Your Political Guru

At one level, this is petty but it’s indicative of a bigger problem.  Have you made a reservation at a hotel, and found out at the last minute that instead of the quoted price, you’re paying an additional $20 a day because of a “resort fee?”  Why can’t they be honest and simply show the full?!

Or you get an airline ticket for a price you are willing to pay, only to be hit with luggage fees, and “mandated government fees,” that drastically increase the cost of travel?

Or this new “fee” from Alamo—

This isn’t a hidden Alamo fee; it is a government tax, which Alamo is required to disclose as a “Customer Facility Charge.”

Or your cell phone service: you agree to a price for this, only to find additional monthly fees that are not revealed until you get your bill.

Or my latest favorite—last night I tried to order Pizza Hut’s $10 pizza—Advertised as “$10 for any large pizza, any topping” which they were glad to sell me for $12.50.  I mean, what the heck?

I thought I was doing something wrong.  So I played around with this order online,and tried to find an asterisk (*) that would list the exclusions .  Couldn’t find it.  So I called the local place, to order my pizza from them.  I told the guy on the phone I wanted the “Any Pizza for $10 deal.”  I gave him my preferences and he told me I could pick it up in 10 minutes; it would be $12.50!

So I asked him, “What part of “any pizza for $10” made this cost $2.50 more?”  He told me it was the extra toppings and sauce.  So I asked him to define “any” and after a short rant on my part, he agreed to sell me the pizza for $10.  (BTW, playing with the site, I found that the $10 price goes up by $2 if you want it delivered.  Again, there is no warning until you reach the check out page.

It is enough to make me sympathize with those people who defaulted on the subprime mortgages.  How many of them thought they could swing the $10 price, but were actually charged $12.50?

This used to be called “bait and switch.”  In most states it is an illegal advertising practice to make a public offer of one price and then charge another.  But we are either used to this, or government doesn’t want to advertise their greed so they won’t prosecute this any more.

I guess we are going to have to yell at everyone and demand the advertised price every time, or be willing to walk away, in order to end this practice.  Which will probably be more effective than trying to get the government to start calling taxes, “taxes,” not fees.

“When they do it to you once—and you learn, you become a philosopher…but if they do it to you twice you’re an idiot.” (I’m not actually quoting someone, I just made it up.)

I just got back from Portland and a great training session organized by Katja. When I got home I downloaded a ton of emails from local tea party people upset because the local media had tried to link them to the militias.

Now keep in mind, this is in Oklahoma, where we just had services for the victims of the Murrah Building bombing 15 years ago.

It was bad enough that the story was published, but what made it worse was that “our people” were trying to force the press to print retractions and were working up press releases to respond.

Thankfully, I was able to get the tea party people to stop, shut up, and quit returning calls from reporters.

Based on my past experience with local political consultants, the reason for the news story was to get something in print they can use—for either a TV ad or slick, oversized postcards—against pro-liberty candidates. Everything about this episode looked like the work of a particular consultant.

He was putting this together so he could get a damning headline and a damaging quote. (If you thought the AP reporter was a sleaze for pulling words out of context, wait until you see the attack ad).

The reason I advised people to ignore this, say nothing, and move on was simple, although highly unsatisfying. The longer the story continued, the more press clips would be available as visual proof that their target is an extremist, or somehow too far out of the mainstream to be elected.

It was smart timing on the consultant’s part. It was right around the April 19 anniversary, there were lots of tea parties going on, and it was far enough away from the primary that the AP reporter didn’t know he was being worked over and used.

What can you do about it? Well, not much. You can’t stop them from printing stuff, but you can quit bringing more rope to your own hanging.

If you are talking to the press about anything that isn’t your issue or something you don’t want to talk about—Shut Up. You can’t win an argument with a newspaper no matter how brilliant you are.

But at least you now have a clue about what some of the attacks against our candidates might be, so you do have some options:

1) Predict it. In this case that’s risky, but you can preemptively claim that your opponent will use slimy tactics and character assassination in order to get elected. It’s these types of tactics that got us ObamaCare and the Bailout.

2) Wait until it happens and counter punch as hard as you can with flyer drops, response ads, etc. That’s what Rand Paul is doing so effectively in Kentucky right now. They have done good self-vetting and research on their opponent and they are on the air with really good response ads within hours of their opponent’s attack.

3) Don’t give them the chance to attack, but go on the offensive and keep it up from beginning to end, changing topics every three days so they can’t put together a response.

You can forgive your enemy, but DO NOT forget. At least you know what is coming.

And remember this is a long term problem. They will pull stuff out from 10 years ago to distract people and discredit their opponents. If you were quoted in the press about this story, you need to keep a copy of it because it will probably come up again and some “gotcha journalist” will use it out of context unless you have a copy.

I can tell you, getting on TV and being quoted in the newspaper is intoxicating. But it doesn’t result in change and it can be used against you later on. Think long and hard before you return a reporter’s call.

A few weeks ago I said –
“Sometimes it is a good idea to fake enthusiasm when you don’t want to do something, so when you “have to” disappoint, they feel bad for you and forget that they are actually hurting you. ”

I said it, but I do not belive it, nor do I belive in this practice. I don’t belive that it right to use deceiption as a means of transfering guilt. My thanks to those of you who caught this.

Very good article on selling with written words and ads:
“People don’t read advertising, they read what’s interesting. Sometimes, it’s an ad.”
Howard Gossage
What I Learned at the Franklin Mint — That Most Marketers Still Don’t Know
By Drayton Bird
How many geniuses have you met?
I met Charlie Chaplin (very briefly) in 1966 while working on publicity for the film Fahrenheit 451. Then I was lucky enough to work with David Ogilvy for eight years.
Ogilvy still exerts enormous influence in the marketing business, and if you haven’t read Ogilvy on Advertising, you should have your wrist slapped.
But there is one remarkable person I never met but wish I had. I surely would have learned a lot from him. That’s because he started not one but two groundbreaking businesses — the Franklin Mint and QVC.
That man is Joe Segel. With the Franklin Mint, he pretty much invented the mail-order collectibles business. It was for years pre-eminent in the field, though it has since been bought, sold, screwed up, and run into the ground.
I worked for the Franklin Mint in London in 1976. At the time, many people thought I was the bee’s knees at direct-response copy. But I learned a valuable lesson — one you should bear in mind whenever you write or review copy.
A Near-Impossible Task
My first job at The Mint was a letter to sell some medallions celebrating the achievements of the Kings of Belgium. This was quite a challenge. At least one of them — Leopold II — was a mass murderer and slave trader, and few of the others were that impressive.
After laboring on it for a week, I placed the carefully typed product of my consummate genius in front of my client.
He started reading it out loud in sonorous tones. After the heading and first paragraph, he paused, gazed at me over his bifocals, and asked:
“What do you suppose the reader would like to know next?”
Well, you know what? I was flummoxed. I had been writing copy for, oh, nearly 20 years. I had been creative director of a big London agency. My copy had sold a bodybuilding machine called the Bullworker all over the world.
Yet I had never given thought to one simple fact: The minute you have written something, you must ask yourself what is going through the reader’s mind.
Good Copy Is Like a Conversation
The great novelist Evelyn Waugh put it very well. He was writing to his wife, complaining that her letters were dull. (Hardly surprising. Unlike him, she was not a literary genius.)
“A good letter,” he told her, “should be like a conversation.”
Same goes for a good sales letter.
When you write good copy, you “say” something. Then you imagine the reaction in the reader’s mind — and respond appropriately.
That was what I failed to understand until my client at the Franklin Mint pointed it out to me.
As my friend Joe Sugarman has said, the only purpose of each line of copy is to make the reader read the next one.
This is immensely important, particularly when it comes to the MOST important sentence in your copy. That sentence is the first one. The headline in an ad. The teaser on an envelope. The start of the sales letter. The opening line in a commercial.
Too many get the reader’s attention — but they are “stoppers,” not “starters.”
Five Good Examples
What sort of lines force you to read on? Take a look at these:
• “Have you ever seen a bald sheep?” (Charlie Kasher’s opening to a 30-minute radio spot for a hair-growth product)
• “Do you lock the bathroom door behind you — when there’s nobody else home?” (Bill Jayme’s envelope line for Psychology Today)
• “Cash if you die. Cash if you don’t.” (WWAV agency’s line to sell an insurance product)
• “Do you believe in life after death?” (About the only decent envelope line I ever wrote — for Save the Children)
• “If the list upon which I found your name is anything to go by, this is not the first, nor will it be the last, invitation you will receive to subscribe to a magazine…” (Ed McLean’s opening for Business Week — the first direct-mail letter he ever wrote)
All of the above compel further readership. But you must have that same desire to keep people reading with every line you write.
Two Old Tricks
Your copy must flow logically. Mine doesn’t always.
I’ve found that it helps to sum up each paragraph with a few words in the margin, and then see if they make sense in sequence.
Another thing that helps has to do with verbal technique. “Carrier” words and phrases — like And, Also, Moreover, What is more, In addition to — at the start of sentences keep people reading. So do questions at the end of paragraphs.
Why is this?
Because you have to keep reading to get the answer.
(The above two sentences just demonstrated what I mean.)
Your Homework
While I was drafting this essay, I spent some time watching QVC. I suggest you do the same. And take notes. Pay attention and write down all the techniques they use. Then see if you are using those techniques in your sales copy.
Here are some things I noticed in just the first few minutes:
1. They demonstrate — and nothing makes a stronger sales pitch than a good demonstration.
2. They’re friendly and helpful — not loud, aggressive, or in your face.
3. The whole deal is on the screen throughout the spot.
4. There’s tons of information. They’re not afraid to talk at length or repeat themselves.
5. They use persuasive references — e.g., the fact that a Diamonique designer had created something for Hillary Clinton.
Success does not come from one big idea, but from relentless application to detail. You see this on QVC.
One last thought…
David Ogilvy once told me that the secret of success in the marketing business is charm. And what makes you think someone is charming? They seem interested in you. They listen to what you say. They pay attention.
You must be genuinely interested enough in your readers to try and imagine what is going through their minds — and respond to it.
Then you will charm them all the way to the order form.
Bad copy does not do that. It is written from the writer’s point of view, not the reader’s.
[Ed. Note: Veteran copywriter and direct-marketing strategist Drayton Bird has worked with American Express, Ford, Microsoft, Visa, Procter & Gamble, and scores of other clients during his five-decade career, which included a stint as international vice-chairman and creative director with Ogilvy & Mather. In 2003, he was named by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today's marketing.
Ready for more marketing insights from Drayton Bird? For 101 ideas, free case studies, and articles on direct-marketing topics like the one you just read, and a 28-day free trial of Drayton's Commonsense Marketing Series, go here.]