Sunday, June 11
Written from my ‘makeshift office’ on the first floor of a guesthouse in Old Quarter Hanoi, Vietnam.
Dear
friend,
This will be contrarian for some.
I talk about a product whose offering may be considered ‘racist’ or ‘demeaning’—yet it depends entirely on where you see this product and from what frame of mind you see it.
It’s also a contrarian article because it will make some people feel stupid.
You see, for these people, they’ve focused on the wrong things for so long that they can’t afford to be wrong—purely because of their ego.
They’ll finally realize why their ads haven’t been pulling in the results they’ve been looking for.
Yet they thought they were doing ‘everything
right’.
So, with this in mind, let’s get on the right track:
When most people create ads, they focus on the ‘thing’—what they’re selling, providing, or giving away… … this is known as the offer. Then they’ll go and focus on the ‘other’ stuff, like who it will go out to and what the ad will say. This is 100% wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. If you have read the first part on how to
make a great advertisement, you’ll remember that the LIST is the most important part of any ad. It forces you to focus on the people you’re trying to reach and then understand what to offer them. The second most important part of an ad being the offer, which I’m explaining now… … and the third part on how to make a great advertisement lies in the
creative—something I’ve built my career around. Now, with all three of these parts working together in sync, you’ll have an ad that works. This 3-part ‘Advertising Basics’ series was inspired by John Francis Tighe, a legendary copywriter known for his ‘3-Legged Stool’ analogy. I’m not going to explain it again, but if you’ve forgotten the simple analogy or haven’t read the first part of this series, read more about it here: The Basics of Advertising and Ads: The List - 2017 As an aside, John Francis Tighe was also purportedly a heavy user of one of my favourite sayings: “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” But, I digress… let’s get back to the
writing. A ‘CONTROVERSIAL’ PRODUCT OFFERING… WHICH ONLY WORKS WITH THE RIGHT LIST Now, let’s jump
into the ‘controversial’ product.
I’ve seen it, and variations of it, several times when travelling in Thailand, and seen again in Vietnam, this month when I popped into a store to grab a bottle of cold water.
It’s also a line of products I’ve seen in the Philippines many years ago, probably around 15 years or so, from my recollection.
I’d imagine it’s still alive and kicking—considering it taps into the psyche of its audience so
well.
It was this:
This doesn’t currently work in mass-market Australia (but it easily could and I’ll explain why shortly). Evidence of this is the fact that it isn’t sold in Australia, despite Nivea being one of the market leaders in the same category for the exact same
product. The only difference here in the offering between what you get in Australia, and what you are offered in Asia is the whitening aspect. Everything else is what you’d normally expect from a deodorant. Clearly, Nivea has looked at their list.- In this case it’s segmented by geography (Asia).
- They then looked at what their initial offering
(deodorant)
- Could do to solve any additional problems specific to their customer’s needs (dark underarms) to provide more value—at a competitive price.
They’ve then created and marketed their product offering based around this perceived problem and voila! A whitening deodorant is born. There’s also a whole slew of other whitening products
sold in Asia that simply don’t exist in the Western world, such as:- The whitening snail creams I saw in Thailand—marketed as a way to clear acne scars.
- The whitening sunblock I saw in Malaysia—so you don’t get dark when you are out and about.
- The whitening moisturizers I saw in Vietnam (from Australia)—for improving skin elasticity.
These products are all creations born from a clear understanding of their list, their audience, their target markets—whatever you want to call it, it’s all the same at the end of the day.
WHY THIS MAKE SENSE… YET DOESN’T
Now, from my perspective, these products make complete sense.
My mother is a
Filipino and she constantly complains about getting ‘dark skin’ or sunburnt.
This provides me with an ‘unfair’ advantage when it comes to insight.
I had the right information to understand the product offering.
This isn’t a ‘white’ superiority thing as I’ve heard from others, it’s simply that in the Philippines, when mum was growing up, darker skin was a sign that you
worked outside.
This meant you were probably poor—you didn’t have an office job, basically.
Mum doesn’t want to be seen as poor (who does?) so she avoids getting too much sun.
That’s ingrained in her thinking. Similar to how tipping is normal to many Americans.
However, I’ve seen many of my friends (who
live in Australia) make comments and provide looks ranging from amusement to outrage when they see these whitening products.
The difference in mindset that these cultures have created makes it almost impossible to figure out why they sell them—without the right information—so they jump to conclusions.
I’ve heard variations on comments like, ‘why would they want to be white?’ or ‘it’s sad they don’t want to be their own skin
colour’ quite often, which could make sense when you don’t have enough information to run off.
It’s a similar reason why fake tan isn’t typically a big seller in Asia.
In Asia, many wonder why people would want darker skin so it seemed like they were outside all the time—it simply doesn’t make any sense to a large segment of their population.
It’s also why so many
of their beaches, some of the best in the world not including Australia’s own, don’t have hordes of locals sunbaking.
Which makes the juxtaposition between sunbathing foreigners fawning for sun even greater when you see the locals covered head to toe, sometimes even with a full-face scarf to avoid the sun’s rays!
Explaining it like this often gets the point across that it’s not something nefarious, but simply cultural
differences made clear through product marketing.
Note: I’m not saying that the various shades of your skin being an indication of wealth is any better.
It's clear from this that your offer is based on your list, and that your offer can easily shift to cater to the needs of this list.
So, how can we apply this idea to your
business?
Read on…
USING YOUR LIST TO MAKE YOUR OFFER WORK
I mentioned
that whitening deodorants don’t sell in the mass-market in Australia… but it easily could.
“How?” you ask, knowing now that it was cultural differences that caused this product to be born in the first place and that the perceived value doesn’t translate across as easily from one region to another.
Well, looking at the one quality that makes it a dud at the moment (whitening
properties) could easily transform it into a winner depending on who it’s marketed to.
So, there’s two obvious choices here:
- Change where your offer is found
- Change the offer and market to another segment
CHANGING WHERE YOUR OFFER IS FOUND
This relies on your data and the ability to segment where your offer can be found and bought.
So, for the example of the whitening creams, we could make sure it was stocked only on the shelves of majority Asian immigrant purchasers. This is a geographic-based distribution method, or to niche stores catering to Asian immigrants.
This is a buyer demographic most likely to agree with the value proposition of a deodorant (which they’re buying anyway) plus a whitening cream (which they’re more likely to see
as a positive).
Now, for most businesses, here are some examples on how you could control where your offer can be found.
For traditional marketing channels:
- Retail locations allow you to target customers based on geography
- Trade
magazines and newspapers allow you to target specific lists based on several demographics e.g. income, interests, geography
- Radio allows you to target specific lists based on time, geography, and interests e.g. the classical channel, AM or FM
- Outdoor advertising allows you to target based on geography
- Direct-mail allows you to target based on pretty much everything under the sun—as long as there’s a mailing address
- Referral partners allow you to piggyback of other
people’s lists, which, as you could imagine, can vary wildly
For digital marketing channels:
- PPC ads allow you to target specific lists based on search intent e.g. Google AdWords ads; or interest e.g. Google Display Network, Outbrain, Taboola, or Facebook ads
- EDM campaigns are direct-mail, but electronic (electronic direct-mail) e.g. an
email—and like direct-mail, you can target based on pretty much anything if you’ve got a good, qualified list to send it to (who wants the information, I should add—I don’t condone spamming)
So, plenty of options there if you’re clever about it. Now, let’s look at changing the offer to market to another segment entirely.CHANGING THE OFFER AND MARKETING TO ANOTHER SEGMENT
This is how I believe a whitening deodorant could get to the mass-market in Australia.
You wouldn’t need to change anything in your actual product, except how your product is
offered.
Let’s see how:
- There is a huge rise in laser and chemical hair removal going on at the moment—a lot of this is to remove underarm hair.
- Unfortunately, this process can lead to scars or a darkening of your armpits.
Well, I’m sure you can see where this is going.
So, we’re not changing the product in any
way—we’re just changing the positioning of your offer.
The whitening deodorant now helps remove scars and darkening that can happen from hair removal methods.
It also removes any of the negative connotations an Australian audience may have surrounding a whitening cream based on demographic
targeting.
I’d wager there are several ways your existing products or services could use this method to make your marketing work more effectively.
In fact, if you’re stuck send me a message and I’ll see if I can’t help you think up of a couple—for free!
And you say I never give
you anything…
SUMMARY: WHY OFFERS ARE IMPORTANT IN MARKETING
Here’s the condensed version.
Offers are important
in marketing because it’s literally what you’re selling or providing.
Without an offer that makes sense, you may as well close shop and do something else.
If you’ve got an offer that solves a problem, but it’s not selling well:
- Try changing where your offer is found.
- Try
tweaking your offer based on what lists you’ve got, or can get.
Many times, you just need to change how your offer is positioned to get an ad working well. Keep in mind the legendary copywriter John Francis Tighe’s ‘3-Legged Stool’ approach to marketing, and you’ll be set for a great campaign. The three legs were: - The list
- The offer
- The creative
Need help tweaking your offer?
Get in touch with me and I’ll see what I can do to get your offer spot on.
Written by
James Steadman
Copywriter
JC Steadman
Marketing
P.S. I've got space for one job last job this month. If you want it, speak now or forever hold your peace. Next month is fairly free, however, if you can wait.
Next articles I'm writing this month:
- the third and final piece on ad basics, the creative, and;
- a new Facebook ad strategy you can apply to your own campaigns.
It will help you figure out which of your ads is driving the best results,
which ads are costing you the most, and more!
Keep an eye out for it. Following these methods are guaranteed to help you improve your Facebook ad campaigns.
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