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Do you buy things . . . do you read things based on what kind of “pain” it could prevent, or by how 
“pleasurable” it could be, once you had the widget? Do you think plucking the anxiety strings generates more sales than being aspirational?
My friend Lois Kelly posted that she thought we were all fed-up with the “anxiety approach” to advertising and marketing. While I get her point and her desire for it to be true, the fact of the matter is that clients opt for that approach again and again.
Why? Continue reading and discover it for yourself.
The following is my comment on her blog post, I think you may find it valuable as well.
Hi Lois,
Enjoyed your thought-provoking post, and yet I respectfully disagree that Portfolio magazine’s choice of headlines/focus will hurt them.
If anything, I’d say it helps them more than it hurts, providing enough people are interested in the content.
Here’s why: as a copywriter and marketer, I often test headlines and sales collateral, and bottom-line — the focus of any sales material is to get people to respond.
And what gets people to respond more often than not is controversy and what some call a “negative” approach. I think you referred to it as an “anxiety” approach.
I’d be interested in what data anyone has that proves the anxiety approach once worked but no longer does, because I’ve not seen this trend in my testing with clients in different industries.
The “anxiety” approach always out-pulls its opposite.
I’m pretty sure the reason “the media” and “politicians” take this approach is because time after time, it gets peoples’ attention more often than not.
As the saying goes, “Controversy sells.”
Where you see “too much anxiety” I see smart marketing. Now philosophically and personally, I am inclined to the anti-anxiety approach and agree that we need more “how-to’s” and “aspirational” approaches.
However, when it’s my money on the line or the clients’, I put my personal philosophy to one side and write something for them (and me) that gets the response I’m being paid to produce.
With thousands to millions of dollars on the line, I’ve yet to see anyone opt for their personal philosophy over bottom-line results.
What say you?
And isn’t it a basic psychology axiom that “We will do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure”?
Like what you read? Then click here to buy me a coffee.
By Walter |
Topics: Client Top Secret, Pro Analysis |
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Comments
“pleasurable” it could be, once you had the widget? Do you think plucking the anxiety strings generates more sales than being aspirational?