Breakthrough Advertising

Copy cannot create desire for a product. It can only take the hopes, dreams, fears and desires that already exist in the hearts of millions of people, and focus those already-existing desires onto a particular product.

Tap into existing desires. Successful advertising doesn't create new desires but channels existing ones towards a specific product. This mass desire is shaped by societal, economic, and technological forces far greater than any single advertisement.

Amplification effect. By directing existing mass desire, advertising can generate sales hundreds of times more powerful than the mere dollars spent on it. This is why $1 spent on advertising can create $50 or even $100 in sales.

Identify and focus desire. The copywriter's task is to:

• Detect and inventory existing mass desires

• Chart their force and direction

• Harness products onto their backs

If you violate your prospect's established beliefs in the slightest degree—either in content or direction—then nothing you promise him, no matter how appealing, can save your ad.

Five stages of awareness:

1. Most aware: Customer knows your product and wants it

2. Product-aware: Knows product but doesn't want it yet

3. Solution-aware: Knows the result, not your product

4. Problem-aware: Senses a problem, doesn't know solutions

5. Completely unaware: No knowledge of problem or solution

Tailor your approach. Your headline and copy must match your prospect's current state of awareness. For example, in the most aware stage, simply stating the product name and price might suffice. In contrast, the completely unaware stage requires more indirect approaches that first identify with the prospect's current mindset.

Gradual progression. As you move down the awareness scale, your copy needs to do more work to bridge the gap between the prospect's current state and your product. This often involves more creative and indirect approaches to capture attention and build interest.

If a competitor has just introduced a new mechanism to achieve the same claim as that performed by your product, and that new-mechanism announcement is producing sales, then you counter in this way. Simply elaborate or enlarge upon the successful mechanism.

Five stages of sophistication:

1. First in market: Direct, simple claims work

2. Competition enters: Enlarge claims, push to limits

3. Mechanism becomes key: Introduce new ways to achieve results

4. Claims and mechanisms elaborated: Focus on refining and improving

5. Return to identification: Connect with prospect's self-image

Evolve with the market. As your market becomes more sophisticated, your advertising approach must adapt. This often means moving from simple, direct claims to more complex mechanisms and eventually to emotional appeals and identification.

Stay ahead of competition. Each stage requires a different strategy to stand out:

• In early stages, focus on being first or making the biggest claims

• In middle stages, emphasize unique mechanisms or processes

• In later stages, connect with prospects on a deeper, emotional level

Your headline has only one job—to stop your prospect and compel him to read the second sentence of your ad.

Focus on the first step. The headline's primary purpose is not to sell but to grab attention and pull the reader into the body copy. It should be judged solely on its ability to stop the prospect and get them to read further.

38 headline techniques:

1. Measure the size of the claim

2. Measure the speed of the claim

3. Compare the claim

4. Metaphorize the claim

5. Sensitize the claim

6. Demonstrate the claim

7. Dramatize the claim

8. State the claim as a paradox

9. Remove limitations from the claim

10. Associate the claim with desirable values

Match awareness and sophistication. Your headline should align with your prospect's state of awareness and the market's level of sophistication. This might mean using direct claims in new markets or more subtle, mechanism-focused headlines in saturated ones.

You are literally the script writer for your prospect's dreams. You are the chronicler of his future. Your job is to show him in minute detail all the tomorrows that your product makes possible for him.

Paint a vivid picture. Use detailed, sensory-rich descriptions to help your prospect visualize the benefits and experiences your product offers. The more concrete and specific you can make these images, the more powerful your copy becomes.

Thirteen ways to strengthen desire:

1. Present claims directly and bluntly

2. Put the claims in action

3. Bring in the reader

4. Show how to test your claims

5. Stretch out benefits in time

6. Bring in an audience

7. Show experts approving

8. Compare, contrast, prove superiority

9. Picture the "black side" too

10. Show how easy it is to get benefits

11. Use metaphor and analogy

12. Summarize before you're done

13. Put your guarantee to work

Vary your approach. Use different perspectives and techniques to present your product's benefits. This helps maintain interest and reinforces your message without feeling repetitive.

Every product you work on should offer your prospect two separate and distinct reasons for buying it. First, it should offer him the fulfillment of a physical want or need. This is the satisfaction your product gives him. And second, it should offer him a particular method of fulfilling that need, that defines him to the outside world as a particular kind of human being.

Dual appeal. Products should satisfy both functional needs and emotional desires for self-expression or status. This "role-giving" function can often be more powerful than the product's basic performance.

Types of roles:

1. Character roles: Expressed by adjectives (e.g., "progressive," "chic")

2. Achievement roles: Expressed by nouns/titles (e.g., "Executive," "Home Owner")

Build on existing perceptions. Start with the product's current image and gradually expand it to include more desirable traits. This might involve:

• Exploiting dramatic primary images that already exist

• Weaving in other images from the product's background or components

• Symbolizing societal values through the product or its packaging

If you can channel the tremendous force of his belief—either in content or direction—behind only one claim, no matter how small, then that one fully-believed claim will sell more goods than all the half-questioned promises your competitors can write for all the rest of their days.

Build a bridge of belief. Start with facts the prospect already accepts and lead them logically through a succession of increasingly remote facts. This gradual process makes it easier for the prospect to accept your ultimate claims.

Techniques for building acceptance:

1. Inclusion questions: Allow immediate identification

2. Detailed identification: Show you understand the prospect's problems

3. Contradiction of present (false) beliefs: Challenge existing assumptions

4. Language of logic: Use words associated with reasoning and proof

5. Syllogistic thinking: Build logical arguments step-by-step

6. Contingency structures: Use "If...then" statements

7. Repetition of proof: Echo key points for reinforcement

Structure matters. The arrangement of your claims and proofs is just as important as their content. Each statement should prepare the ground for the next, creating a smooth path to your ultimate conclusion.

Redefinition is the process of giving a new definition to your product. It says that the product is this rather than that. Its objective is to remove a roadblock to your sale—if possible, before the prospect even knows it exists.

Three types of redefinition:

1. Simplification: Make complex products seem easier to use

2. Escalation: Increase the perceived importance of your product

3. Price reduction: Make high prices seem more reasonable

Flip the script. Turn perceived weaknesses into strengths. For example, Lifebuoy soap's strong medicinal odor was redefined as proof of its superior germ-fighting ability.

Gradual approach. When redefining, use a step-by-step process:

1. Acknowledge existing perceptions

2. Introduce new information or perspectives

3. Show how this new understanding changes the product's value

4. Reinforce the new definition with benefits and proof

If people assume that they know how your product works, or if your claim is so new that they don't care, then all the mechanism you need can be summed up in a word or a phrase.

Three stages of mechanism:

1. Name the mechanism: For well-known products or features

2. Describe the mechanism: When prospects need more understanding

3. Feature the mechanism: When it becomes a key selling point

Adapt to market sophistication. As markets become more saturated, mechanism often becomes more important. In early stages, simply naming a feature might suffice. In later stages, detailed explanations of how your product works differently can be crucial.

Sell the mechanism. Don't treat mechanism copy as dry, technical information. Instead, infuse it with promise and emotion. Every word, even in explanations, should contribute to the overall sales message.

Concentration, therefore, is the process of pointing out weaknesses in the competition... emphasizing their disservice to your prospect... and then proving to him that your product gives him what he wants without them.

Two-pronged approach:

1. Highlight competitors' weaknesses

2. Show how your product overcomes these issues

Structure your attack:

• Bad (competitor) vs. Good (your product)

• What happens now (with competitors) vs. What will happen (with your product)

Make it about the customer. Frame your critique of competitors as a service to the prospect. Show that you're pointing out these flaws for their benefit, not just to win the sale.

Provide the solution. Always follow criticism with how your product solves the problem. This turns a potentially negative message into a positive, action-oriented one.

Thus, you have waiting for your ad—if it is adapted the right way—a stored believability. A believability reflex. Which you can tap by adopting this particular publication's phraseology when you address its audience.

Three ways to borrow believability:

1. Format: Mimic the layout and style of the publication

2. Phraseology: Use the language and tone of trusted sources

3. Mood: Adopt understatement or "deadly sincerity"

Blend in to stand out. By making your ad look and feel like the surrounding content, you reduce the prospect's natural skepticism towards advertising.

Leverage existing trust. People buy publications because they believe in them. By adopting elements of that publication's style, you can borrow some of that built-up trust for your message.

Good advertising copy exists simultaneously in two different places. Part of that copy is words on a page. Or sounds carried by radio waves. Or pictures and sounds coming out of a television set. But the other part of that copy—the crucial part—takes place in your prospect's brain.

Create a cohesive narrative. Combine all the elements of your ad – promises, images, proofs, and structures – into a single, compelling story that holds attention from start to finish.

Anticipate reactions. As you write, constantly put yourself in the prospect's shoes. Anticipate their questions, doubts, and desires at each point in the copy.

Balance and reinforce. Use techniques like:

• Verification: Strategically place proofs and authorities

• Reinforcement: Make claims support each other

• Interweaving: Blend emotion, image, and logic

• Sensitivity: Adapt to the reader's changing state of mind

• Momentum: Draw the reader deeper into the copy

• Mood: Pack your copy with appropriate emotion

Continuous refinement. Great copy is often the