<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta name=Title content="ACTON, Ltd"> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <title>ACTON, Ltd</title> <style> <!-- h1 { page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Times; color:windowtext; font-weight:bold; } p.MsoCommentText, li.MsoCommentText, div.MsoCommentText { font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; } span.MsoCommentReference { font-size:8.0pt; } a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; } a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single } p { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black; } p.BalloonText, li.BalloonText, div.BalloonText { font-size:8.0pt; font-family:Tahoma; color:windowtext; } p.style4, li.style4, div.style4 { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; color:windowtext; } p.style5, li.style5, div.style5 { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; font-weight:bold; } span.style71 { font-size:10.5pt; } p.unnamed1style4style7, li.unnamed1style4style7, div.unnamed1style4style7 { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; } span.heading1 { font-size:8.5pt; color:red; text-decoration:none; text-underline:none; text-decoration:none; text-line-through:none; font-weight:bold; } span.boldheading1 { font-size:8.5pt; color:black; text-decoration:none; text-underline:none; text-decoration:none; text-line-through:none; font-weight:bold; } p.CommentSubject, li.CommentSubject, div.CommentSubject { font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; font-weight:bold; } --> </style> </head> <body bgcolor=#FFFFFF lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><b>The Leading Online Newsletter for Marketing Education</b></span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:20.0pt;color:blue'><b><i>ACTON Marketing, LLC Update</i></b></span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;color:blue'><a href="http://www.actonfs.com/">www.actonfs.com</a></span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>Volume 5, No. 2, Monday, January 14, 2008</p> <div style='border:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt'> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'>This is a serious educational newsletter devoted to the subject of marketing.&nbsp; You can quickly and easily expand your marketing knowledge by devoting less than 30 minutes a week to reading the four articles included in each issue.&nbsp; By printing an issue, you can read it at your leisure.&nbsp; For those who wish to read only certain articles of interest, use the table of contents as a guide.&nbsp; So you can explore topics in greater depth, we include references that will lead you to additional resources.&nbsp; Our goal is to make each of us a better marketer.</p> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'>&#8220;Employ your time in improving yourself by other men&#8217;s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.&#8221;&nbsp; &#8212; Socrates</p> </div> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8220;It&#8217;s the offer, stupid.&nbsp; If performance isn&#8217;t what it should be, check the offer first.&#8221;<br> &#8212; &nbsp;&nbsp;Bob Hacker, direct response expert</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p>Inside this issue </p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>Marketing to Women &#8211;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> Apparently most women can&#8217;t stand &#8220;supermom&#8221; as you&#8217;ll learn in this week&#8217;s article.</span></p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>The Creative Process &#8211;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> In the process of pondering a &#8220;swimming with the dolphins activity&#8221; for his family, one veteran copywriter discovered some tips for creating and presenting an offer.&nbsp; &nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>Marketing Insights &#8211;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> You probably dismissed or ignored this seemingly out-of-place 2006 Super Bowl ad.&nbsp; But you may change your mind about it after reading Denny Hatch&#8217;s insight on Super Bowl ads . . . what works and why? </span></p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>Ask ACTON &#8211;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> Discover how one client heightened the desire for its free, new accounts gift by following the unusual marketing advice of Professor Theodore Levitt and Elmer Wheeler. </span></p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>Banking Memorabilia &#8211;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> They were designed to look like miniature, leather-bound books but instead of containing a story they are used to hold spare change. </span></p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>Why Read the Newsletter &#8211; </b><span style='font-weight:normal'>Advice from David Ogilvy, one of the most famous names in advertising.</span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Marketing to Women</i></b></span></p> <p>Avoid the &#8220;supermom&#8221; stereotype if you are developing or already using a marketing to women strategy.</p> <p>Why?&nbsp; It <i>doesn&#8217;t</i><span style='font-style:normal'> work as first pointed out by Marti Barletta in her 2003 book and again a few months ago.</span></p> <p>The article by Lenore Skenazy, &#8220;That supermom in your ad?&nbsp; Real moms can&#8217;t stand her,&#8221; appeared in the October 29, 2007 issue of <i>Advertising Age</i><span style='font-style:normal'>.</span></p> <p>Skenazy writes, &#8220;&#8216;THIS CAR WANTS to jump OFF Mount Washington.&#8217;&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the bumper sticker Patty Konjoian came up with as she and her sister were penning their book and website, &#8216;Shut Up About Your Perfect Kid Already.&#8217;&nbsp; While they were inspired by their own children&#8217;s challenges &#8211; one has Asperger&#8217;s, one has bipolar disorder &#8211; they were surprised by the grateful response they&#8217;ve been getting across the board.&nbsp; [You can visit their website at <a href="http://www.shutupaboutyourperfectkid.com/">http://www.shutupaboutyourperfectkid.com</a>.]</p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;What we didn&#8217;t realize was that a lot of people with quote unquote &#8220;average&#8221; kids would say, &#8220;You know, I can relate to this because my kid is not a Rhodes Scholar,&#8221;&#8217; Konjoian says.&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;The truth hit them like a ton of underachievers:&nbsp; <i>Most</i><span style='font-style: normal'> of us are sick of perfect kids and perfect parents and, worst of all, those paragons of perfection &#8211; supermoms (if anyone could ever stand them in the first place.&nbsp; Wasn&#8217;t unspoken anti-perfectionism what really sent Martha Stewart to the slammer?).&nbsp; In any event, we are now in the midst of a major Anti-Perfect-Mothering Moment.</span></p> <p>&#8220;For marketers, this means real moms are sick of seeing TV moms in clean cars and tight jeans with every hair &#8211; and kid &#8211; in place.&nbsp; If an advertiser really wants to win friends, it should show a wild-eyed mother wallowing in burger wrappers.&nbsp; (But it shouldn&#8217;t be Britney.)</p> <p>&#8220;Former Letterman [Dave Letterman] writer Jill Besnoy is at the front of the anti-perfection brigade.&nbsp; She created the website Honest Baby, where she sells baby products designed to put perfection in its place.&nbsp; [You can visit the site at <a href="http://www.honestbaby.com/">http://www.honestbaby.com</a>.]</p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;Not sleeping through the night,&#8217; reads one of the tiny T-shirts she created.&nbsp; &#8216;10<sup>th</sup> percentile,&#8217; announces yet another tee, as radical as the old &#8216;Black is Beautiful.&#8217;&nbsp; By proudly embracing the wee one&#8217;s smallness compared with 90% of other babies, it crushes any comparisons crazed supermoms are aching to make.</p> <p>&#8220;Plenty of parenting books are attempting to restore that same sanity.&nbsp; &#8216;Good Is Good Enough&#8217;; &#8216;Mommy Guilt:&nbsp; Learn to Worry Less, Focus on What Matters Most and Raise Happier Kids&#8217;; and, for dads, &#8216;Daddy Needs a Drink.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;Who Needs Perfect?&#8217; demanded the cover of a recent Hallmark Magazine.&nbsp; The article&#8217;s author, Karen Houpport, confessed to living in a rundown house she lacked the oomph to remodel.&nbsp; All she was looking for, she wrote, was &#8216;the courage to tackle the chaos, and the wisdom to accept the bathroom tiles I cannot change.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;To find these, she went to a lifestyle guru &#8211; the new kind, who teaches acceptance and meditation rather than shopping and makeovers &#8211; and there she had a revelation:&nbsp; Just as she had never judged any friend by the neatness of her home, no one worth knowing would judge her that way, either!</p> <p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a realization more and more people are coming to. </p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;I think years ago there was much more of a sense among young mothers that there was a need to do everything and be perfect,&#8217; says Hallmark Magazine&#8217;s editor, Lisa Beneson.&nbsp; Having formerly edited <i>Working Women</i><span style='font-style:normal'>, Beneson remembers when women were new to the workplace and felt they had to give 150% on all fronts.&nbsp; &#8216;Personally,&#8217; she says, &#8216;I spent years hand-making my children&#8217;s Halloween costumes until they were old enough to say, &#8220;You know, we&#8217;d prefer the store-bought ones.&#8221;&#8217;</span></p> <p>&#8220;Today&#8217;s moms look at that hyper-intensity and cringe.&nbsp; That&#8217;s not what parenting is about for them (unless they love sewing).</p> <p>&#8220;While parents will always compare and compete, now it&#8217;s a race to see who&#8217;s the most easygoing about their imperfect house, so-so parenting skills and average kids.</p> <p>&#8220;Of course, secretly they will still consider those average kids exceptionally lovable.&nbsp; The world hasn&#8217;t changed that much.&#8221;</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Marti Barletta on Supermom</b></span></p> <p>Marketing to women expert Marti Barletta addressed the <i>supermom</i><span style='font-style:normal'> fantasy in her 2003 book, <b><u>Marketing to Women - How to Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the World&#8217;s Largest Market Segment</u></b></span>.</p> <p>In Chapter 9, &#8220;Go!&nbsp; Communications That Connect,&#8221; Barletta provides seven <i>recommendations</i><span style='font-style:normal'> marketers should follow when portraying women in marketing materials.&nbsp; </span></p> <p>1.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Beyond &#8220;respect&#8221; to &#8220;understanding&#8221;</p> <p>2.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Better real than ideal</p> <p><b>3.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></b><b>Coping with chaos</b></p> <p>4.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Cast more women who aren&#8217;t 20-year-old glamour goddesses</p> <p>5.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Choose your spokesperson wisely</p> <p>6.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Reflect the new definition of beauty</p> <p>7.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Tap into the &#8220;girlfriend factor&#8221;</p> <p>Supermoms were addressed in recommendation number three.</p> <p><span style='font-family:Arial'><b>&#8220;Coping with chaos.</b></span><b> </b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&nbsp;Today&#8217;s woman copes cheerfully with chaos (usually).&nbsp; She has to.&nbsp; She normally has a full-time job, primary responsibility for managing her household, and plenty of church, school, and community activities to amuse her in her &#8216;spare time.&#8217;&nbsp; </span></p> <p>&#8220;The part a lot of advertisers haven&#8217;t caught up with is that women no longer feel torn with guilt at not being supermom.&nbsp; Their houses aren&#8217;t spotless, their kids are sometimes mouthy, and more often than they&#8217;d like they have a bad hair day.&nbsp; And that&#8217;s OK:&nbsp; they&#8217;re fine with it.&nbsp; It&#8217;s advertisers who apparently live on Planet Perfect, and when women visit there, they don&#8217;t recognize a soul.&#8221;</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>The Website and the Book</b></span></p> <p>You can hone your marketing to women skills by spending time on a website like the one at <a href="http://www.shutupaboutyourperfectkid.com/">http://www.shutupaboutyourperfectkid.com</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp; Sisters Gina Gallagher and Patricia Konjoian have created an interactive website where visitors can read a blog, share stories and participate in interactive contests.&nbsp; Registration is free.</p> <p>While on the site, you may want to order a copy of their book, <b><u>Shut Up About Your Perfect Kid</u></b><span style='font-weight: normal'>, which hit the bookstores on February 1, 2007.&nbsp; It&#8217;s available new in paperback for $15.95.&nbsp; For you amazon.com aficionados, it can be purchased for the discounted price of $10.85.&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Marketing to Women </b></span></p> <p>If you&#8217;re still not comfortable with developing a marketing to women strategy for your company, everything you need to know can be found in three, easy-to-read books.</p> <p>Marti Barletta&#8217;s third book, <b><u>PrimeTime Women: &nbsp;How to Win the Hearts, Minds, and Business of Boomer Big Spenders</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, was published on January 2, 2007 and is currently available in hardcover for $16.50 at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">http://www.amazon.com</a>.&nbsp; </span></p> <p>By reading both the first and second editions of Barletta&#8217;s book, <b><u>Marketing to Women - How to Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the World&#8217;s Largest Market Segment</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, you will be equipped to develop a marketing strategy that will resonate with women &#8211; including PrimeTime Women.</span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>__________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>The Creative Process</i></b></span></p> <p>It&#8217;s the offer, stupid!</p> <p>So says direct mail legend Bob Hacker in his quote at the top of today&#8217;s newsletter.</p> <p>Freelance copywriter Gary Hennerberg offers some advice for arriving at your &#8220;best&#8221; offer in his article, &#8220;Their Best Offer Yet!&nbsp; Only $11.72 a Minute to Swim With the Dolphins,&#8221; which appeared in the September 17, 2007 issue of the free, online newsletter from AWAI, <i>The Golden Thread</i><span style='font-style:normal'>.</span></p> <p>Hennerberg writes, &#8220;Vacations should be uncomplicated.&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;There should be an &#8216;easy&#8217; button next to every decision you have to make.</p> <p>&#8220;So how complicated should choices &#8211; or, in direct-response parlance, offers &#8211; be for a tourist?</p> <p>&#8220;In American culture, the offer must be simple to succeed in selling.&nbsp; And if there must be options, the number of options should be quickly narrowed down.</p> <p>&#8220;I like two or three choices, max.&nbsp; Things like:</p> <ul type=disc> <li>&#8220;Good Value, Best Value</li> <li>&#8220;Good, Better, Best</li> <li>&#8220;Yes, No, Maybe</li> <li>&#8220;Add-ons for a few bucks.</li> </ul> <p>&#8220;These are proven to work.&nbsp; But apparently this concept hasn&#8217;t been introduced south of the U.S. border.</p> <p>&#8220;The first morning of our vacation in Mexico, my wife and two daughters talked with David, a tour salesperson, about swimming with dolphins.&nbsp; We were in Tulum, about 75 minutes south of Cancun, a tropical paradise.</p> <p>&#8220;David told us a trip to the dolphins can be done on its own or combined with other tours.</p> <p>&#8220;There were six potential locations nearby.</p> <p>&#8220;We could choose to spend 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or 60 minutes with the dolphins.</p> <p>&#8220;We could, for an extra fee, spend time with sea lions and manatees in addition to the dolphins.</p> <p>&#8220;I asked David to write our options on paper.&nbsp; He obliged.&nbsp; But my head started to spin.&nbsp; The prices quoted were $89, $98, $139, and $149.&nbsp; Per person.&nbsp; For up to an hour.</p> <p>&#8220;I turned to my wife and asked her if she understood his notes on what seemed to be a zillion options.&nbsp; She said yes.&nbsp; But she really meant no, and I could tell.&nbsp; That&#8217;s when we got up and left and said we&#8217;d come back another day.</p> <p>&#8220;So this got me to thinking how Mexican tour operators might sell more tours if they would just make the decision-making process easier.&nbsp; After all, in direct response we know that the easier the offer is to comprehend, the more likely it is that we make the sale.</p> <p>&#8220;After writing and overseeing around 100 million pieces of mail over the years, here is my short list of what has worked when you must make multiple offers:</p> <p>&#8220;1. Good and Great</p> <p>&#8220;For an insurance client of mine, the current long-standing control has two offers.&nbsp; We positioned one as &#8216;a good value&#8217; and the higher-cost offer as &#8216;a great value.&#8217;&nbsp; It&#8217;s been highly successful.&nbsp; (The complete package beat a long-standing control by 60%.) </p> <p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve done the same thing for a publishing client with a one-year vs. two-year subscription, where the two-year subscription was virtually free because of gift cards for food and drinks that the subscriber received.</p> <p>&#8220;Bottom line:&nbsp; Name each offer &#8211; e.g., &#8216;good&#8217; or &#8216;great&#8217; &#8211; and show them why &#8216;great&#8217; is better than &#8216;good.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;2. Good, Better, Best</p> <p>&#8220;I like three choices.&nbsp; So for that same insurance client, we tested three benefit amounts and called the lowest &#8216;good,&#8217; the middle amount &#8216;better,&#8217; and the highest benefit (with a lower cost per thousand of insurance) &#8216;best.&#8217;&nbsp; Response increased about 15% over the &#8216;good&#8217; and &#8216;great&#8217; offers.</p> <p>&#8220;Bottom line:&nbsp; Most consumers migrate to &#8216;best&#8217; offers, so don&#8217;t be afraid to position (and deliver) one.</p> <p>&#8220;3. Bundling</p> <p>&#8220;A food-by-mail client wanted to sell more coffee.&nbsp; For a few years, we simply offered the coffee as a standalone product.&nbsp; But then, one holiday season we said, &#8216;Duh.&nbsp; Why aren&#8217;t we bundling it with the desserts?&#8217;&nbsp; Buy a cake for one price by itself, or add coffee for just $9.95.</p> <p>&#8220;As the gift, the coffee was far more impressive.&nbsp; Nearly 5% of customers added a package to their order.</p> <p>&#8220;Bottom line:&nbsp; Bundle small, seemingly inexpensive, items with a larger item and watch your average order grow.</p> <p>&#8220;4. Yes, No, or Maybe</p> <p>&#8220;I first used this type of offer about 20 years ago when I managed a children&#8217;s book club.&nbsp; A &#8216;yes&#8217; response meant the customers were committing themselves (but they could still return the books and cancel at any time).</p> <p>&#8220;We really didn&#8217;t want those saying &#8216;no&#8217; to respond, but having &#8216;no&#8217; as an option was essential to the entire proposition.&nbsp; It was the &#8216;maybes&#8217; that put us in the win column to beat the control.&nbsp; &#8216;Maybe&#8217; was, in effect, &#8216;yes&#8217; because the responder could return the books and cancel at any time.&nbsp; It was a way for the responder (usually the mother) to feel that she wasn&#8217;t definitely committing and that she &#8216;might&#8217; cancel.</p> <p>&#8220;Bottom line:&nbsp; If you can craft your offer so &#8216;maybe&#8217; is the same as &#8216;yes,&#8217; you can capture those who needed a little extra reassurance to make a decision.</p> <p>&#8220;5. Green, Red, Yellow</p> <p>&#8220;I add this one to the &#8216;yes, no, maybe&#8217; offer as a way to visually tie in the offer and add involvement.&nbsp; In this case, what could be more obvious for a children&#8217;s book club than a traffic light with green, red, and yellow stickers?&nbsp; So that&#8217;s what we did.</p> <p>&#8220;Bottom line:&nbsp; Stickers are great involvement devices for adults and children.&nbsp; It requires physical action to use them.&nbsp; And we&#8217;re conditioned to know that green means go, red means stop, and yellow gets our attention.</p> <p>&#8220;As for our dolphin tour experience, I suspect the Mexicans really do know what they&#8217;re doing &#8211; that total confusion can work.</p> <p>&#8220;You see, when we spend money to get somewhere on vacation . . . who wants to take less than the complete tour?&nbsp; And since most of us think that the most expensive price means it&#8217;s for the best product or experience . . . well, what the heck.&nbsp; It&#8217;s only money.</p> <p>&#8220;And I gotta give it to those tour operators.&nbsp; They know how to upsell.</p> <p>&#8220;Photos were extra.&nbsp; (No cameras were allowed.)&nbsp; We bought one photo of each daughter as they got their kiss from the dolphin.&nbsp; And we had to have the photo of the four of us, with dolphins jumping overhead.&nbsp; And we had to have the DVD (priceless seeing my 6&#8217; 8&#8221; body jettison through the water with two dolphins pushing me).</p> <p>&#8220;So the total for the one-hour experience?&nbsp; $703 (plus tips).&nbsp; Now, if David would have just said at the beginning that it would cost less than $12 a minute . . .&#8221;</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Learn More about Creating Offers That Work!</b></span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8220;Don&#8217;t even think about a letter without an offer.&nbsp; An offer will always improve your message, will always increase your response.&#8221;</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8212; Ray Jutkins, direct mail legend</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8220;If you want to dramatically increase your response, dramatically increase your offer.&#8221;</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8213; Axel Andersson</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8220;The right offer should be so attractive that only a lunatic would say &#8216;no.&#8217;&#8221;</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8213; Claude Hopkins</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8220;Strong offers, stated boldly, are the key to success.&#8221;</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8213; Bob Hacker</p> <p>A seven installment article on the importance of the offer appears under the <b><i>Ask ACTON</i></b><span style='font-weight:normal; font-style:normal'> topic in the March 20 through May 1, 2006 issues of this newsletter. </span></p> <p>Past issues of the ACTON Marketing, LLC newsletter are available free online at <a href="http://www.actonfs.com/newsletter_archive.php">http://www.actonfs.com/newsletter_archive.php</a>.</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>American Writers &amp; Artists Institute (AWAI)</b></span></p> <p>To learn more about the products and services offered by the American Writers &amp; Artists Institute, visit them online at <a href="http://www.awaionline.com/">http://www.awaionline.com</a>. &nbsp;Among their offerings are courses on copywriting, travel writing, resume writing, and graphic design.</p> <p>For more information on <i>The Golden Thread</i><span style='font-style:normal'> and to subscribe to your free copy, visit the website at <a href="http://www.awaionline.com/thegoldenthread/">http://www.awaionline.com/thegoldenthread/</a>.</span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Marketing Insights</i></b></span></p> <p>Ad watchers, get ready!</p> <p>Super Bowl XLII is just a couple of weeks away.&nbsp; </p> <p>As marketers, many of us pay more attention to the ads than the game . . . or halftime show.</p> <p>For some odd reason, over the years, Super Bowl ads have come to represent the <i>best</i><span style='font-style:normal'> that Madison Avenue has to offer.</span></p> <p>But are they the best?&nbsp; </p> <p>Do they actually work?</p> <p>Or have they simply become exercises in one-upmanship and creative genius with little regard to generating sales?</p> <p>After reading this week&#8217;s article, hopefully you&#8217;ll adjust your thinking when it comes to viewing and evaluating each of the $2.7 million, 30-second spots you&#8217;ll see on February 3.</p> <p>Information on one particular 2007 Super Bowl ad was the subject of Denny Hatch&#8217;s article, &#8220;The Incompetence of General Ad Agencies.&nbsp; What Happened to the Final &#8216;A&#8217; in AIDA?,&#8221; which appeared in the October 25, 2007 issue of his free, online newsletter <i>Denny Hatch&#8217;s Business Common Sense</i><span style='font-style:normal'>.</span></p> <p>We&#8217;ll pick up Hatch&#8217;s article at the following subhead:</p> <p>&#8220;<b>Remembering &#8216;AIDA</b><span style='font-weight: normal'>&#8217;</span></p> <p>Hatch writes, &#8220;In Direct Marketing 101, beginning students learn the basic steps needed to persuade a prospect to become a customer.&nbsp; This inviolable rule applies to direct mail, off-the-page-advertising, DRTV and radio, and the Internet.&nbsp; It all comes down to the acronym, AIDA.</p> <p>&#8220;<b>A</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>ttention</span></p> <p>&#8220;<b>I</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>nterest</span></p> <p>&#8220;<b>D</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>ecision</span></p> <p>&#8220;<b>A</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>ction</span></p> <p>&#8220;Where general advertising fails is in the Action phase.</p> <p>&#8220;If you have persuaded someone to buy &#8211; or donate or seek further information &#8211; it is imperative to have an action device so you can close the loop and consummate the transaction.&nbsp; An action device can take the form of an order form in a direct mail package, a coupon at the bottom of an ad, a cents-off coupon in an FSI [free standing insert], an 800-number or a hyper-link on a Web ad to click on.</p> <p>&#8220;With no action device, the ad will be instantly forgotten in the clutter of 3,000 other advertising messages the average consumer is hit with each day along with thousands of other interruptions in the ordinary business of living.</p> <p>&#8220;On the Internet, a simple click is not enough.&nbsp; A click may bring eyeballs, but only an offer will get action.</p> <p><b>&#8220;General Advertising vs. Direct Marketing and Vin Gupta&#8217;s Victory</b></p> <p>&#8220;General advertising is the business of creating awareness; direct marketing is about changing behavior by generating response.</p> <p>&#8220;Of the 64 spots on the 2007 Super Bowl TV show, only one advertiser changed behavior.&nbsp; Vin Gupta of infoUSA, who used an offer to get a response.</p> <p>&#8220;The offer:&nbsp; &#8216;For 100 free sales leads, go to salesgenie.com.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;Among the comments by the uppity, elitist critics reported by Eleanor Mills on c/Net news:</p> <p><i>&#8220;&#8216;I kept waiting for the punchline . . . and it never came.&nbsp; It was like a cheesy SNL parody,&#8217; wrote one commentator on YouTube.&nbsp; &#8216;Was this a college course marketing class project?&nbsp; (no disrespect to the undergrads).&nbsp; &#8220;How to blow 2 million in 30 seconds.&#8221;&nbsp; Inexcusably bad.&#8217;</i></p> <p><i>&#8220;Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield gave the ad two stars out of five, calling it &#8216;so monumentally brainless and amateurish it actually attracts attention &#8211; i.e., is this really a Super Bowl ad???&nbsp; No problem.&nbsp; The &#8220;Glengarry Glen Ross&#8221; crowd won&#8217;t downgrade for insipidness.&#8217;</i></p> <p><i>&#8220;&#8216;There has got to be more about it than just people watching it because there is so much clutter during the game,&#8217; said Matt Creamer, editor at large at Advertising Age magazine who called the Salesgenie.com a &#8216;low-rent ad.&#8217;</i></p> <p>&#8220;Gupta&#8217;s $3 million investment in the Super Bowl salesgenie.com ad was ranked absolutely last by the 238 volunteers assembled by <i>USA Today</i><span style='font-style:normal'> and given hand-held Ad Meters to rate the ads in real time as they ran.</span></p> <p>&#8220;Not reported:&nbsp; The salesgenie.com ad rated #1 in direct response, bringing 30,000 people to the infoUSA Web site, generating 2,100 phone calls and an additional 25,000 views on YouTube.</p> <p>&#8220;The Web traffic monitor, Hitwise, declared it to be &#8216;the third highest market share rise among the Super Bowl advertisers, after King Pharmaceuticals and Budweiser.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;Vin Gupta knew exactly what he was doing while America&#8217;s top advertisers and their smartypants agencies blew zillions of dollars showing off to each other and wound up not knowing squat.</p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;It&#8217;s the Offer, Stupid.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8212; Bob Hacker</p> <p>&#8220;In point of fact, any of the 30- or 60-second Super Bowl ads &#8211; or any other TV spots &#8211; could devote the last five seconds to the visual of a Web address and make a quick down-&#8216;n&#8217;-dirty offer.&nbsp; &#8216;Save $2&#8217; on Coca-Cola . . . &#8216;Free Barbecue Cookbook&#8217; from Budweiser . . . &#8216;$2,000 rebate and free Bose car stereo&#8217; from Toyota.</p> <p>&#8220;This would have brought in some feedback directly to the advertiser.&nbsp; No, it&#8217;s not perfect, but it beats by a long-shot the business of total reliance on a third party&#8217;s electronic analytics &#8211; which could be deeply flawed &#8211; to guess whether you are successful or not.</p> <p>&#8220;Further, in the epoch of viral advertising, Web and TV ads are forwarded all over the Internet and reside on YouTube.&nbsp; The use of the offer extends the reach and effectiveness of your message and incrementally improves your ROI.&#8221;</p> <p>You can view the salesgenie.com Super Bowl ad on YouTube at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/">www.YouTube.com</a>.&nbsp; Search on the key words &#8220;Sales Genie Sports Car jealous salesgenie.com superbowl ad.&#8221;</p> <p>As it relates to the majority of Super Bowl ads, perhaps financial marketing expert and author of the book, <b><u>Steal These Ideas</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, Steve Cone&#8217;s quote is appropriate:</span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8220;Most advertising is dull, and sometimes even stupid and insulting.&#8221;</p> <p>Yes, they may be entertaining, but that is <i>not</i><span style='font-style:normal'> the goal of expensive TV ads.&nbsp; </span></p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>90% of Super Bowl Ads Sold by End of October</b></span></p> <p>The title of the October 30, 2007 article posted on the <i>Advertising Age</i><span style='font-style:normal'> website reads, &#8220;Super Bowl Is 90% Sold Out.&#8221;</span></p> <p>Author Brian Steinberg writes, &#8220;Months before the first dip of a halftime-show buffalo wing, ad time for the Super Bowl is nearly sold out, according to people familiar with the situation. </p> <p>&#8220;One media buyer estimated News Corp.&#8217;s Fox has &#8216;less than 10, but more than five&#8217; 30-second spots left to sell.&nbsp; A person familiar with the situation said Fox has sold more than 90% of its ad time for the game.</p> <p><b>&#8220;Surprise timing</b></p> <p>&#8220;The timing comes as a surprise.&nbsp; Typically, networks have a few spots left as Game Day nears and usually have to sell them cheaply.&nbsp; Demand from automobile advertisers and movie studios, however, has driven the marketplace this year.&nbsp; The Super Bowl usually brings in one of the biggest audiences for a media event and is viewed as a showcase for Madison Avenue&#8217;s best work.</p> <p>&#8220;For some, the ads are as much a reason to tune in as the game itself.&nbsp;&nbsp; [Editor&#8217;s note:&nbsp; Actually it is no longer necessary to watch the game on Sunday to see the ads.&nbsp; Simply wait until Monday morning and you&#8217;ll be able to watch all of them on the Internet.&nbsp; Sites like <a href="http://www.msn.com/">www.msn.com</a> have links to the ads along with a chance to vote for the best ad.]</p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;Last year, you could have bought a sale in the 11<sup>th</sup> hour, and now it&#8217;s just weird to even consider that if you want to be in there, you&#8217;ve got to act in November,&#8217; said Jeff Gagne, VP-account director at Havas&#8217;s MPG, who oversees sports negotiations.</p> <p>&#8220;One potential result of the flurry of movie and car ads could be less time for some of the smaller advertisers who often produce the Super Bowl&#8217;s more offbeat commercials.&nbsp; More movie ads would also mean viewers would have to sit through more trailers and see fewer ads from other marketers tailored just for the event.</p> <p>&#8220;Given the demand, the network could seek more than full price for the remaining ad roosts.&nbsp; </p> <p><b>&#8220;Bonus:&nbsp; MySpace ads</b></p> <p>&#8220;Fox has been seeking as much as $2.7 million for a 30-second spot in next year&#8217;s [2008] game and now might seek more, according to a person familiar with the situation.</p> <p>&#8220;As a bonus this year, Fox has offered advertisers a chance to place ads on corporate sibling MySpace, and the network will run on-air promotions during the game that will urge viewers to visit the social-networking website.&nbsp; Advertisers will be able to offer different perks to those who watch the ads online, including coupons, links to other websites or the chance to see movie trailers.&#8221;</p> <p>It&#8217;ll be interesting to see how many advertisers actually use the MySpace opportunity to include an offer and call-to-action as part of their Super Bowl ads this year.</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Denny Hatch Speaks Out!</b></span></p> <p>Soon after the game is over, you can bet Denny Hatch will be commenting on this year&#8217;s Super Bowl ads in his free online newsletter, <i>Denny Hatch&#8217;s Business Common Sense.</i></p> <p>For your free subscription to Hatch&#8217;s online newsletter, visit the website at <a href="http://www.businesscommonsense.com/index.bsp#subscribe">http://www.businesscommonsense.com/index.bsp#subscribe</a>.</p> <div style='border:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt'> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'><b>ROI Insight </b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&#8212; It&#8217;s often difficult to determine the return on investment for a particular marketing program or campaign.&nbsp; It was first said by soap marketer Lord Leverhulme and later by John Wanamaker, the famous Philadelphia department store owner.&nbsp; Expanding on the observation, Wanamaker was once heard lamenting, &#8220;I know that half of my advertising is wasted, but I don&#8217;t know which half.&nbsp; I spent $2 million for advertising, and I don&#8217;t know if that is half enough or twice too much.&#8221;</span></p> </div> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span lang=ES-MX>___________________________________</span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span lang=ES-MX style='font-size:16.0pt;'><b><i>Ask ACTON!</i></b></span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8220;People don&#8217;t want to buy a quarter-inch drill.&nbsp; They want a quarter-inch hole.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8212;&nbsp;&nbsp; Theodore Levitt, Harvard Marketing Professor</p> <p>Over his long tenure at Harvard, Professor Levitt delivered this sage advice to his many marketing students.&nbsp; His goal was to get them to focus &#8211; not on the product &#8211; but on the job consumers needed to get done. </p> <p>Following Professor Levitt&#8217;s advice, a smart marketer realizes that people don&#8217;t need a 2-quart baking dish with an insulated carrier.&nbsp; What they need is a way to bake fresh breakfast rolls and keep them warm while transporting them to the office or family get-together.</p> <p>As you can see below, one of our smart marketing clients used Levitt&#8217;s advice to promote their free gift for opening a new checking account.</p> <p>Accompanying the standard self-mailer copy and photograph of the Pyrex 4-piece Insulated Food Carrier Set was a &#8220;special&#8221; recipe for tasty breakfast rolls. &nbsp;</p> <p><img border=0 width=432 height=547 src="Emailnewsletter5011408_files/image002.jpg" alt=" &#13;f&#13;&iquest;$&#13;X$&#13;&iquest;k&#13;(l&#13;l&#13;@&ordm;([0[&#8706;@&yuml;([0[&#8721;@&Ugrave;([0[&ordf;@)[0[&ordm;&#711;&#711;@,)[0[&#8486;" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025"></p> <p><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Shown above, on the right, is the first inside-reveal panel of a six-panel self-mailer.&nbsp; The partial panel on the left is the backside of the self-mailer cover.</span></p> <p>What makes this particular recipe so unique is that it was the winning recipe from among those submitted by the bank&#8217;s employees.&nbsp; It has been <i>modified</i><span style='font-style:normal'> to enhance the flavor of the prepackaged Frozen Rhodes Cinnamon Rolls.</span></p> <p>While preparing this self-mailer ACTON Marketing employees had an opportunity to test this award-winning recipe.&nbsp; One member of the creative team commented:&nbsp; &#8220;The added ingredients soak into the dough overnight and make a really rich-tasting concoction when the rolls are baked.&nbsp; I love sweets, but I wouldn&#8217;t try to eat more than one of those rolls.&#8221;</p> <p>There you have it . . . a glowing testimonial for the rolls and an excellent reason to focus on the job consumers need done when presenting your free gifts for opening new checking accounts.&nbsp; </p> <p>In the words of Elmer Wheeler, &#8220;Sell the sizzle, not the steak.&#8221;&nbsp; Wheeler was one of the best known and most successful salesmen during the Depression era.&nbsp; He went on to pen six books on salesmanship and marketing.</p> <p>So the next time you are pondering over the marketing copy for your free gift, consider what it is that your prospect really wants that your free gift can supply for her.</p> <div style='border:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt'> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'><b><i>Ask ACTON</i></b><span style='font-weight:normal;font-style:normal'> is a weekly feature of our Marketing Update E-Letter.&nbsp; If you have a marketing question you would like answered, please submit it to Shirley Sluka at <a href="mailto:sluka@actonfs.com">sluka@actonfs.com</a>.&nbsp; We make every effort to answer all questions in the weekly E-Letter so all of our client subscribers can share in the vast knowledge of the ACTON Marketing team.</span></p> </div> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><img border=0 width=225 height=86 src="Emailnewsletter5011408_files/image004.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1026"></p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Say &#8220;Goodbye&#8221; to Snooty Account People and Employee Turnover</b></span></p> <p>When it comes to your marketing partners, it&#8217;s all about the relationship.</p> <p>And nowhere is the relationship more critical than in the heat of the marketing battle.&nbsp; It&#8217;s here we experience changing deadlines, last minute creative tweaks, print quantity adjustments, additional disclosure copy from legal, last-minute feedback, and an assortment of other mini-disasters that threaten the project.</p> <p>During these panic phone calls, there&#8217;s nothing more reassuring than the sound of a friendly, familiar voice on the other end of the phone. </p> <p>This is what our clients experience when calling any member of ACTON Marketing&#8217;s account services team.&nbsp; The same team members have been helping our clients for <i>many</i><span style='font-style:normal'> years.</span></p> <p>Unlike the staff turnover and churn at many agencies, ACTON Marketing prides itself on creating and maintaining a stimulating work environment that results in very long-term employment for our staff. </p> <p>We understand the importance of delivering consistent service.&nbsp; This is only possible with a highly trained, experienced, dedicated staff of marketing professionals.</p> <p>For more details about putting the ACTON Marketing team to work for you, give George Monnier a call today at <span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>402-470-2909</b></span>.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>__________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Banking Memorabilia</i></b></span></p> <p>Perhaps the most common of the old coin banks is the faux book bank like the four shown below.</p> <p>Designed to resemble a classic book, these metal banks were covered in a faux leather-like cover to give them the look and feel of an old classic, right down to the embossed covers front and back. </p> <p>To enhance the book-like appearance, many of these banks include a book-like name and volume number on the spine.&nbsp; For example, the spine on the Bank of America bank on the right reads at the top:&nbsp; &#8220;The Way To Save&#8221; while &#8220;Vol 1&#8221; appears at the bottom.</p> <p>It&#8217;s possible to date this book design to the early 1900s as the oldest bank on the far left identifies the maker as the Bankers Utilities Company, San Francisco, PAT APPLD FOR on the bottom.&nbsp; The two banks on the right came a bit later as they are marked on the bottom as Bankers Utilities Co., San Francisco, PATENTED JULY 3, 1923.</p> <p>An extra wide coin slot always appears on the top of the bank to accommodate any size coins and paper money.&nbsp; Some of these banks also include a small hole where rolled bills can be inserted.</p> <p>Every bank comes with a key which enables the saver to open the bank to remove the money.&nbsp; The key goes into a keyhole situated in the middle of the bank on the side opposite the spine.</p> <p>As you can see below, there are three different sizes for these banks.&nbsp; While the Farmers &amp; Mechanics bank on the left measures 5 &frac14;&#8221; x 3 &frac12;&#8221;, the smallest Bank of America bank measures 4&#8221; x 3 &#8539;&#8221;.</p> <p>As you might expect from viewing the four banks below, over the many years they were popular, the designs varied from the plain to the much desired Art Deco style.</p> <p>Because of the variety of styles and the sheer number of these banks, they have become a very popular collectible, with many collections numbering in the high hundreds to the thousands.</p> <p>Not only were these popular book banks given away by traditional banks, you can find these banks promoting almost anything including Electrolux Vacuum Cleaners, Singer Sewing Machines, New York Life Insurance Company, and Jack &amp; Jill, to name a few.</p> <p><img border=0 width=431 height=323 src="Emailnewsletter5011408_files/image006.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1027"></p> <p>It&#8217;s not too late to start your own collection of these miniature book-like banks.&nbsp; They can be found at antique stores, flea markets, estate sales, and, of course, on eBay.&nbsp; Simply search using the keywords &#8220;book coin bank&#8221; and &#8220;bank advertising.&#8221;</p> <p>Good luck. </p> <p>Banking memorabilia presented in this newsletter are from your editor&#8217;s growing collection. </p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>__________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Why Read The Newsletter?</i></b></span></p> <div style='border:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt'> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'>The answer to this question was best provided by advertising great David Ogilvy.&nbsp; According to Ogilvy, &#8220;I once asked Sir Hugh Rigby, Surgeon to King George V, &#8216;What makes a great surgeon?&#8217;&nbsp; Sir Hugh replied, &#8216;There isn&#8217;t much to choose between surgeons in manual dexterity.&nbsp; What distinguishes the great surgeon is that he <i>knows</i><span style='font-style:normal'> more than other surgeons.&#8217;&nbsp; It is the same with advertising agents.&nbsp; The good ones </span><i>know</i><span style='font-style:normal'> more.</span></p> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'>&#8220;I asked an indifferent copywriter what books he had read about advertising.&nbsp; He told me that he had not read any; he preferred to rely on his own intuition.&nbsp; &#8216;Suppose,&#8217; I asked, &#8216;your gall-bladder has to be removed this evening.&nbsp; Will you choose a surgeon who has read some books on anatomy and knows where to find your gall-bladder, or a surgeon who relies on his intuition?&nbsp; Why would our clients be expected to bet millions of dollars on your intuition?&#8217;&#8221;&nbsp; From the book, <b><u>Ogilvy on Advertising</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, by David Ogilvy.</span></p> </div> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Past Issues of the Newsletter</i></b></span></p> <p>All past issues of the ACTON Marketing, LLC newsletter are available online at <a href="http://www.actonfs.com/newsletter_archive.php">http://www.actonfs.com/newsletter_archive.php</a>.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p>ALL CONTENTS OF THIS E-LETTER ARE COPYRIGHT 2008 BY ACTON MARKETING, LLC.&nbsp; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&nbsp; REPRODUCING ANY PART OF THIS DOCUMENT IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF ACTON MARKETING, LLC.</p> <p>Protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq., Title 18 U.S.C. Section 2319):&nbsp; Infringements can be punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p>Please note:&nbsp; We sent this e-mail to you because you are a valued ACTON client.&nbsp; If you wish to unsubscribe to future email newsletters, click the link at the end of the email.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p>You may contact ACTON Marketing, LLC by calling 402-470-2909, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm (CT).&nbsp; Or write to us at:</p> <p>ACTON Marketing, LLC</p> <p>3401 N.W. 39<sup>th</sup> Street</p> <p>Lincoln, NE&nbsp; 68524</p> <p>If you wish to <u>unsubscribe</u> from ACTON Marketing&#8217;s newsletter, please send an email to:&nbsp; <a href="mailto:newsletter_unsubscribe@actonfs.com">newsletter_unsubscribe@actonfs.com</a>, placing the word &#8220;remove&#8221; in the subject line.</p> </div> </body> </html>