Way back in the 1800s, marketing consisted of flyers and newspaper ads, and they were pretty crude in their approach. The strategy seemed to be to simply announce that the product existed.
As the twentieth century neared, ambitious and creative sellers found that some well-placed adjectives helped their stock move faster: “The tormenting itch of Chilblains is instantly removed by White’s Essence of Mustard” (chilblains is sort of like frostbite; I looked it up).
Just like today, marketers experimented to get maximum sales out of their marketing dollar. And in 1925, a turning point of sorts occurred. Novice advertising copywriter John Caples was given an assignment to promote the U.S. Music School, which sold a correspondence course for learning the piano.
Caples didn’t start writing right away. He first got into the head of the customer and took a look around. Then he took the project, and perhaps the advertising industry, to the next level, as he typed out his headline:
“They laughed when I sat down at the piano. And then I started to play…”
Read it again.
The long-form direct response copy then went on to flesh out the story, but Caples needn’t have bothered. The essential story was succinctly conveyed in that 15-word headline. A story that played out in your mind as you just read that line. As a marketing writer myself, I can only strive for so much emotional resonance in so few words.
Is there a lesson here somewhere for those of us using high tech marketing tools in an analytics-focused virtual universe … a century later?
Well, of course. Why else would I bring it up?
Caples may have been among the first to see that truly effective marketing isn’t just about the product. In many ways, it’s more about the buyer. It’s about seeing things through their eyes. And showing them how good they’ll feel … after they’ve bought our product.
Yet many company owners I meet are under the understandable impression that their product marketing should focus solely on their product. I cover my mouth with my hand so they can’t see me giggling.
After I guest lectured recently on the emotional aspects of buyer behavior, a first-year writing student mentioned her assignment for an online retailer of women’s clothing. She said she couldn’t see how emotion might fit in to such a simple retail sale.
Thinking quicker than I’m normally used to, I suggested that we take the focus off the website itself, and put it on some woman in Memphis, sitting at the kitchen table, window shopping on her laptop.
Because, I continued, this was about her looking good. Let’s go a step further: it’s about the people around her thinking she looks good. Follow me one more level down: it’s about how she feels about the people around her thinking she looks good.
That’s the emotional touchpoint. Help the buyer picture herself in that summery floral top…the one that’s sure to get compliments.
Boy, what funny creatures we humans are – men, women and children – getting our own sense of self-worth from the approval of others. But there you have it.
And don’t get me wrong; when I’m marketing my own business, I too can sometimes slide into self-centeredness. But then I try to remind myself of that copywriter in a fedora and wide lapels, so many years ago, who was smarter than that.
“They laughed when I sat down at the piano. And then I started to play…” That old yellowed ad didn’t focus on “16 Easy Lessons Using Simple Diagrams.” Instead, it helped you imagine a surprised and impressed social circle. Ultimate satisfaction, not process details. Many websites I see today apply that essential lesson. But many don’t, clinging to the vague, self-serving claims of the pre-Caples era.
Even though I’ve been in marketing longer than I care to say, it still amazes me that in pixels or print, the right words have the potential to get people to do things they might not have otherwise. For better or worse, we’ve learned how to nurture desire by digging down an emotional level or two.
Of course, the mental pictures we help paint need to be essentially honest and at reasonably realistic. If we provide genuine value in exchange for their dollars, helping people feel good about themselves is an extra plus all around.