The Super Bowl can teach us a lot about business. Are you one of the
millions who admit they actually took their break while the game was on, and sat through the commercials? Or tuned in to the Super Bowl just to see the commercials?
We’ve come a long way in the advertising industry. I can remember “the olden days” when we lived without remote controls. When you would rather physically get off your couch to “turn the dial” than to suffer through arduous in-your-face sales commercials.
If your business is still thinking about marketing and advertising in the traditional way, you may be losing more clients than you realize. To make sure your not, let’s examine some traditional marketing lessons to see where you may need to add a twist to improve your results.
You may have learned to develop a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). A message that sells your product or service in a way that customers
understand in what ways you’re better than your competition. You may have learned that it is important to repeat your company name over and over again so people remember it, and automatically come to you when they need your product or service.
Ultimately, no matter how cute your message is, if it doesn’t bring people clamoring to you with money in hand, it’s all money down the drain.
While old marketing approaches and strategies are not necessarily wrong, many are out-dated. Which makes these approaches the long and hard way of doing things. As you begin to work smarter, you learn how to leverage your message in such a powerful way that you’ll be remembered in 60 seconds, and customers will call you immediately after they experience your message.
Commercials have taken on a whole new image — and that image comes from emotion. More and more we are finding ourselves being entertained by companies. You may experience yourself laughing, learning or loving during some of these powerfully creative messages. (Think about Hallmark, the Budweiser Frogs and the anti-drug commercials in years past.) For instance during this year’s Super Bowl, there was an ad Celine Dion starred in for Chrysler that was more like a music video than a commercial. Celine’s voice, the visual images, the way the photography was shot all combined to create an emotional stimulus. When people are being entertained, they are more likely to accept your product or service, because they drop their defenses.
”Coaches Challenge:”
Here are a few thoughts that will get you thinking innovatively about your message.
*1. How can you learn from big business on how you can operate and promote your small business? If you think of your USP or commercial as your powerful message to another person, you’ll promote your business in a more profitable way.
*2. Think about your reactions and time constraints when it comes to advertisements and commercials. Do you really have the time to read and listen to every business owner’s promotion? In this time-limited generation, people will only pay attention to the messages that captures their attention. If the message is providing you with something you need or want, you will stay alert and want more information. The rest is just a distraction.
*3. Will your message be a distraction that annoys the viewer or reader? Or will your message be one that inspires, excites, educates or captivates your target audiences’ attention to accept, understand and want more of what you are offering? If it’s the former, you’ll find yourself whining about business, and blame the lack of funds on something like the economy. But if it’s the latter, you’ll find yourself winning.
It’s time to decide if you and your company will be the leader within your industry, or if you will simply follow the rules of how business has always been done. When you innovate your message and focus on emotion-based results-generating advertising, you’ll be capturing people’s attention while your competition gets stuck in the past.
To learn more secrets about how your small business can profit from the same principles the big dollar advertisers of the Super Bowl use, send me an email, and I’ll send you more examples that you can model, and use in your own business economically. Your message will be turning people on before they ever think of turning you off.
”’Deborah Cole Micek, the Performance Results Coach and President of RPM Success Group, can be reached by email at:”’ mailto:DCM@RPMSuccess.com ”’or toll-free at 888-334-8151.”’