Posted by:
John Newtson
August 4, 2007
Issue #195
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How Nestle ENGINEERED the consumer market they wanted. No James Bond villain could conjure up THIS billion-dollar scheme. It worked liked crazy …
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You must be joking. The most successful new car launch in American history was designed by folks lying on their backs daydreaming about ‘getting lucky’ in the backseat?
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An astounding resource for understanding markets and mass desire …
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And (dare I say, it?) much, MUCH MORE!
Dear Business Builder,
Back in the 1970s, in a move seemingly destined for failure, Nestle decided to try and get Japan to switch from drinking tea to drinking coffee.
Blindly ignoring simple facts like, the Japanese have been drinking tea for thousands of years … that drinking tea is deeply ingrained in Japanese culture … and no one in Japan wanted to drink coffee.
Surprise, surprise coffee sales sucked.
And that’s where things get REALLY interesting.
Nestle commissioned a very special type of research study. And that study spawned breakthroughs into understanding the deep motivations of entire cultures that would lead to some of the most exciting marketing campaigns in the last 30 years.
Today, 30 years later, Japan consumes more than 500 Million lbs. of coffee a year because of what Nestle did with the results of that study.
What magical power did Nestle wield to sway the Japanese to drinking coffee?
Anthropology, my friend, Cultural Anthropology … with a capital ‘A.’
The anthropological secret
for tapping into mass desire
Legendary copywriter and marketer Eugene Schwartz, in his book Breakthrough Advertising, defined mass desire as, ‘the public spread of a private want.’
He emphatically believed, ‘the power, the force, the overwhelming urge to own [is what] makes advertising work, comes from the market itself.’
Without understanding the forces of mass desire in a market your success in selling to it becomes limited.
So how does anthropology fit in? To see that, let’s think back to our childhoods for a second …
If you’re like most of us, as a child you were told not to touch the hot pan on a stove because you’d get burned.
And, if you were like me, at some point you reached out and got burned anyway. And, all of a sudden, you understood what “hot” and “burn” meant. And you were careful around a hot stove ever since.
Before getting burned though, the concepts of ‘hot’ and ‘burn’ were just abstractions to you. It wasn’t until you had the, ‘Holy crap! That hurt!’ emotional experience, that they became concrete.
Enter Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, anthropologist extraordinaire.
His area of expertise is emotional imprinting. The idea behind his work is that learning and emotion are inextricably linked. And the combination of emotion with experience creates an “imprint.”
These imprints stay with us for the rest of our lives and color the way we view the world.
But the doctor’s research gets more specific. He found that if you are American you have completely different emotional imprints than if you are French, or from any other culture.
If you remember the story of the Lego kids you’ll recall the dramatic differences between how an American child and a German child play with toys.
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Posted by:
John Newtson
July 21, 2007
Issue #183
The Tree That Would Not Die …
Sunken Treasure …
And a Field Trip to the Bastille!
- Multiply your market universe: How the right sales stories create entirely new markets for your products. Meet Bob who turned a great American story into cold hard cash …
- How stories create “monopolies” your competition can’t match! The right story will obliterate your competition and make buying your product the only possible choice for your market …
- How the French Government can make you millions in 2 weeks or less! The true story of how Jim Blanchard and Clayton Makepeace turned a trip to the Bastille into millions, with a little help from the French …
- And much, Much MORE!
Dear Business Builder,
Today’s first marketing story is about
the Tree That Would Not Die.
This is a picture of the towering tulip-poplar known as the Liberty Tree that once stood proudly on the grounds of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland.
Photo from stjohnscollege.com
It was the last of 13 Liberty Trees – one in each of the original 13 colonies – which served as a gathering place for American patriots to spread their ideals leading up to, and to strategize during, the Revolutionary War.
In 1961 it was featured in an episode of ‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not’ as ‘The Tree That Would Not Die’ because it survived:
- Being struck by a bolt of lightning …
- An explosion of gunpowder from inside its trunk set by pranksters …
- And 400 years of wind, war and weather …
Sadly, it finally sustained fatal injuries from Hurricane Floyd on September 16th, 1999.
This is where Bob Taylor comes in.
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Posted by:
John Newtson
July 7, 2007
Issue #171
- How to become a ‘Big Idea’ money-making machine. And get the million-dollar concepts, headlines and copy hooks that will make you rich. Plus, a perfect example of this concept in action …
- A brilliant approach to getting copywriting clients you’ve never heard anywhere else. You’ll see the genius of it immediately. And why it so easily connects you with a horde of hungry clients …
- Have a winning promotion but don’t have the cash-flow for a massive customer acquisition roll-out? You’re going to absolutely LOVE this …
- The same letter could get you your regular fee … OR 50% of profits. Do this before approaching a client and they’ll gladly hand you a giant percentage of sales …
- And much, Much MORE!
Dear Business Builder,
You’re about to meet one of the sharpest copywriters in the health supplement markets, a personal protégé of the late Gary Halbert.
His name is Caleb O’Dowd and listening to the information he shares in this interview is going to make you a considerable amount of money – whatever market you work in.
If you really want to know just how good a copywriter Caleb is, just consider the words of praise the late Gary Halbert had for him and his work.
- "Caleb is a brilliant, young copywriter … born with a natural talent for writing copy."
- "Caleb is now a ‘master’ copywriter. He is, in my opinion, already one of the ten best copywriters in the world.
- "I will tell you this guy is going to be for hire and he is good enough that I am actually doing this project with him and spending MY money on it"
- "I can guarantee you that and he has the number one prerequisite for becoming a world class copywriter and that is he is obsessed with it."
- And after reading the very first complete letter Caleb wrote (which mailed successfully for over a year) Gary said, "I actually believe it is so good that neither me, John Carlton, Gary Bencivenga nor any other copywriter could have written it any better.”
High praise indeed, wouldn’t you say? Especially from a genius like Gary, who had no qualms about telling anybody if their copy sucked.
You’re going to want to print this issue out.
So let’s get started, there’s some priceless information here for you…
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Posted by:
John Newtson
June 23, 2007
Issue #159
Plus, in this issue:
- Jim’s client made a funny without knowing it …
- Joe made $26,480 in one month from one letter as a rookie copywriter …
- And Mr. X made $3.6 million in a weekend off of this deal …
- And much, MORE! (Like some cool additions for your swipe file)
Dear Business Builder,
Famed copywriter Jim Rutz made a proposal to a client once that changed the way copywriters made money ever since.
He asked:
‘How about instead of my regular fee, I give you another option, you can pay me a little less than my normal and a half-a-penny royalty for every package you mail … or even less and a full penny royalty …
‘Or, pay me nothing at all up front and give me .03 cents a package.’
It took all of three seconds for the client to say, “We’ll take the free one.”
Hah!
And that’s when he learned clients are much happier to pay out of cash-flow than out of pocket. And this royalty deal made it much easier to get work, and get paid MORE money than a straight fee deal.
And that’s just a taste of what’s possible.
One very well known copywriter (I’m not supposed to give out his name – who knows when the IRS is watching) once made a cool $3.6 million in a weekend off just one such deal – from writing one letter.
He came up with high-dollar backend product to promote to a client’s list.
He pitched the product idea to the client … wrote the copy … and sold somewhere in the neighborhood of $12 million right out of the gate.
Not a bad couple of days.
And it’s not just big name copywriters who are making a lot of money on royalties.
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Posted by:
John Newtson
June 9, 2007
Issue #147
"Alcohol, the cause of and
solution to all of life's problems"
– Homer Simpson
- What’s more important than credibility? These days it’s heresy to suggest proof is secondary to anything in copy. But top writer Arthur Johnson (gaggles of massive controls, gaggles I say!) says THIS is even more important …
- Theory, Schmeory! Let’s apply copywriting techniques to something important, like – Why I should drink more beer…
- Drink More Beer, Succeed Faster: The Swedish study your bartender can’t wait for you to find out about…
- And much, MUCH MORE!
Dear Business Builder,
Let’s start with a profound fact of life:
A herd of zebras only moves as fast as the slowest zebra. And it’s the slowest, weakest zebras that predators catch and kill. This is good for the herd because it means they can move faster and have less disease.
It’s called survival of the fittest.
In the same way excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest, weakest brain cells first.
And that’s why the regular consumption of beer eliminates weaker brain cells, making the brain faster and more efficient.
You’re actually smarter after a few beers.
Okay, okay – so maybe that’s NOT true. But it illustrates a powerful point…
If I want to buy something
– I'l invent good reasons to buy it if I have to
But if you’re doing your job in your sales promotions you won’t force me to invent reasons – you’ll give me actual reasons.
Sales logic and proof are critical factors in making your promotions work. Even if people WANT to buy – they need to JUSTIFY their decision.
But hearing the theory isn’t nearly as powerful a learning tool as seeing these techniques in action.
So let’s see if we can come up with good reasons someone, such as myself, might want to drink more beer. And more importantly, good reasons I can tell my wife as to why I SHOULD have a beer.
Maybe I should be drinking more beer because it reduces my risks of:
- Heart Disease
- Stroke
- Dementia
- Diabetes
A study conducted by Dr. Henk Hendricks, and his team of Dutch researchers at the TNO Food Research institute, found drinking four glasses of beer a day caused a 30% increase in vitamin B6 in men’s blood streams!
B6 prevents your body from building up high levels of homocysteine. And do you know what high levels of homocysteine are associated with? You betcha! Heart disease, stroke, dementia and diabetes!
The World Health Organization’s findings reveal why drinking more beer may be the most critical thing I do. Beer drinking actually has powerful benefits:
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