I’m sure many of you remember the now legendary skit from the first season of Saturday Night Live which featured Dan Akroyd as a TV pitchman promoting the “Bass-O-Matic ‘76”, a blender for liquefying your favorite catch.
It was modeled, of course, on the classic TV sales pitch that can still be seen today (Snuggie, anyone?). That pitch was, in turn, based upon the founding tenets of advertising codified by Elias St. Elmo Lewis in his famous A-I-D-A teaching (Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action).
Google the guy, you’ll love it.
Anyway, the classic pitch was developed (and is still used) because it works. And it works because it does the following:
- It immediately states a familiar problem in terms the audience can relate to. This not only gets their attention, it demonstrates a certain empathy on the part of the spokesman.
“How many times has this happened to you? You have a bass. You’re trying to find an exciting new way to prepare it for dinner. You could scale the bass, remove the bass’s tail, head and bones, and serve the fish as you would any other fish dinner.” - It then claims to solve the problem, making the audience curious about how.
“But why bother now that you can use Rovco’s amazing new kitchen tool, The Super Bass-O-Matic 76! Yes, fish eaters, the days of troublesome scaling, gutting and cutting are over, because Super Bass-O-Matic ’76 is the tool that lets you use the whole bass with no fish waste, without scaling gutting or cutting. - It then shows exactly how the solution works, and provides validation and credibility by using testimonial.
“Catch a bass, remove the hook, and drop the bass – that THE WHOLE BASS – into the Super Bass-O-Matic ’76. Now adjust the control dial so that that bass is blended just the way you like it. Yes, it’s just that simple.
[Testimonial Actress] “Wow, that’s terrific bass!” - It tells the audience how easy it is for you to get the same benefits and lays a simple call to action right at their feet.
“We’ve got fish here fast and easy and ready to pour. Bassomatic 76 come with ten interchangeable rotors, a nine month guarantee, and a booklet, “1001 Ways To Harness Bass”.
Super-Bass-O-Matic ’76 – works great on sunfish, perch, sole, and other small aquatic creatures.
Super-Bass-O-Matic ’76 – it’s clean, simple and after five of ten fish, it gets to be quite a rush!
Super-Bass-O-Matic ’76 – you’ll never have to scale, cut, or gut again.
Order again: Pier 25 New York New York.
This is what your content is supposed to do – it’s the process that every explainer video, whitepaper, testimonial, webinar, etc., should be supporting.
So why do so many companies focus almost exclusively on #3 (above) with endless amounts of content about their product – almost to the exclusion of anything else?
I think there’s two main reasons for that.
- Technology companies love their own products and want to talk about them. Also, if you breathe your own exhaust long enough, you assume everybody will love your product as much as you do and will immediately see the value…if they would only stop and look at it.
- Many companies don’t know or don’t consider their customers’ problems. Not really. They may know everything about the functional deficiencies of that they fix, but I’ve found very few who really ask why their customers buy things - what they feel about the problem, how it affects their career and perception within their company, how fixing it would make them feel. Feelings matter A LOT in early stage content, because you have to establish yourself as being sympathetic to your customer’s real (as opposed to functional) needs.
I direct the creation and production of a lot of content for a pretty wide array of companies, and the effectiveness of any content plan always comes down to knowing your customer well enough to do great storytelling up front that drives them look at a solution.
Order now, supplies are limited.
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