When a movie turns out to be good or bad depends on a variety of things depending on the director, cast, music, and editing. This principle applies to successful advertising campaigns which encompass strategy, execution, marketing, creativity, graphics and copy. Let’s look at instant recognition and customized imagery. A basic principle of publicity for movie stars is to make them instantly recognizable. This principle applies to creative advertising, by a distinctive layout style, use of typefaces, unique style of art, use of color or some element that is dramatically different from the competition, which is customized imagery.
In the movies, there is a theme that needs to be established at the start of the film. In a display ad, there is an optical weight of the ad, which in effect, sets the stage for the reader to be motivated to continue reading—in effect like the early movie theme. This optical weight is the upper left hand quadrant of an ad. Creativity can start in that quadrant namely with a well designed logo, the start of a provocative headline, a dominant eye-catching graphic and possibly spot color. It’s not easy to create an award winning movie. It’s also not easy to produce an award winning ad campaign. The key is for the advertiser to tell the story of his or her business. This story is the movie about their business.
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Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
What is the core value of your publication?
What is the core value of your publication?
By Bob Berting, Berting Communications
Don’t overlook this question in your sales meetings. Your salespeople are telling your prospects and customers that you are the best newspaper in town or if you’re the only newspaper, you’re the best media choice in town. They go on to say you have the best customer service in town. But what is your core value? What is the value you bring to the marketplace that no one else can bring? What impact does that value have on the prospect, not intellectually, but emotionally? What value do you bring that will compel your prospect to ask you to fix their problems. This is usually emotional.
Principles of contemporary selling
The act of “selling” in the traditional sense of the word weakens your place in the buyer-seller negotiation. Cut down on selling emphasis and begin using psychology and philosophy to translate your value. When you stop selling, your prospect will feel prone to open up and give you the reasons why he or she needs you to fix his or her problems. Isn’t that what we want anyway? Salespeople who sell hard and relentlessly sometimes don’t understand human nature—and it costs them.
You still do your dog and pony show to sleepy eyes. Stop the show and ask questions about their problems and existing conditions. “ What conditions exist in your company that caused you to be interested in our publication?’
Let them talk. You’re working too hard. Let them work a little.
Never underestimate the propensity to purchase
You have seen this happen. A prospective advertiser will balk at spending $1500.00, then turn around and spend $2500.00 with a competitor. Why? Because the belief was there. The energy was there. The money is always there. Money is conceptual. Many times, the danger is that salespeople will make decisions for the prospect before they do. Don’t make the decision for the prospect before they do. Don’t make the decision for the prospect about anything, especially money. Also, sometimes the more one pays for something, the more value they attach to it—providing the value is actually there. The world is full of buyers who have bought half a solution only because of the salesperson’s fear to talk in larger terms that would have solved the entire problem of the prospect or customer. Think about that last statement.
Never let your fears affect your selling
Often, we won’t ask the question because we’re afraid of the answer. The prospect is telling you about a severe problem he has. You need to ask
“ Why haven’t you learned to solve this before/” By asking, you will be finding out an important part of his values—his own fear. From that, you can determine the best corrective action to take.
Don’t overwhelm your prospect
You have tremendous knowledge about your publication –type styles, printing press capability, demographic statistics, website benefits, etc. You feel good about what you know and you want to start spouting all this information to the prospect. Many times, the reaction to all this rhetoric is actually wearing the customer out. Never wear out the one with the check.
So you know everything there is to know about newspaper advertising. But many times you don’t know the customer’s compelling problems that need to be solved—and you need to know them.
-30-
By Bob Berting, Berting Communications
Don’t overlook this question in your sales meetings. Your salespeople are telling your prospects and customers that you are the best newspaper in town or if you’re the only newspaper, you’re the best media choice in town. They go on to say you have the best customer service in town. But what is your core value? What is the value you bring to the marketplace that no one else can bring? What impact does that value have on the prospect, not intellectually, but emotionally? What value do you bring that will compel your prospect to ask you to fix their problems. This is usually emotional.
Principles of contemporary selling
The act of “selling” in the traditional sense of the word weakens your place in the buyer-seller negotiation. Cut down on selling emphasis and begin using psychology and philosophy to translate your value. When you stop selling, your prospect will feel prone to open up and give you the reasons why he or she needs you to fix his or her problems. Isn’t that what we want anyway? Salespeople who sell hard and relentlessly sometimes don’t understand human nature—and it costs them.
You still do your dog and pony show to sleepy eyes. Stop the show and ask questions about their problems and existing conditions. “ What conditions exist in your company that caused you to be interested in our publication?’
Let them talk. You’re working too hard. Let them work a little.
Never underestimate the propensity to purchase
You have seen this happen. A prospective advertiser will balk at spending $1500.00, then turn around and spend $2500.00 with a competitor. Why? Because the belief was there. The energy was there. The money is always there. Money is conceptual. Many times, the danger is that salespeople will make decisions for the prospect before they do. Don’t make the decision for the prospect before they do. Don’t make the decision for the prospect about anything, especially money. Also, sometimes the more one pays for something, the more value they attach to it—providing the value is actually there. The world is full of buyers who have bought half a solution only because of the salesperson’s fear to talk in larger terms that would have solved the entire problem of the prospect or customer. Think about that last statement.
Never let your fears affect your selling
Often, we won’t ask the question because we’re afraid of the answer. The prospect is telling you about a severe problem he has. You need to ask
“ Why haven’t you learned to solve this before/” By asking, you will be finding out an important part of his values—his own fear. From that, you can determine the best corrective action to take.
Don’t overwhelm your prospect
You have tremendous knowledge about your publication –type styles, printing press capability, demographic statistics, website benefits, etc. You feel good about what you know and you want to start spouting all this information to the prospect. Many times, the reaction to all this rhetoric is actually wearing the customer out. Never wear out the one with the check.
So you know everything there is to know about newspaper advertising. But many times you don’t know the customer’s compelling problems that need to be solved—and you need to know them.
-30-
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Understanding the customer is key to building right ads
The CPBG Solution
By Bob Berting, Berting Communications
Even in today’s amazing technology, there remains a classic, time worn problem. How are the advertising materials organized and communicated between the client, the salesperson, and the graphic artist? More specifically, how are presentation layouts presented back to the client? The answer: usually not well organized. But to solve the problem, let’s take a few steps back.
The role of the salesperson
The salesperson has to become a trusted advisor to the client and have the ability to get the client involved in the planning and content of the ads. They must be able to demonstrate that they are a marketing pro who knows good layout design, can write good copy, knows type faces, and can sell long range campaigns. It is obvious that this type of salesperson should have these skills when hired by the sales manager and then trained to be extremely good at them so as to be in control with the customer. The optimal word is control.. The salesperson has to take control and work with the client like an advertising agency approach. One of the major problems in newspaper advertising is that the customer thinks they know more than the salesperson who is calling on them. The salesperson has to establish themselves as an expert and trusted advisor. Even a new salesperson can be perceived as someone who the customer can trust and be guided toward a meaningful advertising program.
Rough layout organization
The content has to be organized so that the client can see and approve the format. This format includes the selection of headlines, art work, suggested copy, and overall ad design. The idea is to also find the customer’s personalized beliefs and goals (CPBG) and work them into the ad ideas. This can be done by showing a head shot of the customer to personalize their ads, featuring employees in the ads, and special goal/belief statements pledging quality, dependability, and dedication to excellent customer service.
The next critical action
The final step is for the salesperson to explain that they want to tell the story of the client’s business with an ongoing campaign but that research needs to be done to know why their customers shop with them and the benefits they are receiving. This information can build an ad campaign with the different reasons becoming the headings of the ads
The CPBG points can be distributed into feature copy boxes. An objection may arise that the customer wants to run special promotions as the ad headings from time to time. That’s OK as long as the campaign reverts back to the “story” of the original strategy. The next step is to tell the customer that they will be brought a campaign kick off ad layout (don’t call it a spec layout) or 2-3 sample ads depicting the start of a campaign. It is important that the customer fully agrees to this and gives permission to do so. Objections might arise which could delay the creative process but that’s OK because it’s better to know before the work is done than after the time and expense of doing the layouts.
The role of the layout artist.
Keep in mind that the salesperson knows what image is to be projected, what goals are to be targeted, and how the campaign is to flow. Any rough layouts done with the customer are given to the layout artist, incorporating the customer’s personalized beliefs and goals (CPBG). The artist proceeds to develop a kick off ad for the campaign or a series of ads to give a feeling of the campaign flow. It is important that the salesperson and the artist carefully go over the layouts before taking them to the customer, making sure that the proper image is projected.
The layout presentation
The presentation layouts are ready and mounted to give a more professional look. It is important that the layouts are shown to the customer before any marketing plan. This procedure ties in with the adage “ sell with emotion and justify with facts”. It’s very important that the layouts tell the story of their business, designed for efficient readership, and to utilize the customer’s personalized beliefs and goals
The happy ending
If all the groundwork has been laid by the salesperson, if the presentation layouts really sparkle, and if the customer has complete trust and belief in the publication as the key player in their media mix---they will buy the plan.
As a final word of caution, you can’t rush the process of creativity. There might be more than one meeting to thoroughly understand the customer’s personalized beliefs and goals.
-30-
By Bob Berting, Berting Communications
Even in today’s amazing technology, there remains a classic, time worn problem. How are the advertising materials organized and communicated between the client, the salesperson, and the graphic artist? More specifically, how are presentation layouts presented back to the client? The answer: usually not well organized. But to solve the problem, let’s take a few steps back.
The role of the salesperson
The salesperson has to become a trusted advisor to the client and have the ability to get the client involved in the planning and content of the ads. They must be able to demonstrate that they are a marketing pro who knows good layout design, can write good copy, knows type faces, and can sell long range campaigns. It is obvious that this type of salesperson should have these skills when hired by the sales manager and then trained to be extremely good at them so as to be in control with the customer. The optimal word is control.. The salesperson has to take control and work with the client like an advertising agency approach. One of the major problems in newspaper advertising is that the customer thinks they know more than the salesperson who is calling on them. The salesperson has to establish themselves as an expert and trusted advisor. Even a new salesperson can be perceived as someone who the customer can trust and be guided toward a meaningful advertising program.
Rough layout organization
The content has to be organized so that the client can see and approve the format. This format includes the selection of headlines, art work, suggested copy, and overall ad design. The idea is to also find the customer’s personalized beliefs and goals (CPBG) and work them into the ad ideas. This can be done by showing a head shot of the customer to personalize their ads, featuring employees in the ads, and special goal/belief statements pledging quality, dependability, and dedication to excellent customer service.
The next critical action
The final step is for the salesperson to explain that they want to tell the story of the client’s business with an ongoing campaign but that research needs to be done to know why their customers shop with them and the benefits they are receiving. This information can build an ad campaign with the different reasons becoming the headings of the ads
The CPBG points can be distributed into feature copy boxes. An objection may arise that the customer wants to run special promotions as the ad headings from time to time. That’s OK as long as the campaign reverts back to the “story” of the original strategy. The next step is to tell the customer that they will be brought a campaign kick off ad layout (don’t call it a spec layout) or 2-3 sample ads depicting the start of a campaign. It is important that the customer fully agrees to this and gives permission to do so. Objections might arise which could delay the creative process but that’s OK because it’s better to know before the work is done than after the time and expense of doing the layouts.
The role of the layout artist.
Keep in mind that the salesperson knows what image is to be projected, what goals are to be targeted, and how the campaign is to flow. Any rough layouts done with the customer are given to the layout artist, incorporating the customer’s personalized beliefs and goals (CPBG). The artist proceeds to develop a kick off ad for the campaign or a series of ads to give a feeling of the campaign flow. It is important that the salesperson and the artist carefully go over the layouts before taking them to the customer, making sure that the proper image is projected.
The layout presentation
The presentation layouts are ready and mounted to give a more professional look. It is important that the layouts are shown to the customer before any marketing plan. This procedure ties in with the adage “ sell with emotion and justify with facts”. It’s very important that the layouts tell the story of their business, designed for efficient readership, and to utilize the customer’s personalized beliefs and goals
The happy ending
If all the groundwork has been laid by the salesperson, if the presentation layouts really sparkle, and if the customer has complete trust and belief in the publication as the key player in their media mix---they will buy the plan.
As a final word of caution, you can’t rush the process of creativity. There might be more than one meeting to thoroughly understand the customer’s personalized beliefs and goals.
-30-
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