I’m one of the dwindling few who still reads a newspaper every morning.  The generation behind me may not know how to operate a newspaper, but for me it’s as much a part of breakfast as the cup of coffee.

Since I toil in the persuasion industry, the advertising is as important to me as the articles. So when I opened the paper on a recent Sunday, it hurt to see this:

West Hills Health and Rehabilitation spent a significant sum of money to let Portland know that it is… “deficiency-free.” For the casual reader, this raises several questions. For instance:

• Shouldn’t “deficiency-free” be a minimum standard for this sort of operation?
• Are we, perhaps, setting the bragging bar a little low?

Whenever you make a claim in your marketing copy, you need to imagine your prospect sitting across from you, arms folded, asking,

“So What?”

It’s possible, I suppose, that the state inspection is extremely challenging, and that “deficiency-free” is actually a tough standard to meet. Maybe the designation represents a real benefit to patients. Perhaps West Hills has some important qualities that make it an attractive choice for those in need of rehabilitation services.

If so, that information doesn’t appear anywhere in the ad. And there’s nothing in the copy that gives the consumer any reason to look into the subject any further.

It’s your job to make sure that your message is one that your target will care about — your prospect doesn’t have the time or the attention span to figure it out for himself.

This copy fails the “So What” test. How about yours?

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After nearly fifteen years as Portland’s Finest Media Rep, I’ll be moving to a new opportunity soon:

Beginning in January, I’ll be a Senior Consultant with the firm of Jim Doyle & Associates. In this role, I’ll be traveling throughout the country, helping TV reps to sell more effectively by developing better advertising campaigns for their clients.

There’s an expression I heard often during my recent visit to Vietnam: “Same-same, but different”. I’ll be using many of the skills that I’ve developed over the years — thorough needs analysis, positioning, copywriting, and sales — in a different way.

Instead of meeting with auto dealers, aesthetic-medicine practices, and funeral homes in Portland, I’ll be meeting with auto dealers, aesthetic-medicine practices, and funeral homes all over the country. It’ll be TV instead of radio. And rather than working alone, every call and proposal I make will be in conjunction with a television account executive.

And “Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog” will become “America’s Finest Advertising Blog.” Because my ego hasn’t gotten any smaller lately.

I’ll be with Clear Channel through the end of November, 2009 — so if you’re in Portland and want my help on a radio campaign before I go, there’s still time. Call me at 503-323-6553, or email me here.

There are probably lots of ice cream trucks cruising through Manhattan on any given summer afternoon.

But there’s only one Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. As a marketing tool, the name has three important things going for it:

• It is so far from the expected that it forces  people (i.e. potential customers) to pay attention.
• It establishes a genuine point of differentiation. That differentiation doesn’t have to be the product itself to be significant, which is likely similar to ice cream you can buy elsewhere.
• It implicitly accepts the risk that some people will be offended. Some people will refuse to buy ice cream from this truck because of the name — owner Doug Quint is willing to sacrifice that business in return for a (presumably larger and more loyal) customer base that will seek him out. (For more on this concept, go here)

Thank you to Zach Newman for tipping me off to the NPR story on this.

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

Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

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

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

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