#18 The Dirty Little Secret Behind Surveys

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2018/08/18-dirty-little-secret-behind-surveys.html

 

ISSUE #18 – Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Posted by Denny Hatch

THE DIRTY LITTLE SECRET BEHIND SURVEYS

“I upped my revenue. Up yours!”

            Above is a sample from a current GOP online survey.

In 1984 Peggy and I founded the newsletter and archive service WHO’S MAILING WHAT! Over the next 20+ years I wrote about hundreds of direct mail efforts and archived thousands of mailings in more than 200 categories.

Among mailings regularly received were fundraising efforts with surveys from political parties (DNC, RNC, NRCC plus PACs and individual candidates).

All were phony-baloney scams.

The basic message was that the committee, PAC or individual candidate deeply cares and wants your input.

Enclosed was a survey with YES/NO questions plus opportunities for essays to offer ideas and to vent.

Always included: an urgent request for cash.

How surveys were processed

Many years ago I called a contact at the NRCC (National Republican Campaign Committee) and asked him about one of his survey mailings.

“Why do people fill out surveys?” I asked.

“A politician asking for advice is flattering. People love talking about themselves. Once a voter answers the first question, he's hooked. With a survey he believes he can make a difference. And he’ll send money hoping his responses go direct into the candidate's ear.”

“Adding a survey in direct mail is expensive,” I countered.

“Surveys always lift response and always bring in more cash than non-survey mailings. Great PR. They make the guy feel worthwhile.”

“And how do you process the surveys?”

“We throw ‘em out. Nobody gives a damn what these people think. We just want their money.

Surveys in the Internet age

Before the Internet, answers to surveys were hand-written. Deciphering the handwriting was tough and—if saved—would have to be data-entered via retyping. That means more staff and spending more money.

With the advent of the Internet—and universal use of the QWERTY keyboard—survey answers are electronic and salvageable. They can be digitally forwarded to the electronic dossier on every individual person in myriad clouds all over the planet and sold to anybody with cash.

Takeaways to Consider

• The seven key copy drivers—the emotional hot buttons that cause people to act—are: fear—greed—guilt—anger—exclusivity—salvation—flattery.

• The most powerful: fear, greed, anger and flattery.

• A survey asking for advice is hugely flattering.

• Involvement devices (e.g., surveys) always lift response.

• Surveys always result in more money.

• Today pollsters collect voter data.

• It still makes sense to cash the checks and chuck out the surveys.

• Or share survey results with the responders in an A/B split. Half get the results; half do not. Which half is more profitable long-term?

• Always send an effusive thank-you letter dripping with flattery and ask for more money.

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#17 How to Make Your Product or Service Unique and Sexy

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2018/08/17-how-to-make-your-product-or-service.html

 

Issue #17 - Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Posted by Denny Hatch

How to Make Your Product or Service Unique and Sexy

Imagine! A car so quiet you can hear the electric clock! This has to be one magnificent machine—from inside out!

What a Unique Selling Proposition!

The headline of David Ogilvy’s 1958 full-page Rolls-Royce ad is so famous that today it generates 85,300 results when entered into Google. The line secured Ogilvy’s place in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

More to the point, in 1958 Rolls-Royce sales reportedly increased 50% over 1957.

How Did Ogilvy Come up with His

USP (Unique Selling Proposition)?

 “Good ideas don’t come from smoking joints and wearing funny clothes,” wrote Ogilvy’s associate Drayton Bird. 

“It’s just hard work and discipline. I do not believe the mysterious qualities of flair and originality are nearly as important as relevant knowledge.”

Great copywriters research the hell out of a product or service, getting to know it intimately. They also research competitors’ products.

And steal smart.

Features v. Benefits

Features are elements of the product or service. These are about it—the facets of the thing you are selling.

Insurance companies have never understood the difference between features and benefits.

Here’s how a life insurance company sells its product: “The major benefit of this life insurance policy is $1 million.”

Actually, the $1 million is not a benefit. It is the main feature.

The benefit: You will sleep well every night knowing if anything happens to you, your family will be able to stay in the house, pay the bills and remember you with love.

    

Here’s how MBA Magazine described the difference between a feature and a benefit:

“People want quarter inch holes, not quarter inch drills.”

In this case, Ogilvy came up with massive list of features that made Rolls different from all other cars on the planet.

He then ranked these features.

Turning Features into Benefits

The next step is to turn these features into benefits.

Pick the most sexy, offbeat benefit. That's your Unique Selling Proposition.

        

In effect, "What will this feature do for me?"

In this case, the unstated benefit is: Virtual silence in a speeding Rolls-Royce.

The Backstory

David Ogilvy did exhaustive research and decided Clyde Bedell (1898-1985)—a titan in the world of advertising from the 1930s to the 1960s—had the perfect USP for Pierce Arrow.

Ogilvy stole smart.

Pierce-Arrow went out of business in 1938, some 20 years prior to Ogilvy’s ad. Back in 1958, the Internet was unimaginable. What’s more, on the slim chance some nerdy little researcher found the forbear to the Roll-Royce version, how could the word be spread and who would care?”

Takeaways to Consider

• "The prospect doesn’t give a damn about you, your product or your company. All that matters is, ‘What’s in it for me?’ ”—Bob Hacker

• Always listen to W-I-I FM.

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