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THE LEVISON LETTER
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Action Ideas For Better Direct Mail,
E-mail, Web Sites & Advertising
Published by
Ivan Levison, Direct Response Copywriting
Volume: 14 Number: 3
March, 1999
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The emotional sell versus the rational sell
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I recently
saw an interesting TV commercial for the Olive
Garden -- a growing chain of Italian restaurants. The scene:
several generations of Italian-Americans are sitting together
at a table in the Olive Garden, laughing, joking, eating, and
generally having a bang-up time. The tag line is: "When
you're here, you're family."
This is
a purely emotional sell. The announcer doesn't argue
that the meatballs are eighteen percent larger at the Olive
Garden than they are down the street, or even claim that the
food tastes better or costs less. The only promise is that "When
you're here, you're family."
The Olive
Garden campaign is designed to show that the
restaurant chain can provide a deeply satisfying experience
of affection and connectedness. It is this emotional nourishment,
not pizza or spaghetti, that the Olive Garden is really selling.
The profoundly emotional appeal shamelessly used by the
agency is part of what makes packaged goods advertising
unique. Let me give you another example before we analyze
the advertising techniques favored by high-tech marketers
like you and me. I'm talking about the commercial for Gatorade
that features the tag line "I want to be like Mike."
This commercial
is totally, and extremely reasonably, based
on the product's complete identification with Michael Jordan.
There is no pretense of subtlety. We are not left to privately
come to the conclusion that "I want to be like Mike." The
commercial baldly lays it out for us in the form of a syllogism:
A. Mike
drinks Gatorade.
B. I want to be like Mike.
C. If I drink Gatorade I will be like Mike.
(Sadly,
it takes only a few moments on the basketball court for
most people to discover that the logic outlined above is
somewhat flawed.)
I don't
think I have ever seen advertising that more blatantly,
overtly, or shamelessly leverages the appeal of a celebrity. But,
hey, when you've got Michael Jordan as your spokesman, you
go for it!
So what
does all of this have to do with the kind of advertising
and marketing we software industry types are involved with
every day? Well, it's important to understand that we, in high
technology, are using very different techniques than those used
by our friends on Madison Avenue.
You see,
as high-tech marketers, we hardly rely on the emotional.
We thrive on the rational. We care about specifications, bench-
marks, facts, system requirements, and "solutions." Because
what
we have to sell is always new, often unique, and (sadly) complex,
we
have to explain what the heck our products actually do. It's difficult
for us to harness the powerful human emotions that motivate
consumers of packaged goods.
But some
companies try . . . and some succeed. This is extremely
rare and important to recognize and acknowledge. I think the
original Macintosh marketing communications materials
produced many years ago were absolutely terrific and still stand
up beautifully.
Apple didn't
dwell on the technical features of the Mac. They
created a sense that using a Mac was super cool. That, in fact,
you were super cool if you put your feet up on your desk, sipped
a cup of coffee, and wrote that great American novel with
MacWrite and 128K of memory.
But, Macintosh-quality
materials don't come along every day.
Often, when someone tries to get away from the "rational"
approach to marketing high-tech products they falter badly.
The moral of all of this?
When in
doubt, don't repudiate the "rational sell" that has served
our industry so well. But at the same time, always stay on the
lookout for creative new ways to humanize your marketing
materials and push those emotional "hot buttons" that motivate
consumers.
When you
do, maybe you will be lucky enough to be just like Mike.
Mike Dell.
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About Ivan Levison
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I'm a freelance
direct response copywriter who works for high
technology companies like Adobe, Apple, Claris, Hewlett-Packard,
Intuit, Intel, Microsoft, Netscape, and many others. (Terrific small
companies too!) I write direct response sales letters, e-mail letters,
Web pages, and ads.
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How To Get In Touch
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Ivan Levison
Direct Response Copywriting
14 Los Cerros Drive
Greenbrae, CA 94904
Phone: (415) 461-0672
Fax: (415) 461-7738
E-mail: ivan@levison.com
Web Site: http://www.levison.com
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Copyright 1999, by Ivan Levison, All Rights Reserved.
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