The Creative Process

THE GEICO INSURANCE EXAMPLE

One of the best ways to grow market share is to continue marketing during an economic downturn...or dare we call it a recession.

While your competitors are busy stripping valuable funds from their marketing budgets, you can thrive by simply making adjustments to your marketing programs.

Direct mail is an excellent example.

Instead of mailing expensive packages, consider less expensive postcards, self-mailers, and envelope packages.

One such envelope package is the subject of this month's newsletter.

Like the majority of magazine ads, many of the direct mail packages we receive in our daily mail fail as direct response efforts.

Sure, they start with an outer envelope containing teaser copy. And inside we find a lengthy letter – perhaps four or more pages – a separate response coupon, a multi-panel brochure, perhaps another buckslip or lift note, and a business reply envelope (BRE).

You might call this a "fully loaded" package.

Although a lot of copy occupies these package components, they often fail to meet the standard AIDA steps or what copywriter Robert W. Bly labels “The Motivating Sequence.”

Even though these steps or formulae are readily available in any number of marketing books and on several websites, many marketers are either unaware of them or simply ignore them.

This week we are going to take a closer look at one very simple direct mail package that serves as an excellent example of a cost-effective direct response effort.

This #10 direct mail envelope package, which arrived at your editor’s home on December 11, 2007, is unique in at least two ways:

1. It contains only a single-page letter.
2. It adheres to Robert W. Bly’s “The Motivating
    Sequence” for copywriting.

Note the dramatic impact of the outer envelope shown on the right.

The bright yellow and black attention-getting offer appears to be envelope teaser copy but in reality is printed on the top right corner of the letter and is visible through a special die-cut window.

Both the personalization window and the oval teaser copy window are covered by either a polystyrene film or tricite liner on the inside of the envelope...providing additional protection for the contents.

The faux envelope teaser copy not only addresses a consumer need – lower auto insurance rates – but makes a big promise to California residents.

Opening the envelope, inside your editor discovered a single-page letter. Missing are the brochure, response device, and business reply envelope which are standard components of a traditional envelope package.

Fortunately, they are not required to make this package effective.

What’s impressive about this particular letter is that in approximately 250 words the copywriter has managed to successfully create an excellent example of a direct response letter that follows copywriter Robert W. Bly’s “The Motivating Sequence.”

Presented in the June issue, “The Motivating Sequence” is found in
Chapter 5 of Robert W. Bly’s 2002 book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Direct Marketing. Bly writes, “The copy in virtually all direct marketing promotions follows a well-established formula for persuasive writing known as ‘The Motivating Sequence.’ The steps are as follows:

1. “Get attention.
2. “Identify the problem or need.
3. “Position your product as the solution or answer.
4. “Prove your product is the best solution or answer.
5. “Ask for the order.”

Step number five is the call to action...where you tell consumers what it is you want them to do.

As mentioned in the June issue two months ago, “The Motivating Sequence” is simply a more detailed version of the famous AIDA marketing principle, taught in Direct Marketing 101. AIDA provides the basic steps marketers must follow to persuade a prospect to become a customer:

Attention – get attention
Interest – generate interest
Desire – create desire
Action – ask for action

GET ATTENTION

Killing two birds with one stone, the copywriter demands, and gets, the prospect’s attention with six words on what appears to be a yellow sticky note. On the top of the letter it becomes an example of a Johnson Box. But visible through the die-cut window in the envelope, it becomes envelope teaser copy.

Kudos to the copywriter and graphic designer.

With six short words the copywriter manages to address the prospect’s need – lower insurance rates – while making her a big promise of new, lower rates in California.

By the way, these six words also serve as the all-important headline.

IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM OR NEED

As stated above, what members of the target audience need is relief from high auto insurance rates in California. This problem/need is stated quickly upfront in the combination OSE teaser copy/letter Johnson Box. And repeated in the first two paragraphs of letter copy.

POSITION THE PRODUCT AS THE SOLUTION OR ANSWER

The copywriter used the third paragraph with three bullet points to quickly position GEICO’s new, lower rate auto insurance as the solution to the prospect’s problem.

He or she then reinforced this by adding two additional reasons in the sidebar.

PROVE YOUR PRODUCT IS THE BEST SOLUTION OR ANSWER

This was accomplished in the fifth paragraph by an actual testimonial from a satisfied customer living just south of Sacramento in the town of Galt, CA. Providing the customer’s location adds additional credibility to the testimonial.

Of course, with additional marketing dollars, the marketing folks at GEICO could have added a buckslip containing additional testimonials. Most likely they’ve tested this and found it unnecessary.

ASK FOR THE ORDER

It’s here where the copywriter left nothing to chance. Knowing how critical it is to ask for the order by telling the prospect what to do, the copywriter asks for the order four times – twice in the letter, once in the P.S. and at the bottom of the photograph sidebar.

Why this is important is that it enables a prospect to stop reading and immediately make the call or visit the website without having to finish reading the entire letter...should she wish to do so.

While this very concise letter appears to be something that even a beginning copywriter could crank out, such is not the case. Only a very experienced, professional copywriter could pack this much information in 250 words and accompanying photos.

This direct mail letter is an excellent example of why companies should use direct response experts, and not general media agency personnel or in-house marketing generalists, to develop direct mail and other marketing materials where the goal is to maximize the volume of immediate sales.

As a marketer, knowing the AIDA steps and Bly’s “The Motivating Sequence” enables you to quickly determine if the ads and direct mail packages you are asked to review and approve will accomplish their mission of grabbing your customers’ and prospects’ attention, get them to read the copy, and make a purchase decision.

After all, isn’t the primary goal of marketing to sell stuff...especially during recessionary times?

MARKETING DURING AN ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

Don’t cut your marketing and advertising expenditures during a downturn or recession.

This advice comes from one of the most famous and successful men in advertising – David Ogilvy in his 1985 book, Ogilvy on Advertising.

According to Ogilvy, “What should you do in times of recession, when you need every penny to sustain your earnings? Stop advertising?

“If you stop advertising a brand which is still in its introductory phase, you will probably kill it – forever. Studies of the last six recessions have demonstrated that companies which do not cut back their advertising budgets achieve greater increases in profit than companies which do cut back.

“In a Morril survey of 40,000 men and women involved in the purchase of 23 industrial products over five years, it was found that share-of-market went up in bad times – when advertising was continued.

“I have come to regard advertising as part of the product, to be treated as a production cost, not a selling cost. It follows that it should not be cut back when times are hard, any more than you would stint any other essential ingredient in your product.

“During World War II, the British Government prohibited the marketing of margarine under brand names, but Unilever continued to advertise one of their brands during all the years it was not on the retailers’ shelves. When the war ended and brands returned, the Unilever brand emerged at the top of the heap.

“Keynes (the economist John Maynard Keynes) might have advised manufacturers not to advertise during boom times, but instead to set aside the money in a reserve for advertising during recessions.”

In the two charts to the right, you'll discover that during the 1974-1975 recessionary period, those companies that DID NOT CUT their marketing and advertising expenses increased both their sales and net income compared to competitors who CUT their marketing budgets

Further proof of the need to maintain – or even increase – your current level of marketing and advertising spending during a recessionary period is available on the MacTech magazine website.

The article, "Recessions Provide a Perfect Opportunity for Advertising to Do Its Job," covers the 1981-1982 recession. The article includes two charts covering the five year period of 1980-1985. The first chart is titled "Comparison of Sales & Ad Expenditures" while the second chart is titled "Comparison of Net Income & Ad Expenditures."

Like the charts to the right, these charts show that companies that maintained their marketing and advertising expenditures during the recession experienced significant sales and net income growth when compared to companies that CUT their marketing expenditures during the same period.

The article concludes by stating, "A series of six studies conducted by the research firm of Meldrum & Fewsmith showed conclusively that advertising aggressively during recessions not only increases sales but increases profits. This fact has held true for all post-WWII recessions studied by American Business Press starting in 1949."

The facts speak for themselves.

To grow your market share and increase sales and net income during these tough economic times, DO NOT CUT YOUR MARKETING BUDGET.