Relational vs Transactional Advertising-You Can Do Too Much Of One

Article by Roy H. Williams to Entrepreneur Magazine

In any product category, roughly half the public will be in relational shopping mode, while the other half will be thinking transactionally. A customer in transactional mode:

A. Thinks short term.
B. Cares only about today's transaction.
C. Enjoys the process of shopping and negotiating.
D. Fears only paying more than he had to pay.
E. Is willing to spend lots of time investigating.
F. Considers himself an expert.
G. Hinges every transaction on price.

Consequently, transactional customers are always the quickest to respond to advertising. And what they respond to is predictable. Although I usually advise against targeting customers in transactional shopping mode, I figure if you're going to do it anyway, you might as well know how to do it well. Here's how to write the ads that trigger instant traffic:

1.Begin with a product that has wide appeal. Transactional ads don't create desire; they merely capitalize on a desire that's already there.
2.Reduce the price below what is considered the typical discount. The more desirable the item and the lower the price, the faster the traffic will come.
3.Explain why you're offering the price reduction. Your volume of quick-response traffic will be directly tied to the credibility of your desperation.
4.Create urgency by having a time limit. "Everyday low prices" may be a reasonable brand position in the long term, but it's no reason to rush to your store today.
5.Discount a highly respected brand that isn't usually discounted. A low price is unimpressive when there's a question about the quality.
6.Use specifics, which are more believable than generalities. Avoid ambiguous claims such as "up to 70 percent off" and vague disclaimers like "on selected items."
7.Schedule a high frequency of repetition for your TV or radio ads-or use a second color (like red) in key lines of your newspaper ad-to support the perception of urgency.
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Leverage these seven factors and you'll increase your store traffic quickly. But be aware: The more often you use these tips, the less well they'll work. Consider the dwindling response to Little Caesars' initially successful two-for-one "Pizza! Pizza!" campaign.

You'll know your company is addicted to transactional advertising when customers begin asking, "When does this go on sale?" The price of this strategy is that you train your customers to wait for the next sale. Their sense of urgency is diminished with every new "Sale!" ad you write. In the end, the brand you're building will be weak. A number of studies on customer loyalty have clearly indicated customers that switch to you for reasons of price alone will switch from you for the same reason.

Style vs. substance: There's a big difference between saying something powerful and merely saying something powerfully. What message communicated in your ads doesn't expire? Is the most powerful part of your message true "for a limited time only" or "while supplies last"? Are you training your customer to wait for the next sale?

Unlike the transactional customer, a customer in relational shopping mode:

A. Thinks long term.
B. Considers today's transaction to be one in a series of many.
C. Doesn't enjoy comparison shopping or negotiating.
D. Fears only making a poor choice.
E. Hopes to find an expert he or she can trust.
F. Considers her time spent shopping to be part of the purchase price.
G. Is likely to become a repeat customer.

The goal of relational ad campaigns is to become the company that customers think of immediately and feel the best about when they-or any of their acquaintances-need what you sell. Customers in relational shopping mode are impressed by:

1.The owner as spokesperson. Think of Dave Thomas for Wendy's, or George Zimmer for Men's Wearhouse.
2.An unaffected, natural style, tinged with vulnerability. Your willingness to share your hopes, dreams, shortcomings and failures will endear you to relational shoppers. Let them feel as if they know you.
3.Genuine statements. Hype and self-aggrandizement are simply not acceptable.
4.No time limits. "Here today, here tomorrow, here when you need us" is a powerful message, no matter how you say it. Relational customers pay little attention to ads that expire.

5.Statements that indicate honesty. Never claim to be honest. Just make the kinds of statements that only a person of real integrity would make. The public isn't stupid. After awhile, these ads will begin paying off better than you can imagine.

6.Statements that indicate competency. Don't use the word "expert." Just make complex concepts easily understood, and the relational customer will say "expert" in his mind.

Remember, the fear of the relational shopper is that he'll buy the wrong one.
Ads that target the relational mindset seem to do nothing at first, but they work better and better the longer you run them. Ads that target the transactional mindset work miraculously at first but less and less well as time goes on.

Which type of ads will you choose?

Roy Williams is the founder and president of The Wizard of Ads, a company serving the advertising and marketing needs of business owners around the globe. Williams is also the author ofThe Wizard of Adsand Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads.

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The Secret to Good Advertising

The secret to good advertising? (lean in....I'll whisper it)

What you say x how many times you say it.

What you say - as with any advertising medium, if you actually want people to buy your widgets or book your widget-cleaners, you need to give people a good reason to do it. People won't flock to your store, or jam the phone lines, just by hearing you're a "family firm" and offer "good service".

Try to beat the "So what?" factor. The best way to do this is to come up with something unique about your business, your USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

Then say it over and over again.

What you say x how many times you say it.

Done.

Are you throwing the wrong net?

Targeting the Imaginary Customer

Ask the wrong question and you will get the wrong answer

Most businesses target an imaginary customer because someone – probably an advertising salesman – once asked, “Who is your customer?”

Ask any businessperson, “Who is your customer?” and he or she will likely answer with a singular customer profile. Something like, “My customer is a career woman between 28 and 44 years old, college educated, making at least $45,000 per year. She has exceptional taste and style and wants to express her individuality through her purchases.”

And her favorite author is Danielle Steele and she likes to take long walks on the beach in the moonlight, right?

Ill-advised questions like, “Who is your customer?” must find their answers in that shadowland where memory meets imagination.

Although it may seem logical on the surface, “Who is your customer?” is a dangerously worded question.

Yes, I said “dangerously” worded.

Your whole life you’ve been told, “We remember more of what we see than what we hear.” But it isn’t true. In fact, clinical tests have proven quite the opposite: the precise wording of what enters our ears profoundly alters what we see in our mind.

The question, “Who is your customer?” conjures the mental image of an individual since “customer” isn’t plural. Ask that same business owner, “How many different types of people do you serve?” and you’ll get a radically different, far more valuable answer.

So now you’re going to tell me the 28 to 44 year-old female customer profile you gave me was the average customer, right?

Dr. Neil Postman, the celebrated Chair of the Department of Culture and Communications at New York University, has this to say about that:

“We must keep in mind the story of the statistician who drowned while trying to wade across a river with an average depth of four feet. That is to say, in a culture that reveres statistics, we can never be sure what sort of nonsense will lodge in people’s heads… A question, even of the simplest kind, is not, and never can be unbiased. The structure of any question is as devoid of neutrality as its content. The form of a question may ease our way or pose obstacles. Or, when even slightly altered, it may generate antithetical answers, as in the case of the two priests who, being unsure if it was permissible to smoke and pray at the same time, wrote to the Pope for a definitive answer. One priest phrased the question ‘Is it permissible to smoke while praying?’ and was told it is not, since prayer should be the focus of one’s whole attention; the other priest asked if it is permissible to pray while smoking and was told that it is, since it is always permissible to pray.”

In a Loftus & Palmer experiment reported by Dr. Alan Baddeley in his 1999 book, Essentials of Human Memory*, a group of people were asked to watch the video of a collision between two automobiles. Viewers who were asked, “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” gave answers averaging 40.8 MPH and reported having seen broken glass. But viewers reported speeds averaging only 31.8 MPH and remembered no broken glass when asked, “How fast were the cars going when they made contact?” Keep in mind that each group had seen the same video only a few moments before these questions were asked.
Control the question and you control the mental image it conjures.

Create your marketing plan around the question, “Who is my customer?” and you’ll soon bump your head against a very low ceiling. The true profiles of “your customer” are like the characters in a Fellini movie; an unimaginable circus of people with conflicted personalities and unconscious buying motives.

Proponents of hyper-targeting are quick to say, “You’re using the shotgun approach. I believe in putting the customer in the crosshairs of a rifle.”

But we’re not hunting just one customer, are we? Hyper-targeters believe in fishing with a hook. But for best results, I suggest you find a net.

If you want to grow your business, don’t target age, sex, income or education. Target according to buying motives. The question isn’t, “Who is my customer?” but rather, “Why does my customer buy my product? What does it do for him or her?” The answers to these questions will tell you exactly what to write in your ads.

Congratulations. You found your net.

Roy H. Williams
The Wizard of Ads
http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/?ShowMe=ThisMemo&MemoID=1850