Posted by:
Michel Fortin
June 30, 2009
Issue #704
Theodore Levitt once said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.”
This is one of the most quoted passages in marketing in trying to explain the difference between features and benefits. However, the quote is incomplete and leaving out something that, to me, is far more important.
And that is, what’s the purpose of this quarter-inch hole? What does the reader plan on doing with it? Even better, what’s the end-result the reader wants to achieve with it?
The answer to that question is, in my estimation, the real benefit. The ultimate benefit.
Not the hole. And certainly not the drill that created it.
Sure, it is a benefit to some degree. But “benefit,” defined in the dictionary, is “something that improves, enhances, or promotes well-being.” So let me ask you, how is one or one’s well-being enhanced by a quarter-inch hole?
(more…)
Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
June 29, 2009
Issue #463
- The hard truth "get rich quick" gurus never tell you …
- What it really takes to hit the big time …
- Why what you do the rest of today matters …
- Much more …
Dear Business-Builder,
My mom’s cousin married Ty Cobb’s son, Herschel. Since I’m not good at math, I can’t really tell you what that makes me. Ty Cobb’s grand nephew once removed? I dunno.
But still, I’ve always been proud to be related — even distantly — to the man who invented modern baseball. So a few years ago, I read Cobb: A Biography by Al Stump and later, watched the movie starring Tommy Lee Jones.
Great book; good flick. Not because they heralded Cobb’s exploits on the field, but because they painted a crystal-clear picture of the man behind the legend.
(more…)
Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
June 26, 2009
Issue #78
Dear Business-Builder,
I was born cocky.
When I was 17 years old, running a Baumfolder in a printing plant for $1.60 an hour ($64 a week; $3,328 a year – before taxes!) – I was absolutely convinced I could write more compelling copy than I saw in the direct mail packages they had me working on …
At 23, as I slaved over a hot IBM Selectric at an L.A. agency for $15,000 a year, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that my sales copy was by far the strongest stuff in the mail – probably the hottest copy anybody had ever written in the entire history of the direct response industry, period …
And when I was 30, earning $300,000 plus overrides each year creating promotions for a $250-million-a-year financial newsletter and rare coin retailer – I was just too cool for school.
Sure – I had heroes; the stuff I saw Gary Bencivenga, Jim Rutz and Bill Bonner cranking out never failed to blow my mind. But with those exceptions, I was always the smartest guy in every room.
According to me.
(more…)
Posted by:
Troy White
June 25, 2009
Issue #701
Fellow Business-Builder,
I am NOT a good storyteller.
It’s something that I have to work on all the time.
But, I have had great success using stories in my marketing campaigns.
And the more I think about it, the easier I realize any storytelling newbie (like myself) can easily pull out a winner at the drop of a hat.
Once you start seeing how easy this is … you won’t ever stop.
Why? Because the results are almost always exceptional!
(more…)
Posted by:
Daniel Levis
June 24, 2009
Issue #700
Dear Web Business-Builder,
Saturday night is movie night at my house. That’s when my wife and I curl up on the couch, pop the cork on a nice bottle of wine, and relax.
It’s usually some chick flick or another. And I’m OK with that. But this Saturday night was different.
We watched a movie called “Laurel Canyon.” Yes, I know that sounds like a chick flick. But hang in there …
Meet Jane … one of the central characters.
Jane is a hard-living, free-thinking rock-and-roll record producer, who happens to own a lavish mansion in Laurel Canyon, a suburb of LA.
Her character is based loosely on folk rock icon Joni Mitchell, who actually lived in Laurel Canyon in the 60s. As you can see, Jane looks like something out of Woodstock.
The Laurel Canyon property is vacant, and Jane’s straight-laced son and his super-conservative bride-to-be, Alex, are scheduled to move in.
(more…)
