Had to smile when this article (“Advertisers: Men Are Not Idiots“) from Advertising Age came to my attention…

Bashing Fathers and Husbands Isn’t the Right Way for Marketers to Sell Products

The way the advertising industry portrays men has drawn increasing scrutiny in both the trade press and the mainstream media. Defenders of the status quo — in which men are depicted as irresponsible fathers and lazy, foolish husbands — are starting to feel outnumbered. It’s an understandable feeling.

The article goes on to describe the backlash that’s occurring and the negative impact on a couple of large companies.

Gee, who would have thought that insulting and alienating 50% of your potential audience would have negative consequences for sales (and profits of course)?  Those geniuses at the mainstream advertising agencies who buy in to this kind of nonsense…

Defenders of the advertising status quo generally put forth the following arguments: Males are “privileged” and “it’s men’s turn,” so it’s OK to portray them this way, and that men simply don’t care how they’re portrayed.

OK, maybe I’m being a little unfair.  Perhaps someone was thinking that as women apparently make some 70% of all purchasing decisions, then appealing to them would more than outweigh any negative consequences of alienating men?

Well, if so, didn’t work.  Apparently, most women are turned off by this approach as well!

Hey, I know it’s something of a staple that Direct Response Marketers think that mainstream “Image” advertising agencies are complete idiots.  And I’m sure there are some good ad men (and women) in mainstream agencies.  However, this sort of thing and countless other examples all illustrate how “conventional” advertising is often a complete disaster for clients.

And it all goes back to one of the biggest sins in marketing and advertising.  Being more concerned and wrapped up in your own perspective rather than that of your audience.  The “creatives” who came up with the “Men Are Idiots” ads probably thought they were being terribly clever, witty and sophisticated.  “Socially progressive” as well, probably.

Too bad the market doesn’t agree with them and as a result their clients are losing money.

“Every battle is won, before it is fought.”

(From “The Art Of War” by Sun Tzu)

I talked in a previous post about the dangers of complacency and underestimating the difficulty of a marketing project.

Pete Godfrey, in his latest “Emotional Ad Writing And Marketing Letter” mentions the case of a pair of marketers who planned to hold a high priced seminar in January and were going to launch the campaign only in mid-December.  Crazy, right?  But I’ve come across similar situations myself.

And even supposed experts make the same mistake.   In mid 2007 one high profile marketing “Guru” launched a seminar only 3 weeks out.  It looked like it was a great seminar but it flopped badly in terms of the numbers attending.  There’s also the recent example of the John Carlton seminar.  When I look back at my emails, he only announced it about 10 days before the auction for the places was going to close.

Getting “bums on seats” and people to show up for a seminar usually takes a lot of work.  If you don’t already have a receptive list, the task is even more difficult.  Depending on the market and the price point, you’re normally looking at a 3-6 month campaign for a high-priced seminar.

Even for the “lead generation” type seminars that are lower cost (or even free), you need to market them strongly.  Remember the classic advice that you need to “sell” your free offers as hard as your paid products.  For people to turn up to any kind of seminar, they have to commit time and usually some expense.  So, you need to give them a very good reason why they should turn up.

And this applies not just to seminars but to any marketing campaign.  The quote from Sun Tzu at the start of this post is as relevant to marketing as it is to warfare.  Proper planning and preparation is no guarantee of success in marketing, but some campaigns are doomed to failure right from the start. 

Experienced marketers and copywriters can tell with a high degree of accuracy if a campaign is likely to fail.  Yes, there is a “secret” and there’s no way I’m going to reveal it on this blog!  It’s extraordinarily valuable and that’s part of what I get paid for.  As a copywriter, before you take on any project I’d suggest you need to make a cool assessment of whether or not it’s going to be a success.

Sometimes, the most valuable service you can provide for a client is preventing them going ahead with a misconceived project.

Yes, I know that as business people we’re normally pushed for time and almost always have to make some sort of compromises.  However, we also have to deal with the world as it is and, more importantly, people as they are.

More about that in a future post.

In the last post I discussed the auction that John Carlton was holding to sell the 20 places available at his upcoming workshop.

Well, the auction has now closed.  The results are in and the clearing price was (drum roll please!)…US$1,999.

20 copywriters and marketers really have got themselves a huge bargain, in my (no so) humble opinion.

In the previous post, I suggested that a clearing price under $5,000 would have to be viewed as a disappointing result and that’s how it has turned out.

So what are the lessons to be learned from this?

Firstly, as I mentioned yesterday, there simply wasn’t the necessary excitement and value created around the product itself.  All the focus seemed to be on the auction mechanism as being the “big idea”.  John Carlton and his partner Stan Dahl seemed to take it for granted that people would be rabidly excited about the workshop and clamouring to get in.  Well, they obviously were not.

Secondly, and another big marketing sin, there was an obstacle in the way of accepting the offer!  Contrary to what a lot of internet-oriented marketers think, not everyone spends all day on the internet and not everyone uses eBay.

When reviewing this whole auction experiment, I’m reminded of the advice to courtroom lawyers about not asking a question unless you know the answer!

Auctions seem to work well when there’s a hot market but are terrible (from the seller’s perspective) when the market is not so hot.  You see this in the Australian real estate market (where many properties are sold at auctions).  When the market is booming, properties go for rediculously high prices.  But in a slump, buyers can end up with a steal, especially if there’s a distressed seller.

What’s ended up happening here is that instead of there being a bidding frenzy, the 20 places for the workshop have been sold off on the equivalent of “lastminute.com” or the like.  Not what was intended, I think.

On a broader marketing point, never get complacent about what needs to be done in a campaign.  My mate, master copywriter Pete Godfrey, talks about that in the current issue of his “Emotional Ad Writing & Marketing Letter”. I’ll talk more about that in the next post (enough of my rantings for today!).