Posted by:
Michael Masterson
November 10, 2009
Issue #798
People like to feel superior. As a marketer, understanding this universal desire can help you do an awful lot of selling.
By appealing to your prospects’ pride, you can persuade them to pay more — sometimes much more — than what you could get by appealing to any other emotion.
Let’s talk watches.
For $10, you can buy a handsome digital sport watch that will outperform and outlast virtually any luxury watch made. When these watches were first introduced (over 20 years ago), they were so good and cheap that everyone predicted the demise of the analog timepiece.
Well, it didn’t happen. The new technology revolutionized the watch industry and changed the market forever. But analog watches survived. In fact, according to one estimate, sales of $1,000-plus watches have more than doubled since the 1970s and continue to grow every year.
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Posted by:
Michael Masterson
September 1, 2009
Issue #749
Here’s a little copywriting trick I learned long ago. It will help you prove any point you want to make.
After you’ve made a claim - such as “Skippy is the best peanut butter in the world” - support it with three consecutive paragraphs of proof.
In this case, the proof might look something like this:
In a test conducted by Buyer Trends last year, Skippy was rated as the top-scoring peanut butter in every single category: aroma, appearance, texture, and taste. When compared to other popular brands, such as Jif and Peter Pan, it rated between two and five points higher in each of these categories. Jeff Goodman, reporting for Buyer Trends, said, “When it comes to the pleasure of eating, Skippy rules.”
A scientific analysis conducted by WebNutrition.com found that Skippy had the highest ratio of protein to fat of all the major brands. Patrick Dunney, president of the National Health Institute, said that Skippy was “far and away” the best product from a health point of view.
I used to be a Jif fan myself. But last Thursday, for the first time, I tried Skippy on a slice of whole wheat toast - and I was blown away by how good it is!
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Posted by:
Michael Masterson
August 4, 2009
Issue #729
If you could have any career you wanted, what would it be?
According to a magazine article I read years ago, the most common “career fantasy” is to be a professional athlete. Next on the list was actor. Then musician. Then model.
That should not surprise you. Madison Avenue and Hollywood have made those careers seem glamorous. But despite the tons of money, adoring fans, private jets, and special privileges, I wouldn’t want to be a celebrity. Here’s why:
- The careers of athletes, actors, models, and other celebrities generally have a downhill trajectory. They hit their peak relatively young, and then start descending, often rapidly, until they are scurrying in the darkness, looking for any work they can get. It’s pathetic.
- They are slaves to themselves. A celebrity must always maintain his public persona, because that is how he makes his money. If he begins to act differently, he loses his stock-in-trade.
- They have to work really, really hard - and athletes, in particular, are on the road most of the year.
- They have no privacy. Yes, it’s cool to be able to get good tables at trendy restaurants. But who wants to eat while everyone in the joint is staring at you?
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Posted by:
Michael Masterson
July 28, 2009
Issue #724
At my favorite restaurant yesterday afternoon a debate broke out. It was not about the usual topics: the best cigars, the best Scotches, the best Italian crooners. It was about “who has the best job?”
After a flush of nominations, we agreed on three finalists:
- Kenny, a professional speaker for one of the world’s largest investment companies
- Amy, a restaurant critic for the local newspaper
- And Edward, the proprietor of my favorite bar.
Each job had something to say for it. Kenny made thirty speeches a year, got very well paid for it and had loads of time to perfect his golf game. Amy made a living by writing about food – which is one of her passions. And Ed made his money doing exactly what he would be doing if he were retired. He’s just on the other side of the cash register.
They were all very good businesses. That’s for sure. But each also had its own drawbacks. Kenny’s job was great as long as the economy was strong. But when the market started falling apart he began to wonder whether he might be expendable. Amy loved her work for the first ten years she did it. But now it was getting old and the money wasn’t good enough to retire on. Ed’s job seemed like the best to me, but he was tied to his store seven days a week.
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Posted by:
Michael Masterson
March 10, 2009
Issue #626
I received an interesting letter last weekend.
The envelope was hand-addressed in blue ink. The letter itself was 12 pages long and printed on quality, cream-colored, individual sheets of paper. At the end of the letter was a signature, also in blue. I recognized it as the name of a copywriter I had once met at an AWAI seminar: Brice K.
So far, it looked like a personal letter. But, unlike a personal letter, it began with a headline, followed by a salutation that was both generic and plural: "Dear Friends."
Normally, I would have dismissed this letter as an amateurish effort and tossed it. But the headline, though misplaced, did its job. It intrigued me:
The Amazing True Story
of the Incredible Disappearing Copywriter
… and How You Are Helping Him to Reappear
As a rule, I abhor commonplace intensifiers like "amazing" and "incredible." But in this case, they worked. Perhaps it was the way they enhanced the sentiment of the headline’s promise - that I was about to hear an old-fashioned kind of story. (Everybody likes a good story.)
That certainly wasn’t the best headline ever written, but it was good - good enough to get me to read the first paragraph of the letter:
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