Relationship Building
Does Your Website Sound Like Hillary Clinton?
Love Hillary. Hate Hillary. It’s up to you. But I saw something interesting in her New Hampshire campaign, and she summed it up in the beginning moments of her victory speech.
“…over the past week, I listened to you, and in the process, I found my own voice.”
There was a lot of chatter about Hillary’s emotional moment in a coffee shop caught on video. Watching that moment, many people thought, “Wow, I think for the first time ever, I just saw the real Hillary.”
One of the common complaints about Hillary is that she comes off as cold, almost robotic. Are we going to see a change?
Does your website sound like Hillary Clinton? Or at least, um, how Hillary used to sound (e.g., last week)? Are you using techno-jargon, cliches, stiff corporate speak? Does your brand’s voice sound authentic? Do your website visitors have a sense of who you are and what really matters to you? The vast majority of websites have copy that sounds robotic and predictable. Add unsubstantiated claims to the mix, and you come across as phony (another common complaint about Hillary).
What can you do to change that? How can you do a better job of connecting with clients and customers online? How can you create a “voice” for your website? Read this: “Two Simple Steps for Finding Your Website’s Voice“
Related Posts:
Written by:Holly Buchanan
eHarmony “Rejects” Find Better Loving Through Chemistry
Maybe you’ve seen the ads where the girl asks if it’s because she forgot to send her brother a birthday card, or the guy looks at a girlie mag to gauge his reaction and then proclaims, “Nope, still gay.” Bam goes the rubber stamp as eHarmony rejects two more of those one million poor souls looking for love in all the wrong places. A reassuring voice closes the ads, explaining that all us not-wanna-be singles can “come as you are” to Chemistry.com.
REJECTED! Ooof. How do you feel about being rejected?
I had one of those hey-what-am-I-chopped-liver experiences with eHarmony, too. They didn’t exactly send me a Dear John letter or stamp ‘Rejected’ across my torso, but they also didn’t find me any matches, which left me musing how there can be millions of people signed up with this service, and I don’t match up with a single one.
Money I paid. Months I waited. Then those harmonious match-makers told me they were going to suspend my account due to inactivity.
I shot them back a letter. “Give me a match, just one frigging match – even Outer Mongolia is looking good today - and I’ll show you activity!” They kept me on for another month, then dropped me again. I finally bagged eHarmony and wondered whether the planets were inauspiciously aligned for finding love that year. Or whether I was, indeed, chopped liver.
Talk about your failed relationships!
When you consider starting a new relationship, what do you worry about deep down? I’m worrying about…
- whether we’ll be able to understand and respect each other
- whether you are going to be able to acknowledge and accept who I am
- whether you really possess the attributes I’m looking for
- whether I’m going to put all this time into something and wind up with nothing
Most of all, I worry about putting myself on the line and then getting dealt with badly. Rejected. Abandoned. Betrayed. These are the terrible consequences we all fear in any relationship.
This doesn’t apply solely to romance-based relationships; it applies to almost all the relationships in our lives, including customer/business relationships. Businesses usually begin this relationship through their marketing messages.
eHarmony advertising focuses on the relationship you’ll have when you meet Mr or Ms Right. In The Black Table, Joel Keller writes,
But those ads… those freakin’ ads! Commercial after commercial of deliriously blissful men and women embracing, kissing, and smiling longingly at each other. Testimonials up the wazoo that show how wonderful and strong the matches are between people who have signed up. It’s all so lovey-dovey and sweet that my butt clenches involuntarily while listening to them.
(If video doesn’t load, click here.)
But eHarmony seems to gloss over the part detailing how you and they are going to work together to make this happen, over the relationship they will develop with you. And this is the marketing piece that is crucial to their customers’ felt needs. As Joel Keller explains it,
Many people who have used eHarmony, … which matches people using a psychological survey that measures, in their words, “29 dimensions of compatibility,” haven’t been so lucky. Some have been matched up with people that took the survey but never signed up and paid for the service. Others have been deemed to be compatible with people that weren’t looking for a commitment or a person with whom they had little in common. Still others have been connected to people that they wouldn’t even be attracted to in the dark.
This is a failed relationship!
It’s all about the felt need
When it comes to matchmaking, people want to find friendship, maybe love, maybe a permanent relationship, maybe merely the opportunity for casual flings. But before they start to address that felt need, they have to deal with the felt needs of their deepest fears: rejection, abandonment and betrayal. This is hardly confined to potential matches; it applies equally to the matchmakers themselves.
Chemistry.com gets it. They address this need first: We do not believe you are chopped liver. Then, through their online entity, they go about growing their relationship with you.
[Note: Compare Chemistry’s home page with eHarmony’s home page. The primary call to action on both sites is getting the customer to supply information and get started. But which of these home pages offers clear, intuitive ways to learn about the business itself? Big tabs on Chemistry, plus some forums and articles. Tiny links buried in the No Man’s Land of screen real estate on eHarmony. This should be a big relationship red flag!]
At the end of the day, you are in the business of creating relationships. And if you want those relationships to grow beyond the carrot of promise you dangle before the eyes of your audience, then you have to work at it. My mother always told me, “You want to learn who a person really is? Pay a lot less attention to what they say and a lot more attention to what they do.” Warm-fuzzy language may capture attention, but it’s dependable action that cements relationships.
Sadly for eHarmony, there’s a fair chunk of blog-space given over to what they do, and it isn’t positive. Let’s face it. Divorce is almost always an exercise in smearing lots of bad blood all over the shop. You so don’t want to go there with your customers!
Dig deep into the concerns your customers bring to the table when they consider doing business with you. Identify their deepest concerns when they are deciding if you are the business for them.
Will you really understand their needs in the relationship they hope to develop with you?
Are you really going to accept them for who they are and speak to that, not only in your sales process but also their buying process?
Will you deliver on your promise to value them and go the distance on their behalf?
Address these issues in your marketing messages. And remember, your marketing messages are only simpering smiles if you can’t treat your customers honestly in the follow-through!
Related Posts:
Written by:The Grok
America’s Test Kitchen Shows How to Sizzle an Email
For years I’ve been a fan of the America’s Test Kitchen chefs and their magazine, Cook’s Illustrated. I’m a bit of a foodie — and a pragmatist — so I love that they give their audience no-nonsense, real world advice on how to cook. And even though they have a hit TV show, they continue to publish their Cook’s Illustrated in black-and-white and illustrated in order to reduce costs so that they don’t need to run ads in the magazine. They’re authentic and passionate, and that energy feeds the relationship with fans like me.
I’m a sucker for good, experience-based marketing; the kind that draws you into an experience with a product or service. So, what’s even more impressive to me than the magazine is that they have some of the best email marketing around.
In addition to their typical, retail product-based emails, there’s one thing I love more than anything about this company: Christopher Kimball’s newsletter. Kimball is the CEO/Editor-in-Chief and, in addition to being head of the company, he runs a family farm in a small town in Vermont. For as long as I’ve been a subscriber, Kimball’s newsletter has always had a welcoming, familiar tone, describing every detail about “what’s going down on the farm.” He talks about the harvest, funny happenings around his small town, updates on things the family has cooked, links to photos, and so on. Here’s an except from a summer update:
“Two weeks ago, our family and neighbors turned out to help get Jean’s hay in [links to photos], and our strawberry crop has been terrific. Adrienne will turn out at least a couple dozen jars of strawberry jam and probably a similar number of raspberry. The 23 rows of corn were better than “knee-high by the fourth of July,” and all the potatoes are doing well and are free of potato bugs, at least so far. I hope to start digging new potatoes out of the ground by early August, steaming them, and serving them with nothing more than salt, butter, and chives. Click here to see recent photos of the farm [links to photos]”
It’s a whole email of this rich commentary, interspersed with links for recipes on the Cook’s Illustrated site and updates on the filming of their weekly show on PBS. But here’s the thing: I’m absolutely compelled to read them. What’s more is that I completely look forward to taking a 15-minute break from city life to be transported to an environment that seems so alien to me, yet I’m allowed to experience it as a resident. I pour over each link and look at every photo, but more importantly — for them, anyway — I’m driven to read the recipes. Why? I’m curious and excited to learn what made the cobbler he and his wife served at the latest community event so amazing. And that’s the point. His words draw me into the experience and persuade me to interact with the brand and its products.
Knowing when it’s more effective for your copy to have personality and create an experience, versus cutting straight to the point, is crucial. It’s about showing your audience that you know them by anticipating their interests and needs. That’s what Kimball does so well, and it works.
Want to know how Kimball does it? If you’d like to craft authentic, engaging prose that turns visitors into customers, customers into fans, and fans into advocates, join us for our upcoming Persuasive Online Copywriting seminar in Orlando. (Sorry, kids, no coyotes and freshly-picked apples, but you might find a cartoon mouse or two.) If you can’t make it to Florida, perhaps you’d like to buy the Persuasive Online Copywriting e-book or simply subscribe to Future Now’s free newsletter instead.
[Editor’s Note: This is the first post from the latest addition to Future Now, our first-ever VP of Marketing, Bond… Brian Bond. It takes a brave soul to market the marketers, so if you’ve enjoyed the email soufflé, feel free to wave ‘hello’ in the comments. Welcome to the team, Brian!]
Related Posts:
Written by:Brian Bond
“Do Consumers Care About Online Privacy?”
One might think that’s an obvious “yes,” but not necessarily, according to Advertising Age. In fact, there’s a good deal of confusion as to what online privacy actually means.
“Consumers fundamentally misunderstand the rules of the marketplace,” said Chris Hoofnagle, senior staff attorney at the Samuelson Clinic at UC-Berkley’s Boalt School of Law, addressing a perceived apathy toward the subject. He cites studies in which up to 75% of consumers think as long as a site has a privacy policy it means it won’t share data with third parties. “They equate the presence of the policy with substantive privacy rules.”
How does this apply to your business? First of all, make your privacy statement clear and concise, e.g., “We value your privacy,” “We will not share your personal information — ever.” It’s also important that the trustmarks you use actually mean something to the customer (Bryan recently showed BizRate as an example).
Still, the need for brands to inspire confidence online is as vital as ever. (You may have noticed we’ve been covering trust issues quite a bit lately.) The latest evidence: McAfee’s plan to acquire ScanAlert for $51 million in cash.
Related Posts:
Written by:Robert Gorell
Screencast: Building Trust & Credibility Online
If the roof of your home started leaking, you probably wouldn’t waste much time trying to fix it. And unless you happen to be a carpenter, you’re likely to find someone else to do the job. You’d probably call a professional; someone with experience, who can find the source of the problem and patch things up. A leaky roof isn’t generally a good place to shop on price alone. You want to know that whomever you hire can be trusted.
Well, your website isn’t much different. Each day, visitors come to your site, hoping to find someone they can trust. The strange thing is that people tend to think that the words they use online are somehow different than the words they use face-to-face. They’re not. But online, you need to be even more careful about how you relate to would-be customers. They’ve got less to go on. Looking you in the eye isn’t an option, and talk remains cheap — even if it’s in the form of web copy. So, it’s your job to change that around; an especially difficult thing for smaller and/or local brands.
Today, I’m going to show you how one of my clients, Roof Life of Oregon (www.rooflife-oregon.com), used Persuasion Architecture™ to replace their own, virtual roof. I’ll show you how each page uses trust-building elements to create persuasive momentum with the customer to make them feel at home.
Have you used any of these techniques before? Are there any websites you like to visit that inspire confidence? Ones that need fixing?
If you have questions about how to build trust online, please share them in the comments.
Related Posts:
Written by:Dave Young
How Amazon Lost Me (and My Money)
One word: Fulfillment.
I recently purchased a set of Sony Ericsson earbuds from Amazon.com. I already knew the type of earbuds, which color, and even the model number I wanted to order. (That’s what we call a “late-stage” visitor.) Amazon didn’t have to do much to convince me to buy. All I wanted was a clear product image, showing what I could expect with my purchase.
I didn’t just want a new set of earbuds; I wanted the Sony Ericsson brand earbuds, since they’re specific to my phone. The product image confirmed that I was receiving a genuine Sony Ericsson product, and I was further convinced by the product title and description. As a repeat Amazon customer, I expected to receive what I was shown (see thumbnail pic).
You’d think Amazon fulfilled my expectation, but no. Here’s what happened…
The headphones were delivered in a flimsy envelope — not quite the bubble wrap-protected box I imagined. The shabby packaging, held together by a piece of tape that looked 10 years past its prime, was an unwelcome surprise. Where was the original Sony Ericsson packaging I saw on the site? It took me about 15 minutes just to be sure this was actually what I ordered (”Is this even an authentic Sony Ericsson product?”). These types of situations are what have kept me away from online auction sites.
Granted, this was a small, $10 purchase. But imagine ordering an expensive watch or handbag online, or even a gift delivered to a loved one. How can you be certain that the product is authentic or will be appropriately packaged and well-presented? We can’t. Instead, we rely on past experiences, product images, and brand recognition to do the job..
I’ve been spoiled by some great e-commerce sites, including Amazon, over the years. They’ve made my shopping experience delightful from start to finish by delivering the product as I imagined it, almost every time. And I’m a loyal customer to those sites. But now I’ve got a strange feeling about Amazon. They’re the industry leader for a reason. They revolutionized online order fulfillment. In fact, they’re supposed to be the gold standard of e-tailers.
Am I expecting too much from e-commerce sites? I don’t think so. In fact, I’m verbalizing what all people who purchase online are thinking — no, expecting. Consumers demand an easy and delightful shopping experience, from the first click to the time the order is in our hands.
I won’t give up browsing on Amazon just yet — they still have great product details and customer-generated reviews — but they’ve lost me as a paying customer for now. And regardless, I don’t see myself buying electronics from them anymore.
Related Posts:
Written by:Peter Lee
The Would-be Guru: Inspiring Online Credibility (Part 2)
“Guru”
Ponder that word for a minute. Better yet, think of a field-specific guru whose views you value and ask yourself this: What distinguishes your Guru from just another professional in that field?
What causes one to inspire so much more credibility than another?
The ancient Greeks had a word for that trait: thumos. Want cult-of-personality-like persuasive ethos and credibility? Create thumos through your web copy. (In my last article, The Aristotle Code, I warned you that I was on a high-brow kick, so bear with me. This is actionable stuff.)
The secret to creating thumos is quietly revealed in Jonathan Shay’s one-page essay, Aristotle’s Rhetoric as a Handbook of Leadership. Dr. Shay is a psychiatrist, a recent MacArthur Foundation Fellow (aka “genius award”) honoree, and author of the acclaimed Achilles in Vietnam. Here’s what he writes about thumos and credibility:
. . . I want to connect the old Homeric word thumos to what I now want to say about character. This word is most often translated by the single word “spirit.” In modern times this has become rarified [sic] and if you forgive the play on words, spiritualized, so that we lose the sense that is still preserved when we speak of a horse as spirited or an argument as spirited … I want you to listen to Aristotle’s explanation of thumos … He says, “Thymos is the faculty of our souls which issues in love and friendship … It is also the source … of any power of commanding and any feeling for freedom.”
The spirited self-respect that Homer called thumós becomes particularly critical to leadership in a combat situation. To trust the leader, the troops need to feel that the leader is his or her “own person,” not a slave. In combat, trust goes to the leaders who give critical obedience, rather than blind obedience, to their own bosses.[3] A leader giving blind obedience to a militarily irrational or illegal order gets the troops killed without purpose [”wasted”] or irretrievably tainted by commission of atrocities.
Now consider this in terms of thought (rather than combat) leadership, and substitute “conventional wisdom” for “bosses.” Here’s my re-interpretation:
Online visitors need to feel that the company is its “own person,” and not a slave to conventional wisdom or textbook answers. In purchasing situations, trust goes to the company whose website gives critical analysis, rather than blind obedience, to industry or conventional wisdom.
In short, a Guru sings her own songs; she doesn’t perform Karaoke to someone else’s. She teaches her own stuff, and, even if her material originated elsewhere, she’ll have made it her own through experimentation, reflection, and practical experience; she’ll have her own “take” on a given subject. This is what creates thumos for a thought leader.
So, how do you inspire thumos with web copy?
First, you needn’t establish entirely new methodologies or procedures. It’s enough to have…
- Unique explanations for otherwise common material. A sticky explanation for a well-known principle or phenomenon can turn you into the quoted expert when others seek to communicate it.
- Specific and unique tricks and techniques for implementing common procedures. Everyone and their brother might know the procedure, but offering unique and practical how-to advice provides evidence that you’ve internalized/mastered the procedure and made your own
- At least one or two “takes” or unique perspectives that clash with the conventional wisdom in your profession or industry.
The fist two points establish credibility for your expertise, but the last one leverages that expertise into guru territory. Engaging in this kind of “spirited argument” reveals your thumos by:
- Showcasing your critical (vs. blind) obedience to the conventional wisdom in your industry or profession.
- Raising you closer to the level of the big wigs (at least in the reader’s mind) by allowing you to contend with, and hold your own against, them and their orthodoxy.
Find some tidbit of common wisdom that you disagree with, then publicly set the record straight. It even works when you agree with the original wisdom but quibble with a now-common interpretation of it. Here’s how to really make that work:
1) Find a polarity that’s charged but not worked to death. Two examples I’ve used are Pain vs. Gain and Logic vs. Emotion.
2) Carefully consider the merits and advantages of each side rather than coming down on one side or the other. Note in which contexts one side works and in which situations it fails, then do the same for the other side. Find examples. Make some of your own conclusions, and do your best to distill them into actionable guidelines.
3) Explain your insights and conclusions to your potential audience. Obviously, where you can best do this will vary, but here are some options to consider: Write it up to be published in an industry journal, then refer to that published piece in your web copy; Post it on your blog; or, Work it into the web copy directly, either in some “how to” pieces created for customers earlier in their buying process or in other persuasive pages.
4) Name the sources of the positions you are challenging or amending. And do them the courtesy of notifying them - send them your piece and invite comments. As long as you have legitimate insight to add to the discussion and you are honest in your dialog, your invitation stands a solid chance of being accepted.
Voilà. You’re now engaging in dialog with some of the heavies in your industry. And even if you’re not actually exchanging with them directly, you’ll have created the appearance of dialog. Get other followers to hear you out and the gurus may be forced to respond.
[Author’s Note: Short of actually being a guru, those are the best of the best ways to create thumos in your web copy. The other two are: 1) Writing copy that attracts the relational customer; and 2) Weaving an over-riding passion into your copy that speaks to the visitor’s character and aspirations. But don’t worry, I’ll provide you with a solid how-to for these other techniques in my next post.]
Related Posts:
Written by:Jeff Sexton
The Aristotle Code: Inspiring Online Credibility (Part 1)
You want a credible website. And you’re a Grok reader, which puts you much closer to your goal. ; )
So you checked out Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab slide show, and were careful to note the beginning explanation, where credibility was broken down into two components: (1) Trustworthiness, and (2) Expertise. (And boy, did those look familiar. Sort of… )
Where had you seen them before?
Being a good student of rhetoric, it hits you: Stanford got it wrong! There’s more than two components of credibility; there are three (at least according to Aristotle).
1.) Virtue
2.) Practical Wisdom
3.) Disinterested Good Will (toward the audience)
Maybe the Persuasive Technology Lab placed “virtue” and “goodwill” in the same category. At least all of their guidelines for website credibility neatly divide into the three components:
VIRTUE — Guidelines 1, 3, 5, 8, and 10 each describe various ways of proving or demonstrating your organization’s overall virtue. In rhetoric, virtue is relative: It generally means the audience believes you share, and live, their values. Obviously, values vary with audiences — but start with typical work ethics and you won’t go wrong too often. With that in mind, is it any wonder that a Virtuous website is one that…
- Looks professional (Guideline 1)
- Shows that there is a real/substantive organization behind it (Guideline 3)
- Shows the stand-up/credible people working for said organization (Guideline 5)
- Is frequently updated/maintained, and (Guideline 8 )
- Is free of errors (Guideline 10)
Heck, that’s just good old fashion takin’-care-of-business. Of course, the “varies by audience” bit applies to what qualifies as “professional looking” and what types of employees qualify as “stand-up/credible.” Obviously, a surf school and an accounting firm would want different looking websites, highlighting different staff credentials.
PRACTICAL WISDOM - It’s not enough to be virtuous. You also need job-related skills and experience (i.e., the actual know-how required for the situation at hand). To paraphrase a modern day rhetorician: I may count my priest as a virtuous man, but that still doesn’t mean I’d want him performing my heart surgery.
Guidelines 2 and 4 provide ways for your Website to demonstrate or display your organization’s practical wisdom by:
- Presenting information, claims, and credentials that are easy to verify (Guideline 2). Tell me your company is a leader in fabric technology and I may or may not believe you. Let me link to Lands End, Outdoor Research, and, say, Cabela’s, where I can see different products labeled with your fabric logo or trade-name (maybe you’re the new GORE-TEX?), and I’ll make that claim for you in my own mind: “Wow, these guys are like the king of outdoor fabrics.”
- Showcasing the staff’s professional expertise and accomplishments (Guideline 4). Some companies have such overwhelming credibility that it’s just assumed that their people kick butt. (Think of a programmer or designer for Apple.) But for non-iconic companies, people understand that organizations don’t have expertise - only people do. So play up the expert credentials and accomplishments of your people.
DISINTERESTED GOOD WILL - Even if you’re generally a virtuous person with outstanding expertise in a given area, I might not find your advice credible if you have an obvious bias or vested interest that’s potentially in conflict with your audience. (I don’t care how honest a man or how fabulous a lawyer your father-in-law might be; he’s probably not who you want to take legal advice from when you’re divorcing his daughter.)
Business executives and salespeople often have a hard time with this one because, well, they DO stand to benefit from their audience’s purchasing decisions. Progressive Insurance will tell you when they’re not your best deal. Why? Because that move violates their own self-interest in favor of yours — which buys them huge credibility for the times when they tell you that they are the best deal!
So, how do you translate this onto the web? Well, I’ve got plenty of techniques for doing this with your copy (more on this in the next post), but the Persuasive Technology Lab’s Guideline 6, 7, and 9 suggest that credible websites should…
- Make it easy for visitors to contact you (Guideline 6). Face it, if your willing to interrupt your day to field their calls, people are more likely to think you actually care about them.
- Make it easy to use the Website (Guideline 7). If you speak to customers about what matters, and make it easy for them to shop in a way that’s intuitive and natural, they just might feel that you care about them. Forcing people to buy the way you want to sell sends the opposite message.
- Use restraint with promotional material (Guideline 9). Giving people the hard sell never indicates respect. Stop pitching and start talking to your visitors. Polite conversation indicates respect. Hype indicates, and creates, cynicism.
Well, that covers all ten guidelines. But now that you understand how each of them is merely a facet of Aristotle’s famous triad, you’re ready for more advanced credibility-building techniques. (Hint: A lot of them come from Persuasion Architecture™ methodology).
And you might be surprised to learn that a recent MacArthur Foundation “genius” has written some of the most compelling advice I’ve ever found on the subject. First it’s Stanford, now it’s a MacArthur Fellow. Holy high-brow, Batman!
(Don’t worry, it leads to some incredibly doable, practical stuff. Tune in next week… )
Related Posts:
Written by:Jeff Sexton
Stanford’s 10 Guidelines for Increased Web Credibility
Persuasion starts and ends with credibility. Some would say that the offer is the fundamental element. But if readers doubt your intentions or honesty, you might as well be offering free $100 bills and still failing to convert.
Credibility is everything.
That’s why I found a recent 2002 report from the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab so fascinating. Not only does it offer 10 Guidelines for increasing your website’s credibility — and they’re all solid guidelines. Better yet, you don’t even have to read the report!
You can get the summary in this nice little slide show…
(In an upcoming post, I’ll critique the report and offer some “advanced” — more sophisticated, anyway — techniques and strategies for building credibility with your core audience.)
Related Posts:
Written by:Jeff Sexton
Copywriting Tips: Accentuate the Negative
Bing Crosby had it wrong. You can’t accentuate the positive without — at least implicitly — admitting the negative. (Not if you want to be credible, anyway.)
The Law of Compromise is built into our worldview. We’ve all learned and relearned the painful necessity of denying ourselves one thing in order to gain another. Try to “eliminate the negative” aspects of your product with glowing web copy, and that image will eventually clash with the reader’s sense of reality. It raises suspicions.
My advice: Leverage (don’t fight) the customer’s belief in compromise by addressing a product’s downsides head-on.
People are as likely to assume that a downside has a corresponding upside as vice versa. They’ll also gladly accept negative admissions, whereas they’d otherwise demand substantiation for positive claims. Combined, these two principles work magic. For example, take this lame and totally unsubstantiated claim for a made up photo printer:
“Our new IQ268 photo-quality printer produces the most stunning, nuanced black-and-white prints in the business.”
Credibility on that one? Zero. Now read this:
The ink for our new IQ268 printer costs more than the competition’s — 30% more, on average. In addition to the normal five ink tones everyone else uses, our printer uses two extra gray-scale inks, exclusively for printing monochrome photos. Why the expensive ink? Because, without it, the IQ268 wouldn’t produce the most stunning black-and-white prints in the business.
Since the reader automatically accepts the negative admission, they become more likely to accept the implied upside. Does mentioning the extra grey-scale inks help, too? Sure, but only insofar as it’s linked to better picture quality. That association is more likely to be accepted coming on the heals of an admission. In other words, the downside still highlights the upside by contrast, making the bigger claims that much more believable.
Coors used to do a brilliant job of this with the whole “cold” thing back in the 80’s by hyping its refrigerated trucks and warehouses. It worked like a charm, driving considerable growth and market impact — at least until they stopped using it.
(RSS subscribers, click here for video.)
Think about that. By implying that the flavor of Coors required non-stop refrigeration to properly preserve itself (i.e., by “admitting” a downside), the brewery was able to garner increased credibility for it’s totally unsubstantiated claim of superior taste. In fact, this particular bit of marketing brilliance only stopped working once consumers saw a Coors ad where the beer being sold, unrefrigerated, on store shelves. Coors had its spokesman, Mark Harmon, go on national TV to claim that Coors wasn’t any more vulnerable to room temps than other beer.
And then the ride was over. Without the downside, there was no believability in the upside.
So, how do so many luxury or professional-grade items enjoy high credibility without ever admitting a downside? Is there really a downside to owning, say, a Lexus LS 460?
Sure. The downside is the $60-70K you spent to own that car. High prices often serve as their own form of credibility/downside. In the trade-off between cost of production and quality, some companies (or so it’s rumored) choose to keep quality and raise prices. So, as Cialdini has pointed out, we’ve become conditioned to see high prices as both an implied downside and a reliable index of high quality.
That’s why “fabulous quality at low prices,” with no mention of a downside, tends to draw suspicious questions in the mind of the consumer: Where’s the angle? Why are you doing this?
Again, the smart copywriter/marketer leverages those reflexes; he doesn’t fight against them. Want to bring added credibility to your web copy? Stop dancing to Crosby’s old tune, and start giving the negative side a chance to work its magic.
Related Posts:
Written by:Jeff Sexton
