One product benefit. No more.
One of the recurring nightmares suffered by all advertising creatives is that of the tell-all client. Sounds like this: “Our ad needs to talk about the high interest rate on our CD, but we also have to tell them about the new location, our Saturday hours, the fact that we received accreditation from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council–oh, and get our mission statement in there somewhere.”
Don’t even get me started on mission statements. Rather than putting the client’s mission statement into a piece of advertising, I recommend slipping a tranquilizer into the target audience’s drink. It’s more effective, though not as fast-acting.
When clients come to you with this tell-all strategy, it’s your job to break the news to them: “Nobody has time to think hard about your company. The only reason anyone’s going to read any of your advertising is because there’s something in it for them. So let’s find one benefit that will look attractive to the target audience and demonstrate it really well.”
One benefit. Not two. Why? Because well-executed advertising is like feeding a wild squirrel out of your hand. The squirrel just wants the food. It will run away if you make any sudden movements or loud sounds or if you try to show it something else in your other hand. Furthermore, the squirrel doesn’t want to know you love it or that you belong to a squirrel rights advocacy group or that your family has fed squirrels for generations. If you want the squirrel to bite, keep it focused on what it wants.
Same with advertising. Get the audience’s attention by speaking to their need. Keep them on that precise train of thought as you clarify the need, then as quickly as possible, show them how your product fills the need and ask them to take action. Extraneous information only gives them an excuse to focus on something else, and people would rather focus on almost anything than advertising. Make it easy for them, and they’ll stay with you until you’ve made the sale.
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There on my computer are the two buttons representing things I can never have: Control and Escape.
