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in
this issue
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Dear
Reader,
The earliest infomercials were patterned after the products that sold
in county fairs. You know, those long aisles inside warehouselike
building and stuffed with people being pitched the latest gadget and
gizmo? Still goes on today!
And guess what, the pitchmen and product owners of those gadgets and
gizmos had first-hand experience if their product would sell, how much
it would sell for, who did it sell too, and what sales-hooks moved those
crowds of people to buy their products. LIVE and INTERACTIVE selling.
When was the last time you got a stranger to give you $19.95 in 60
seconds? 
Those same pitchmen and product owners wound up on late-night
television, selling their products using the same methods they used at
the county fairs, and it worked. Still works! Except nowadays product
marketers will ignore the obvious, and use their "gut
instincts" instead-hence the failure rate today is much higher when
someone trys this medium.
What will prove to you that a prospect is interested in your product?
What words do you use, how do you demonstrate your product, what
benefits do you emphasize, what features are important, what are all of
the important details that culminate in a sale?
Lets start at the end and work backwards: when a prospect opens his
or her wallet, pulls out the correct change, and BUYS your product.
Isn't this the truest test that everything you did up to that point
either facilitated the sale or even created it?
In the case of DRTV commercials you literally create the sale, even
more than facilitated it-because you wind up uninvited in someone's
living room for 60 seconds, 120 seconds, or 30 minutes and demand that
they pick up the phone and BUY NOW! Wow! When was the last time you got
a stranger to give you $19.95 in 60 seconds?
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Why
are there so many DRTV failures today? |
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There are many answers to this question, and no one really has a
crystal ball response that is applicable to all offers people
try on TV. However, there are basic elements that this author
believes people leave out or omit in their rush to be "on
air" or make their millions on TV.
Today, the world of DRTV, commercials, and infomercials are
commonplace. There are hundreds of offers made every day on TV,
and thousands throughout the year. Plus every kind of product is
offered, so how would the "gut instinct" of a marketer
be so special that he/she could hit a prospects hotbutton,
motivate someone to purchase just because that is the marketer's
hunch, guess, or perspective?
First, many DRTV commercials are copies of what other spots
are doing in the market at the present time. When you look at
these commercials- a diet, skin cream, and a pasta pot are
almost the same commercial EXCEPT the product differs. Marketing
101 demands that you differentiate yourself from your
competitors, and this is continually violated in the DRTV
commercial world daily.
Second, most product owners do not conduct even the most
basic market research, rather they hire a commercial producer
who many times copies what someone else is doing, or utilizes
some format that seems appropriate for the type of offer the
product demands. These approaches are outdated no matter how
effective they were in the past-because the marketplace today is
too crowded and too much sameness for offers to stand-out, get
attention, and be purchased.
Last
Week's Newsletter-Check it out! »
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And
you think that someone's "gut instinct" is going to
figure all of this out? |
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The number of media channels now are staggering and unless your
product has a universal appeal, it maynot belong on many of
those TV channels. However, even if it does have that universal
appeal why should I buy it? Especially NOW, when it will
probably wind up in someone's garage sale, in a catalogue at a
lesser price, or on a retail shelf at the mall where I shop
weekly.
So your commercial looks like everyone else's, no one is
paying attention, and even if they did it can be purchased at a
later time for a lesser price. And you think that someone's
"gut instinct" is going to figure all of this out?
Who
are We? »
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Quit
Complaining-What Are you going to do about it? |
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| Next
week we will look at how a commercial producer puts all of this
together, using research and the skill of a professional.
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Links... |
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