Your advertising message and why people buy from you

Working and dealing with B2B clients and receiving and reading a host of trade publications means I come across many marketing/selling messages throughout each working day.

Again, I must profess disappointment at the quality of advertising in the trade press. I’m not saying that these ads are all produced sloppily in-house, a majority are professionally-prepared by ad agencies or other professional communication practitioners. And, I put myself as guilty of these same transgressions in marketing communication.

I personally make no excuses as I usually just follow client instructions, especially when clients supply the copy. And, my only input is by way of layout. I refer to the ad message and what is set out in the ad brief. (However, when I am asked to develop a concept, it's another story.)

Many ads feature the client logo on top, with ad copy being either a company mission statement or an enumeration of products and services offered—the classic tombstone ad, or ”name, rank and serial number ad” as this is also known.

At best, these types of ads are of value only as subliminal reminders of an organisation’s presence in the marketplace. Unfortunately, at worse, these are not only ignored, but could be a way of proving to the market that the staff of the company concerned is just too busy to take time to prepare the right message or really is not interested in getting more customers.

Am I being too harsh?

Well, maybe. But consider this: when putting out a marketing communication, the point of view is not “I” or “we”, but should really be “you”. Yes, you the customer or prospective customer.

And, to really make an impact on the reader, the aspect certainly should be what’s in it for the reader.

Again, I refer to a promise to the reader. This is usually of one or more benefits the reader would get from buying or using the advertiser’s product or service.

When Dove sold its soap to the public, the company did not just offer a means of achieving personal hygiene, but one of “younger and smoother skin”. The emphasis was on the moisturiser in the soap.

The slant of the Volvo ads was on safety. The focus was not on the car itself, but on the safety shell, built into each vehicle. Volvo now has another slant, but the “Staying Alive” message is still at the back of my mind because it was memorable. And more importantly, the promise was safety, not just the driver, but the driver’s family who are in the vehicle with him (her).

(Funny though, that the safety cell was not invented by Volvo, though the company would certainly be remembered for relating this with its cars. It was developed by Mercedes Benz, who did not patent the technology as the management of the company wanted to share this with the rest of the world.)

I digress, but you get my drift. The principal consideration is not that you as a marketer are there put a message across because you love your organisation or your job, it’s because you as a marketer exist because of your customers. No customers, no you.

And, your customer doesn’t care about your company, your mission statement, your product (or service) offering, but on what your company can do for him or her. Yes, what’s in it for me (the customer).

So, the point of view and the message is a promise of something that must just be too good to pass up.

And, put simply the more enticing the message the greater the interest the reader will have to go beyond the headline, read through the body copy and then contact you for more details.

Communication: Getting to know your customers

Earlier this week I attended a discussion panel run by Ebay. It was for PayPal actually. I jumped at the chance. Why?

Wow, these are real people. They want to get my thoughts and want to hear from me. How great is that? Plus, heck, I have an unresolved issue and maybe I could meet someone who could assist if I needed help.

Yes, not an email address, or a help desk, a real person.

This, folks, is something that is quite relevant today, especially for the larger organisations out there. Human contact is lost. And, with many organisations, the only contact is via electronic means. Wow, how impersonal.

Of course, there is the old "1800" number. And, invariably, you get to speak with someone with a foreign accent, no offense to the people that man call centres, but it does feel that there is another degree of separation with the organisation that you dealt with originally.

The point I'm trying to get at is that as a marketer, one has to know his/her customer and not just empathise and relate to that person, but communicate with that person.

In the old days, market surveys would have been the go. Today, focus groups are more the way the bigger organisations go about this.

Focus groups are in the main used to run ideas by them and get a chance to fine tune the message. This is what did happen in the panel I joined.

There were several people, other than the discussion leader (who was from a market research company), from Ebay. And, not only did they give us a fair hearing, they engaged in discussion and one of them got my details and offered to help me with a difficulty I had with the dispute console.

Mind you that was several days ago. And, I haven't heard from her since that discussion panel. (Postscript: I did get an email, with an apology for not getting back to me as the lady caught the flu.) Which leads me to the final point: make sure your customer matters. If you promise to do something, do it.

Or, you may get some irate customers venting their spleens in their blogs out there and undoing all the good work you have done over a long period of time.

Worth thinking about, isn't it?

First impressions count: what about your logo?

At the Prospect's Awards evening, I sat beside a gentleman who was unhappy with their company logo. I offered to help him in revitalising this, and got me thinking.

If you were to go for a job interview sloppily dressed, with hair unkempt, clothes dissheveled and looking like you not only need a bath but a shave as well, how do you expect to get that job you applied for. Even if you’re the most qualified, if the job is for an executive position, you should go to the interview dressed the part.

First impressions count for a lot. Likewise for your communication pieces.
If your brochure, business card, logo or other communication piece looks like it was done in matter of minutes on your word processor, what does that say about your company?

With the resources available today, there is really no excuse to get the communication piece done professionally. And, this doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Let’s take the logo as a starting point. This visual communication piece is the first representation of your company. While literacy is not a problem like it was two centuries back, when logos (or trademarks) had to really be very recognisable, as many people could not read, the logo should at least be memorable.

By memorable, I mean this must have some impact on the reader. Impact here also means legibility, right use of colour, visual appeal and so on.

Logo is a term taken from logotype, a symbol, used as a trademark or brand for a company or its products and services.Trademarks were, as the name implies, used by traders and merchants to identify themselves. Today, logos (trademarks) are used by all sorts of organisations, including governments, clubs, etc.

Logos and trademarks are not just mere words or symbols they are many things. This is specially a means of identity for an organisation, product or service. It is a means of differentiating these from others especially in the same field and, of course, a communication piece.

Logos communicate information to the reader things like value, origin, quality and so on.

Logos, especially trademarks, add value to organisations, products and services. They are valuable assets that are legal property. As such, many organisations spend a lot of time and money to protect their use.

As a communication piece, it should first be legible. Secondly, it should be memorable and stand out from the crowd. A quick logo, done on a word processor just won’t do.

Going back to the first impressions, what would a logo that looks quickly done and is not legible say to a prospective customer? Would you deal with someone from a company that really didn’t put too much thought into its logo? Does the logo appear like it was a backyard operation?

Wouldn’t you rather deal with a company that looked professional and smart? And, these are things that the logo will communicate to the reader.

So, if you’re considering updating your logo, why not get some professional help to get the job done right. At the very least, consider legibility, memorability, impact and remember this must make a good first impression to whoever reads this.

This year's Aimex: some thoughts

Early this week, I popped over to the Olympic Park complex, to get a glimpse of Aimex.

This exhibition is only held every five years. So, exhibitors really have the time and they really put the effort. I've been going for regularly for some years now and must say that this is the best one yet.

My kudos to the exhibitors and organisers alike. It takes a lot of work to put up a show of this magnitude.

And, whilst I'm at it, my thanks and kudos to Reeds for this year's Prospect Awards. I was present at the dinner and was impressed with the quality of the contestants and how this award has grown through the years.

Give credit, where it is due. Reeds (Reed Business Information) are up there with the best. And, as if we needed reminding, Australian Mining will be 100 years next year.

Wow.

I've been involved with industrial publishing (albeit in the advertising agency side of things) since 1980. In the past 27 years, I've seen so many publications come and shortly thereafter just disappear. I've also seen mergers of publications, revamps and so on.

Well done, fellas. I've met many of the editors of this publication and must admit that the current editor is pretty switched on. With podcasting well and truly a part of their regular newsletters and a spanking new website.

Anyway, back to more mundane things. As an advertising agency bloke for 27 years, I've witnessed many things and this is why I put up this blog, to share that experience and some of my thinking.

So, enough of Aimex and on to other marketing communication stuff. You can get some by visiting my new blog. And, you can stay tuned here, by following my ramblings. Til the next post.....

Some more thoughts on blogging...and my new blog

Blogging being a journal means there should be regular posts. Mea culpa. With the many pressures of work and family, the update of a blog seems to go down in priority to everything else. (I should really practice what I preach.)

Last weekend, I attended a seminar on Internet Marketing. It was very similar to the one I attended last year. It was, after all, given by the same people--the Internet Marketing Center.

Mind you last year, the CEO, Derek Gehl gave the seminar, but the guy this year, Jason Bax, was also pretty good. Though, I liked the previous venue better. Telstra Stadium, compared to Syndey University, this year. (No offense to the university, but we had tables and chairs and more room in the previous venue.)

And, since the cost was minimal, they tried to sell their stuff. This I suppose is fair enough. But, again, I digress.

One session in that seminar dealt on blogging, RSS and podcasting. This was the principal reason I attended the seminar. Some new things were covered and this got me even more excited to put more effort in my blogging.

I admit that one reason I do blog is to practice what I preach. I do blogs for some clients and use the lessons learned from actually blogging myself.

I've wanted to be able to have a blog in my own domain, to give me more control than this free forum courtesy of Google. To the folks at Google, thanks and I will still continue using your service. Great job and I push this service to others.

Going back to my earlier plans of my own blog with my own domain. This journal will deal purely on marketing communication. In fact, I've sub-titled the blog: Exploring marketing communication for fun and profit.

If you want to take a peek, it's called messagefromgarcia.net. Yes, I know, pretty obvious and a bit corny. But, when I brainstormed some names this kept coming back with a good feel.

Unfortunately, the ".com" of messagefromgarcia was taken.

Good lesson there. If you have a name you like or want to use, register the domain straight away. Best to stick to .com or .net.

Anyway, again I digressed. I will have more stuff on blogging here and in my other site.

Hope to see you there...soon.

Writing about features and benefits, there's a difference

Remember the old “features” and “benefits”. I’ve been involved with these two aspects of many a product over more years than I care to remember. (In an earlier life as a sales representative, the product features and benefits were drummed to us by the powers that be in every product training session.)

I note that in a number of ads, I’ve come across in the last few years and up to the present, product features are prominently covered in the body copy of print ads. So much so, that the actual benefits that accrue from those features are many times forgotten. Or, left to the reader to work out.

So, what am I getting at. It’s simply this: to sell product, one has to concentrate on benefits, not features. It’s benefits that sell, not the features.

Features are the different aspects that describe the product. This may be the bells and whistles, which many a salesperson, has more than once been so enamoured of that the benefits of these are lost in the telling. Or, they may be the nuts and bolts of a product.

Let’s stick to print ads, for the purpose of this post. Using a personal computer as an example, today, we see many ads pushing dual core processors, and the amount of RAM found in the units being promoted.

This is akin to saying that this car has so many horsepower (kilowatts of power if we must think metric), or so many cylinders and so on.

This is alright, if we are preparing a specification from which we will be supplying a product. But, as we are trying to sell, we need to highlight benefits. Yes, the old what’s in it for the buyer. What will a buyer or eventual user get from the feature you just highlighted?

Taking the PC example again, more RAM, means that it is a lot easier working a particular computer. In the days of memory measured in kilobytes, rather megabytes (really gigabytes today), this meant the user had to shut down an application before switching to another.

Yes, dear reader, this used to be the case. Our younger readers may not appreciate this, but that was how it was only some 10 years ago.

Anyway, I digress. Multi-tasking is now a given. But, if you were trying to sell a computer with only 512 Mbytes of RAM, what chance have you against your opposition’s offering 2 GB.

But, instead of pointing out the 2 GB, we can highlight the benefit of greater productivity, because of greater RAM. This means in the end, more time to do other things, or more dollars in the bottom line.

That’s right. That is what is in it for the prospective buyer (which is what the reader is).

So, when preparing your next ad, don’t forget to stress benefits, rather than features. If you do have to enumerate features, don’t forget to explain just what this means to the reader. That’t right, what the benefit of the feature is to that person.

More thoughts on blogging

Admittedly, I'm a late adaptor of the blog. I've only been running this blog for just on a year. And, I must admit that I have only been posting sporadically over that period.

I want to share some nuggets I picked up in my readings concerning Blogs and Blogging.

"Blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpose, or delegate...blogs are not a business elective. They're a prerequisite." (BusinessWeek)

Worth a thought, isn't it? Can anyone in business afford to disregard blogging?

Did you know that the word "blog" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003. It's been around for a while, but you know that something is mainstream when it makes the OED.

According to Nancy Flynn, founder of ePolicy Institute: "The blog is an electronic communications powerhouse that is likely to have greater impact on business communications and corporate reputations than e-mail, instant messageing and traditional marketing-oriented websites combined."

She nominated this as the first rule of blogs, in her book Blog Rules (AMACON, 2006).

These are just some random snippets that I gathered from the first part of the book, which deals with a case for strategic blogging. I'll have some more nuggets from this book and other sources in future posts.

Til my next post.

More on blogging, some definitions

In my calls to prospective and present clients, I've offered to set-up and maintain a blog for them as part of my service offering. I have encountered a number who have not heard of the term Blog.

Just for the record, let's get a few terms defined here.

Blog is short for web log, a journal of posts that is located on the worldwide web. Someone who keeps a blog is a blogger; the process of keeping a blog is blogging. The world of blogs is called the blogosphere, the act of putting up a blog on a blog is posting.

Wikipedia defines a blog as "a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order." The description of what a blog is goes further:

"Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media."

More of this definition/description can be accessed on Wikipedia's site,">click here.

And, of course, blog jargon has evolved to come up with other terms and acronyms. Take CBO for instance. You have CEOs, CFOs, COOs, but a CBO? Yes, you guessed it, Chief Blogging Officer.

It's another world I suppose. And, face it, it's not going to go away. On the contrary, I'm one of those that believes that it's here to stay.

What do you think?

Some pointers on briefing for website design

Time is a commodity that is in very short supply for most people. And, I've found that my clients are no exceptions.

Working without a proper brief has been a fact of life for many years now and I've worked my way around this by filling in the blanks as much as possible. I take the attitude that it's better to take a communication job, be it an ad, a brochure or press release to the next stage ASAP.

Giving the client a word doc (for a press release), or a PDF for an ad or brochure, for him/her to look at is easier and gets the job done faster than waiting for a better brief, or more material to take a job to the next stage.

There are however some jobs that I just cannot take any further without a proper brief. One of these is the preparation website.

First of all, why do you need a website? What are you going to use this for? Who do you expect to influence? What message do you want to leave with them?

These are the first considerations for any brief for a communication piece. With a website, more things have to be considered.

After answering the above, one has to consider the content for inclusion. Will there be product brochures, flyers, maybe whole catalogues? How will these be grouped? Are they going to be in separate pages? What about photos?

As photos have to be optimised for the web, these have to be small in size for quick download. And, with the medium able to use JPEGs ( a lossy format), quality of the photos need not be super quality. (No out-of-focus shots, please.)

Also, considerations as to how often these have to be changed. Will the website be purely static? Are there any interactivity considerations? What about e-commerce?

There are a lot of other considerations covering search engine optimisation, meta tags and what about building a community, or a blog to be incorporated in the site.

As you can see, it's not just straight forward.

More on this in another blog.

What is Web 2.0...where does blogging fit in?

Recently, I was asked just what exactly is Web 2.0? Well, this is the shape of today’s web. The next generation, really.

Web 2.0 was first coined by O’Reilly Media, an American company.

The term is used to distinguish the web model today from the start of the web as we know it. For instance, Britannica Online was the encyclopedic source of Web 1.0, while in Web 2.0 it’s Wikipedia. Personal websites were the go in Web 1.0, and now it’s blogging.

The accent was on publishing previously, in Web 2.0 it is more on participation.

Hence, Web 2.0 refers to today’s more collaborative, friendly and interactive transformation of the more staid and static Web 1.0.

It is to take advantage of the current paradigm, that I have approached my clients to consider the use of blogging to get the message out there. Not just to let their customers get more information, but to get feedback on what they are thinking.

While 15 years ago, one had to consider if their firm needed a website, today this is a given. No one can do business without one.

So, in today’s Web 2.0 world, the question is “Do we need a blog?”.

What do you think?

Blogging is more than just a diary of thoughts

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One of the reasons blogs haven't been picked up by corporates is the belief that this marketing communication is merely a diary of thoughts.

For many blogs run as personal logs, this is the case. For corporate communication, whether run by the CEO, or other company officer, this is not always the case. Even if the blog carries that person's thoughts.

A blog is a log. It can be one for random thoughts and even ramblings of the person concerned. But, it can and should be a more than that.

It is a great communication medium, which should be used properly. It's not just a mouthpiece for the company, but a communication medium with extremely wide reach. One which can do more than more conventional methods.

And, this means that it also allows feedback which is not achievable through any other means. Think about it, unless you are prepared to do a survey for every communication you send out, there's no other way to get instant feedback.

Plus, being nearly anonymous, inhibition doesn't get in the way. Once posted, these items of feedback are easy to reply to. Stopping a negative response means you not only get a customer who may have left you onside, but also prevent that person from virally pushing a negative barrow against you.

Still not convinced. More on this in my next post.

Blogging: why corporates need to consider this

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It would be so easy to say that blogging was just a passing fancy. Or, that as a marketing communication tool, there is very little value in blogging.

If this were so, wouldn't you wonder why companies like IBM, Microsoft, GM and other Fortune 500 companies are blogging? Why these companies not only invest time in their blogs, but promote the blogging culture within their companies.

So, as an executive in a company, should you consider using blogging as a communication tool?

Definitely.

Why? Consider the benefits:
- a two-way communication tool that allows feedback, without expensive market research
- instant upload of your posts
- communication on a personal level
- a means to influence the market easily
- a way to establish yourself or your company as an industry/opinion leader

And, cost-wise, it's hard to beat. Very little in actual dollars and time invested.

Plus, you can take advantage of the viral nature of this communication means. This aspect cannot be under emphasized.

You have word-of-mouth going for you. And, the easy means of passing your post around via the net.

With these links going around, you get more backlinks, which can help you improve your search engine rankings.

Still not convinced?

You should, at least, consider starting. Look at the cost and time involvement. What have you got to lose?

If you find this just too hard, give me a call. I'd be very happy to discuss the pluses and minuses of this marketing communication and show you just how easy this can be.

Will blogging overtake standard websites

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I recently came across a prediction that blogging will eventually overtake conventional websites. I wonder.

In the Web 2.0 world, a lot of changes have occurred on th internet. Blogging is one such phenomenon. Communication, with comments going back to other way--to the blog writer--has been made that much easier.

What a difference to static websites. Of course, there are sites that allow the viewer to order stuff on-line. E-commerce is now an established mode of marketing. Something that has expanded in the Web 2.0 world.

But, what about blogging? Will it take over standard sites?

Personally, I see a greater increase in blog sites. Both for sites that are standalone and those hosted by providers like Google. And, with this growth, I see an increase in popularity.

Users will not just read through stuff put up in blogs, but will get more involved.

From just another thing that techies did on the web, blogs are now mainstream. Again, Web 2.0, with the start of Blogger.com changed the blogosphere.

And, on a personal level, blogs has been the go for sometime now. We should note that the corporate level is also very active in the areas with CEOs of many of the larger companies (Fortune 500) having their own blogs.

In Australia, blogging in the corporate world is still in its relative infancy. I see this slowly changing and blogging becoming more popular for the corporates--whether this is for personal blogging by executives or corporate blogging.

And, like a snowball rolling down a mountain, gathering more snow with it, as it rolls, blogging will only get bigger.

And, yes, this could well take over from standard websites.

When, I would say in a matter of one to two years.

There will still be websites and they will still perform the tasks they set out to do. But, blogs will proliferate and possibly take over in popularity.

It's going to be very interesting to watch just how this unfolds.

Until my next posting.

Some thoughts on blogging

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It's been busy after the Christmas holidays. And, in typical Jack Garcia fashion, I forgot, or just couldn't get in the mood to focus on updating my blog.

Which brings me to some important characteristics of blogs. Timeliness comes to mind. Frequency is another. Quite importantly is commitment.

Part of the service I offer my clients is help in setting up blogs and their regular updating. The work involved is not merely setting up and publishing, but a strong emphasis on pinging.

After all, what's the point of putting out a blog that's helping promote your company, if you don't take advantage of the search engines' current attraction with blogs. (It's current flavour of the month.)

Search engines love content. That's what they live on. Content.

They look for content, relate these to keywords and help users search and browse the web looking for information.

Search engines' web robots crawl the internet looking for new content.

So, what bloggers should do after a new post is to make sure that search engines know that there's something new. Ping the search engines.

A ping is a quick note to the search engines to let them know that you have new content (a new post) in your blog.

Anyway, I digress.

For bloggers who use this communication means to help promote their business, commitment is important. Before I start blogs for clients, I ask them to commit to keeping the blog alive as a matter of course.

It's like starting a communication piece, eg, a newsletter and stopping after only a few issues.

Blogs are a lot simpler a proposition, also cheaper and arguably with greater reach and more timelines, so this medium should be easier to keep up.

Which brings me back to why I have not updated my blog. Mea culpa. Plain human frailty. Unable to focus. Laziness. Just couldnt' be bothered. You name it.

Enough, rambling. With this blog, I promise to be more timely, more frequent and hopefully very relevant.

Until my next posting.