Marketing Brief: The Lowest Common Denominator Has The Broadest Promotional Appeal.
Note: This article was written by Douglas Castle, Vice-Chairman and Featured Columnist for The National Networker Companies, and an advisor, strategic planner and financier of emerging enterprises and businesses in the process of re-engineering themselves. The article was written for simultaneous publication to The National Networker RSS and Daily Email Newsfeed, The Global Futurist and the author's personal blog. It may be reproduced, re-published ot transmitted without permission provided that the article is published in its entirety, without editorial deletions or editions, and with all hyperlinks remaining intact and live. You may join The National Networker Companies' GICBC and receive its free publications by clicking on http://bit.ly/JoinTNNW.
Dear Friends:
Out in the sensorially overloaded and increasingly noisy worlds of marketing and advertising, it is becoming an ever-tougher challenge to make your message heard. There are numerous ways of doing this, several of which I have profiled below:
1. Repetition;
2. Uniquely memorable catchphrase or slogan;
3. Sponsorship or re-branding of other interesting news or messages, varied from day to day;
4. Being brief;
5. Being very clear as to your offering; and,
6. Being shocking or controversial.
In mass email campaigns, social media campaigns and in virtually all forms of advertising, marketing and promotion, the above six components are essential. When combined, the effect is synergistic The greatest challenges facing any advertising, marketing or promotional professional in dealing with the public-at-large are threefold:
1. Getting their attention;
2. Programming them to need (or desire), recognize and believe in your brand;
3. Creating a sense of excitement and urgency in a call to action.
These are not simple jobs.
In these times of decreasing patience, declining literacy and waning intellectual curiosity, the trend is to make the message as simple as possible, using fewer words, fewer steps and larger type. Expect to see more and more of this in the most successful brands. I recently received an advertisement (which I retrieved from the depths of my mile-high spam box) from MySpace which is a superb example of this type of literary economy and anti-intellectualism (which latter term is not meant in a disparaging way).
Before you view it, bear in mind the new marketing creed: When promoting to the sensorially fatigued, impatient and indolent majority, you must fashion your message (and its presentation) to the Lowest Common Denominator.
You'll notice that intelligent individuals are not offended by your brand's lowball pitch -- they are growing more acclimated to "mandated simplicity." You'll also find that the less sophisticated prospects will be drawn to action.
In a 2010 competition between the words of Emily Dickenson and the courtroom wisdom of the late attorney Johnny Cochran (O.J. Simpson's legal counsel at his trial for the murder of his ex-wife and her boyfriend, who said, in reference to a bloody glove offered into evidence, "If it do not fit, then you must acquit."), Cochran will emerge as the clear winner. Other examples abound..."Just do it."... "Obey your thirst."..."talk to your kid about drugs."... "Be all that you can be." ... "The Few. The Proud. The Marines."... "You're Fired!"..."If you see something, say something." -- examples are becoming easier to find.
Yes, indeed. The lowest common denominator, as low as that may ultimately go, will increasingly set the tone for the nature of all advertising and marketing. As a friend said to me just this past week, "Douglas, sometimes it's smart to be dumb."
I've been trying to appeal to people's intellect for a long time, but...hey....My Bad...
The ad follows.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle
Hello Douglas,
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Well, folks...that about wraps it up. It is very dumb to be too smart. |
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