I was thinking about the fact that, when I am in doubt on a particular issue, I always default in favor of conventions. You may know what I mean, but just in case you don’t let me explain.
For those of you who play Bridge, Goren has a set of conventions that, 95 percent of the time, produce bridge play that tends to be accurate and appropriate for that particular circumstance.
Some of the conventions, without going into the niceties of the exceptions, are as follows:
1. Follow an honor with an honor. This means that if the opposing player has thrown a face card, you follow with another face card.
2. Second man low, third man high. It means that in Bridge, which plays two teams of two partners each, the second party throws low and the third party throws high. It means that even if you know your card is going to be taken, you nonetheless will throw the appropriate card based on that convention.
And so forth and so on.
When in doubt, follow the convention in Bridge! In law, it’s exactly the same thing.
At law, among litigators, there are very specific conventions. For example:
1. Never ask a question on cross examination where you don’t know the answer. After all, if you ask a question and the witness blows you away, it’s not his fault or your client’s; it’s yours. You should have never asked the question to begin with.
2. When cross-examining a witness, never ask anything but a “yes” or “no” questions. If you ask for how or why, you’re dead meat.
And so forth and so on.
When in doubt, follow the convention in law!
In Marketing, it’s pretty much the same thing.
What are the conventions in Marketing?
1. Your communication always has to have or be a “Benefits Statement.”
Don’t give me teaser headlines. Don’t give me cutesy phrases. Tell me, pure and simple, what the benefit is to me for the product or service you’re offering. It’s that simple. I laugh out loud at the millions of dollars spent by companies and advertising agencies for cutesy phrases that have no relevance to why consumers should buy the product. Give me a Benefits Statement right from the get-go.
Probably one of the most successful campaigns, Ogilvy’s “you deserve a break today” McDonalds’s campaign, wasn’t a cutesy phrase. It was based upon sound research that indicated that consumers were high-tailing it to McDonald’s because they felt good about taking a break from the routine of the day. Consumers couldn’t exactly express it, but they knew there was something special about hitting McDonald’s…going to work…coming from work…in the middle of the day. Because of that, there was nothing more brilliant than the “you deserve a break today” campaign, which grossed McDonald’s more dollars than any other single campaign. It was a “Benefits Statement.” Nothing more.
2. Never base a marketing campaign on egocentric themes.
Consumers want to know what’s in it for them. Producers want to tell people why the product is so important. IBM nearly became extinct because it suffered egocentrism. It was Big Blue, and everyone else was not. That was their selling proposition.
But, consumers are intelligent. They’re driven by sheer self-interest. They could care less who you are; they only care what you can do for them. At a certain point, all of the rhetoric aside, a consumer is going to choose based upon what is the best choice for them at that moment.
Big Blue could not sustain the egocentric dribble they attempted to dump on American business for over a decade. They ultimately ended up having to reorganize completely their product configuration and marketing message to compete with Dell and Microsoft on the one side and Apple on the other.
The good news, for IBM, is they learned their lesson in time. The bad news is they lost billions of dollars in the process.
3. Facts persuade; Emotion sells.
Consumers do not buy based on facts. They buy based upon emotion. However, they need to know that the decision they are making is an intelligent one – one supported by the facts – to give themselves intellectual permission to make the decision they want to make anyway.
Any good trial lawyer knows that you need to give the jury the right answer. You need to persuade the jury the facts support the decision you want them to make. But, in the final analysis, you need to give them an emotional reason to choose. Absent that combination, you’ll win their hearts, but you lose their minds.
Present the facts, of course, which give them intellectual permission to decide. But, in the final analysis, you have to give them an emotional reason to buy your product or service.
Enough for examples.
Does that mean you can’t break from conventions from time to time, especially if you’re feeling lucky? Of course you can. I have done it countless times. But, I always strive to know what the convention is, remind myself that I am breaking the convention, and make sure I have a reason to do so.
And, even then, sometimes I win, and sometimes I lose. However, onething that I absolutely know is that the convention will prevail 95 percent of the time.
Everything in this article is focused on conventions. Follow the conventions and you will be right 95 percent of the time.
I’ll take my chances on conventions anytime.
Original writing date: October 2002