Stealing A Big Agency Secret

FOUR POINTS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

I've recently stumbled upon an arcane bit of philosophy from ad agency giant BBDO.

It's an operating philosophy that will leave you reeling in its simplicity.

It's worked for one of the world's oldest and largest advertising agencies. It can work for you.

It will help you create advertising that blows prospects away, makes them rush to the phone, flock to the customer's store, and possibly even change the course of mighty rivers.

It's known as The Four-Point Process.

Here now, this earth-shatteringly simple way to profitable advertising.

Ready?

(1) Know your prime prospect
(2) Know your prime prospect's problem
(3) Know your product
(4) Break the boredom barrier

Hmm, you say. Feeling a little let down? Were you expecting more? A genie from a bottle, perhaps?

Perhaps the genie is before you and you simply don't recognize him.

Let's dissect this for a moment, shall we?


KNOW YOUR PRIME PROSPECT

Too often, people try to put the fun before the cart.

They attempt Step 4 without ever considering 1, 2 or 3.

And foremost is knowing who's buying your stuff.

Who is the advertiser's main customer?

Age, sex, social position, attitude, perspective, concerns, hopes, joys-everything that makes this typical customer who they are.

We've discussed the Trader Joe's core customer: an unemployed college professor who drives an old Volvo.

That one simple description says volumes. You can break that one line open to find all kinds of modifiers about who that man is and what he likes.

Trader Joe's knows their prospect.

So should the rest of us for each of our clients.


KNOW YOUR PRIME PROSPECT'S PROBLEM

You've heard the assertion that, "Good advertising is problem solving."

Every prospect (as defined in step one) has a problem the advertiser can solve.

The ad is a promise to solve that problem.

But how many times do you see or hear and advertisement that doesn't address the problem?

Instead, it addresses some very clever comedy scenario, sidestepping the real problem?

When I get in the car, I turn on the biggest station in town--which means the advertisers are paying top dollar for the air time, and I'm hearing commercials that make no sense.

They act like they're solving a problem--but it's often a problem that shouldn't even be on my mind. Like, "Our fully background checked employees won't steal drugs from your medicine cabinet and aren't on the sex offender's registry."

Dead serious. That's a line from a commercial for a local air conditioning contractor.

My problem as a prospect for air conditioning is not that I've got ex cons traipsing through my house and stealing my Zoloft.

My problem is I can't afford to upgrade my AC system in this lousy economy and it's costing me money. Or any of a dozen other potential problems.


KNOW YOUR PRODUCT

This point that is often avoided entirely.

"I sell many products to everyone!"

Mortgage brokers are the worst at this. They never want to target one borrower with one mortgage product. But we see this in all kinds of categories: no defined product or service.

Until you get past that, Mr. Advertiser, you're not selling anything to anyone.

Proctor & Gamble sells over two dozen brands that are worth over a billion dollars each.

Imagine trying to advertise every one of those products in the same 60-second commercial. Heck, pick just three of them and try to advertise them all at once: Say, Pringles potato chips, Tide laundry detergent and Always panty liners.

Good luck with that.

Before you know the product you're advertising, you have to PICK the product you're advertising.

Once that's done, it's necessary to become immersed in it. Learn it inside and out--including how it solves the prospect's problem.

Our San Diego Lasik client could do what so many Lasik doctors do--stand on the street corner of radio with a sign yelling, "Laser vision correction for just $500 per eye!"

Instead, she offers intensely personal service unlike any other Lasik provider, and specializes in helping individuals for whom perfect vision is mission critical, like pilots and military officers.

We figured that out by spending an entire day talking to the doctor and her patients--and none of this became clear until several hours into the process.

Until we had extensive conversations with three patients and the doctor, this was still unknown.

Until we got to know The Product (the doctor and her service), all we had was just another Lasik surgeon.

But now, we have something truly special because we took the time to get way down in there. (If you haven't heard these commercials, feel free to visit www.waittilyousee.com )


BREAK THE BOREDOM BARRIER

This is so often the first step people want to take.

It simply doesn't work that way.

Well, not usually. Every once in a while, lightning strikes and a brilliant ad happens in the blink of an eye with none of the previous three steps.

But we can't count on that. Instead, all the hard work has to be done first.

THEN we get to be creative-and relevant.

Relevance is key.

There can't be 15 seconds of creative comedy about the prospect's messy yard, then 45 seconds of unfocused bullet-point announcer blather about landscaping and construction.

This isn't an exercise in filling up 60 seconds with words.

It's an exercise in finding one essential truth that excites the prospect to take action.

I frequently point to Motel 6 as an example purely because it works so well.

The essential truth about Motel 6 is it's the single best cheap motel in America. We all know that. We all know Tom Bodett. And if there's one thing that Tom's monologues prove, it's this: their agency (The Richards Group) knows the Motel 6 customer, knows the customer's problem, knows the product, and they've been breaking the boredom barrier with every single commercial for that last 20-plus years.

Put the Four-Point Process in your hookah and smoke it.