Category: Portland advertising

Empathy

Lots of marketing books recommend trying to see things from the customer’s point of view. And lots of companies give lip service to the idea. Few go out of their way to put themselves in their customer’s place.

Which makes Nissan’s initiative in Japan all the more remarkable. According to Business Week (subscription may be required to view),

Elderly drivers make up a growing share of Japan’s auto market—and its accident statistics, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK. Now, to help them drive more safely (and comfortably), engineers at Nissan are donning “old” suits that simulate the effects of aging. “It’s not always practical to recruit older motorists for product research,” says design engineer Etsuhiro Watanabe.

The suits include features such as “cataract goggles”, neck restraints, and special gloves to reduce finger dexterity.

What can you do to simulate the ways your clients will actually use your product or service?

 

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Free Advertising Podcast Now Available

A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewed by Michael Thompson of Marketing Accelerators for his podcast series. The subject was advertising mistakes and how to fix them. You can download the podcast for free, listen to it on your computer, or put it on your Ipod.

Download the full interview here.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.

Request your free copy of my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

How Easy Is It To Do Business With You?

Turner Realtors’ Portland Real Estate Blog has a post titled “Is Your House Really For Sale?” . The post offers a list of abbreviations used by real estate agents concerning how the house is to be shown. They offer some unvarnished views as to how those instructions are interpreted by buyers’ agents:

KEY-LO: I have to go to the listing office to pick up the key, show the property, and return the key. Not a good use of mine or client’s time. AG-ACCM: Listing agent accompany. It makes sense in some situations (multimillion dollar homes) but if the house is vacant or owner occupied, you’ve got to get over it. My client wants to talk about your house, in your house without your agent. That and your agent better be able to work to our schedule.

Whatever you’re selling, you may unknowingly be placing barriers between your customers’ money and you. Automated phone systems; hard-to-navigate web sites; cumbersome paperwork; any of these things could cause your prospects to give up and buy elsewhere.

 

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.

Request your free copy of my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Is Ford’s New Campaign on the Right Track?

When selling, remember: If you don’t admit the downside, they won’t believe the upside. — Roy Williams

Lively discussion in progress on AdRants (see the comments) regarding Ford’s new ad campaign, “Drive One”. I admit to a rooting interest here, since I have two Ford dealers as clients. The author of the post is hard on the company, since in his view the positions Ford is grabbing for are already taken in the consumers’ mind by other manufacturers. And he quarrels with the whole tone of the campaign:

When a tarnished brand like Ford asks me to be surprised when I “drive one” I may register that Ford is building quality cars, but I am also reminded why I should be surprised by that – because their products were so bad for so long.

I tend to believe that Ford is facing reality — although the damage to their reputation may be self-inflicted, it’s real nonetheless, and they need to begin the slow process of repairing it. The “surprise” expressed is a tacit acknowlegement of the fact, and it’s refreshing to see them do it.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.

Request your free copy of my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Effective Use of Images

I didn’t see this until a Wall Street Journal columnist complained about it (and by the way, YouTube remains the most miraculous invention of my lifetime). Kellogg did a wonderful job in selling the benefits of eating All-Bran cereal.

Humor is in the eye of the beholder — you may or may not find the ad amusing, but the pitch works either way. Here’s what they did right:

1. They chose one target consumer — the boomer having problems with “regularity” — and offered to solve that one problem for the consumer.

2. Besides a single mention of great taste, they didn’t talk about any other features or benefits.

3. They made the offer time-specific: a “10-day challenge”.

4. Very effective use of visual metaphor. Rather than a happy guy getting up from the toilet, they used a beam sliding out a hole, barrels dropping off a flatbed (note the placement) and a dump truck (bwaaaa ha ha!) dropping a load of, um, dirt. The consumer watching at home got to figure out what it all meant.

5. They didn’t make it hard to figure out what it all meant.

Nicely done. Enjoy!

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=RwX8MzOKOzI]

 

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.

Request your free copy of my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.