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How can you drive the blandness from your marketing writing? Here is a back issue of Marketing Booster, the email newsletter that Richard Groom writes and sends free every fortnight to subscribers. You can subscribe here or read over 60 back issues using the back issues index page. Something that crops up on nearly every new marketing communications project I take on is the challenge to help my customers show that they are different - to show that their product or service is better than the opposition. But often, among the things that clients tell me about at our first meeting are features and benefits of their product or service that are just that same as everyone else's. In particular, there is a tendency to slip into the same old business-speak and marketing-speak that everyone uses. This isn't evident in just marketing either. You see it a lot in politics too. Here's P J O'Rourke, writing in 1991 about the blandness of political manifestos: "The 1988 Democratic platform contained such ringing declarations and tough-minded statements of principle as these: * We believe that it is time for America, with a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility, to reassert progressive values and reinvest in people . . . * We believe that this nation needs to invest in its children . . . * We believe that no person should go to bed hungry . . . Hell, you could run anybody on that platform." Nothing's changed. Here we are in 2004, with elections tomorrow here in the UK, and many of the party leaflets I've received are just as bland. Now look at any random sample of marketing materials and you'll see the same thing: bland statements that anybody could say. You know the kind of thing: "We believe in putting our customers first." (But who doesn't?) So you need to switch on your 'bland radar'. Spot the 'that's what everybody says' statements and do something about them. I suggest this simple exercise you can use the next time you write new marketing materials, or refresh your existing ones. First, take a look at your text and highlight any statements that say your company, product or service is great. Now, for each one, try and come up with some extra information to back up the claim. Make it as specific as possible. For example: * Are there any facts and figures to back up your claim? If you say you put customers first, do you measure it? If so, how? And what are the numbers? And how do they compare with others in your sector? * Get some client testimonials to back up the claim. If you say your after sales service is great, can you get a customer to say what you did for them, and that you are the best around? * What does the technical stuff mean? I bet that a huge percentage of computer users still don't know the difference between ROM and RAM. (I'm one of them.) So if you sell PCs and report the ROM and RAM numbers, why not explain them? Why not talk about the real benefits. Is the PC quicker as a result? Which technical specifications are relevant to each type of customer? Why should customers even care? (As an aside, I don't think I have EVER seen a PC manufacturer or distributor explain this stuff. That's just crazy: how is the average customer supposed to make an informed buying decision when confronted by a row of meaningless numbers?) So switch on your 'bland radar' soon. Why settle for producing run-of-the-mill marketing materials that say the things that everybody else says? Copyright 2004 Richard Groom |