constant onslaught of books on customer service, motivational speakers and consultants have had limited success in convincing stores and airlines to get better.

So, what will convince them? A couple of stories in this morning’s New York Times offer a clue. According to the Times, it takes:

I feel better now — don’t you?

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Clutter Tolerance: The Public DOES Have a Limit, After All

As advertising has continued to pop up in areas that were formerly ad-free — supermarket conveyor belts and airline tray tables come to mind — I’ve often wondered where the line is. At what point will people just refuse to allow any more clutter?

The City of Galveston, TX, in partnership with Frito-Lay, inadvertently stepped over the line not long ago. According to the Houston Chronicle, Frito-Lay offered to donate $1 million to repair Fort Crockett Park in Galveston. Grateful city officials agreed to rename the park “Sun Chips Park at Fort Crockett.”

The public objected furiously, Frito-Lay backed off, and the space will remain Fort Crockett Park. The company was smart enough to let the city keep the money.

So if you’re mapping out the line, note that renaming a stadium or arena for a corporation is on the acceptable side. Renaming an iconic city park is not.

It’s worth noting, as an aside, that my 50th birthday is coming up in January, and Portland Trail Blazers officials have indicated that they’d be willing to consider selling naming rights to the Rose Garden Arena. If any of you would like to pay to rename it “The PhilDome”, I wouldn’t object.

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Dentist, Market Thyself

Last week I called on an orthodontist — or more specifically, the practice’s office manager. I learned two things of note:

1. Things are really, really slow these days. Parents are still bringing their kids in for braces, but in smaller numbers. And their lucrative adult-braces business is way down.

2. The doctor has steadfastly refused to advertise.

So it was with interest that I read — and mailed to the orthodontist — Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal article on the trend among those in the dental profession to increase their marketing. The article told the story of Dr. David Wong of Tulsa, OK.  Dr. Wong’s business has dropped about 10% in recent months.

Dr. Wong has upped his advertising, taking advantage of low newspaper and broadcast rates, and now sends email reminders to customers on top of traditional mailed postcards. He is even on Twitter, aiming to connect with customers as “not just the guy in a white coat with a drill in his hand.”

“It’s a lot more work,” he admits. “You can’t go to the office and just be a dentist anymore; you have to go to the office and be a dentist and a CEO.”

Ed Ridgway, a practice consultant, offered this take on his Dental Marketer blog:

Are you growing your practice – or just waiting for the competition to eat your market share?

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Check out Phil Bernstein’s Facebook Fan Page — and become a Fan – here

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Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein, Portland’s Advertising Expert, at 503-323-6553.