Creativity Is The Key To Marketing That Sells
By Kahlia Hannah   ©2004 All Rights Reserved

By the time I graduated from college, I had gone through enough classes and internships to gain a better perspective on the world of marketing. I even started seeing a relationship between ordinary, non-marketing related information, and began using those ideas to develop my marketing plans.

In Aristotle's Ethics, the great philosopher ponders the depths of human nature and concludes that we, as humans, naturally desire what is good. Of course, with this desire comes what Aristotle believes is the "highest faculty" of humans-- that we have the ability to reason. Let's say that your prospective customer sits down to a cup of coffee and the morning paper, and comes across your ad on the third page of the business section. He does have an interest in whatever it is you are selling, but he knows that there are plenty of manufacturers of this particular product. According to Aristotle's philosophy, your prospect would naturally want the best manufacturer's product, and he will then go through certain degrees of reasoning before he concludes where he will take his business. If you want your prospect to even notice your ad, the first thing to do is tap into your creative flow. There is a simple plan that can be followed to ensure that you will find a creative strategy that is right for you. Pretend you have a business that makes tortilla chips. Figure out the purpose of your commercial and who your target audience will be: The purpose of Tiny Tortilla's Chips is to convince a target audience, women between the ages of 18 and 45, that Tiny's Fat Free Baked Tortilla Chips are the best tasting, healthiest tortilla chips on the market. (This is the purpose of your creative message.) This will be accomplished by showing random blind fold taste tests throughout malls in America. (This is how you will achieve your purpose.) The tone of the commercial will be enthusiastic, happy, and fun. (This hints at the personality of the actual product.) This is a great start for a commercial, but where do you go from here? First find the inherent drama involved with your product. I'm not talking daytime television here, more along the lines of interesting. Lots of people like tortilla chips, and with today's emphasis on fitness and healthful eating, great taste without the fat is a great stress point. People buy benefits, not products-- the nick free silky smoothness of a twenty dollar disposable razor, or the convenience of never, ever having to miss a call with call waiting, caller ID, and call forwarding packages are a few examples. These benefits have to be believable, however, or people will not be convinced. You could say, "Tiny's Fat Free Tortilla Chips offer all the taste and half the fat of the leading competitor, and we're willing to back that with a no questions asked money back guarantee." Having the advertisement captivate the audience is crucial, but only in a certain way. If your ad is more interesting than the product, you've failed, but if the advertisement doesn't live up to the excitement of the product, it won't entice viewers or readers to pay attention. You can make your ad interesting enough to pay attention to by motivating your audience to do something. Tell them exactly what to do-- go to the store, call my hotline, buy my chips, or ask for my product by name. Above all, communicate clearly. Make sure you make sense, because even if you know what you're talking about, not everyone will. If you gain understand your strategy, and begin to appeal to people's innate longing for good, you will probably come up with a great commercial or ad to kick start your sales.

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KAHLIA HANNAH provides marketing advice and popular promotion packages. See her low-cost direct marketing and PR deals at http://MarketingHelp.NET Reach Kahlia at kahlia@drnunley.com or 801-328-9006.

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