Are you just about ready to to write your ad copy for your company or brand?
Remember from the last session that we want to stress brand benefits and create an emotional connection with the audience? First we have to understand what a benefit is.
Feature vs. Benefit
It’s much easier to stress a feature than a benefit. Features are physical and benefits are emotional. A feature of Gatorade is that it contains electrolytes. The benefit is that you feel re-energized and play better. Features lead to benefits. The electrolytes cause your body to feel better. However, electrolytes don’t sell Gatorade. That thought that I can out hustle any opponent, I can play harder, I can run longer because I drank Gatorade: that is what sells Gatorade.
They don’t call it “Lots of Healthy Electrolytes Formula” for a reason-Endurance is the benefit
Does that mean you can never use feature information in your ads? Of course you can, but only if it is secondary to the benefit and used to support your benefit’s claim.
Benefits come from features, but if you successful advertising benefits also stem from the target market. Gatorade making you perform better in an athletic competition resounds in the minds of young athletes, but misses the mark with senior citizens. The electrolytes and other nutrients in Gatorade make it a great nutritional supplement. Hospitals give Gatorade to patients coming out of surgery or with other health needs, however Gatorade chose not to stress this benefit because it does not resonate with their target market- high school or college athletes. You can have the greatest benefit in the world, but if it’s not the benefit that your target audience needs, then your advertising will be unsuccessful.
The Customer
If your product or service is to stress a benefit specific to the customer’s needs, you must first discover what those needs are, and sometimes so does the consumer. Consumers will know they have a problem, but they may not know the BEST way to solve that problem. You need to convince them that you are that best solution. This involves exploring other solutions. What other choices does the consumer have? Why might these appeal to the consumer? Why is your solution different? Why is it better? Why will the consumer care?
If you cannot answer these questions, then you need to do some research. This can be a Google search of the competition and the industry, talking to your own employees, and surveying or interviewing your target market. You need to know a lot of information for targeting your consumer, but you also want to find a key insight to base your campaign on. When doing research, do not cling to your favorite or most memorable piece of information. You might think you found the key to a great benefit oriented campaign from something your niece’s husband’s friend said, however that is just one person’s opinion. He might be the only consumer that thinks this way and you want your campaign to reveal a universal, human truth.
Chances are the consumer also does not view your business the way you view it. As President of Bob’s Hardware, Bob sees his store as the polar opposite of Jim’s Hardware. But to a new homeowner who just needs a hammer, both stores sell hammers at reasonable prices, so the consumer will just go to whichever is located closer. Bob needs to give a solid argument as to why consumers should buy his hammer and not Jim’s hammer. This is where the benefit comes into play. However, the benefit is worthless unless it matters enough to the consumer that they will drive past Jim’s Hardware because they need Bob’s hammer. Tailoring your benefit to your target market makes a benefit worthy of a longer drive.
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! Time to show why your product/service/cause is the best!
You have a target audience. You have a benefit that applies to them. Now you have to make an ad. Here’s the secret: you have to show, not tell. Telling someone that your product is the best because it will provide benefit A as supported by features B and C is not the same as showing someone reaping the benefits. This is not an easy thing to do, but showing creates that emotional connection that telling does not.
Allstate’s Mayhem campaign shows why you need Allstate
How do you show and not tell? It takes a lot of practice, but here are a few tips to get you started.
1. Use imagery. Don’t tell the audience that your product will make them happy, show happy people using the product. However, this can apply to any type of ad, even an ad without graphics, like a radio ad if done well. How do you make a radio ad have imagery?
2. Be descriptive and use sensory language. Grass is not just green and the sun is not just shining. The grass is lush, soft, gently wavering in the wind with its kelly green tips peering up at a graciously warm, lemon yellow sun. Is all that necessary all the time? No, your ad may not be long enough for that much description. However, sensory language helps paint a mental picture, and pictures show, not tell.
3. Be specific. Is your product fast? How fast? Hard? How hard? These adjectives must be specific. Have you ever asked a sick child how he felt and he responded “bad?” Bad doesn’t help you know what’s wrong with the child, just as saying your product is good or “the best,” is not helpful or persuasive to the consumer.
Congratulations! You have now learned to write copy like Don Draper.
Ok, it’s time to complete your final assignment! Good luck!
