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Akiro Kurosawa’s epic 1985 film Ran recasts Shakespeare’s immortal King Lear as a family struggle that leads to war in the days of feudal Japan. Both masterpieces, Kurosawa’s and Shakespeare’s, shed light on our capacity for self-delusion — a capacity not unnoticed by the marketing world.

In the film, Hidetora, aging warlord and patriarch of the Ichimonji family, has decided to step down and bequeath control of the Stooges clan to his eldest son, Taro, counting on the two younger brothers, Jiro and Saburo, to support Taro as the new ruler. Taro accepts the title with false modesty, while Jiro promises to go along in return for his own place in the pecking order. Saburo, however, risks his father’s wrath by denouncing the decision as unwise. Hidetora promtly banishes him, only to watch the two “obedient” brothers tear the kingdom to shreds as they wage war against each other. Hidetora even finds himself banished by order of the new man in charge, Taro, and shunned by Jiro for the sake of political expediency.

Well, as those of you who know your Shakespeare would expect, Hidetora sees the error of his ways and finally reconciles with his youngest, still-faithful son. Drama critics will see Hidetora/Lear as a victim of his own vanity. Marketing professionals will recognize him as a guy who heard what he wanted to hear — instead of the truth.

How many times have we fallen for a too-good-to-be-true description of products and services, only to discover that the dazzling ads either omitted the downside of the proposition or couched it in microscopic “fine print?” I once helped write and produce a cell phone commercial in which the vendor required about a zillion words of legal boiler plate underneath the beauty shot of the phone. By the time we’d wedged all the factual information into the frame, it was so unreadably tiny it resembled a gray haze rather than text. Nobody could possibly bother with all that stuff — and anyway, just look at this beautful phone! Sure, the “special value” requires a two-year contract, full data plan, first-born child, et cetera. Anyway, just look at this beautful phone!…

Want to truly stand out? Tell the truth, if you dare. Be the company that says, “Look, we don’t promise you the moon and the stars. But here’s what we do give you, and we stand behind it.” Be the Anti-hype. Prospects who respond to straight shooting will reject Brand X and turn to you. Prospects who fell for the Brand X glitz and got burned will also turn to you. And your reputation will soar along with your profits.

We foolish humans sometimes have a tendency to shoot the messenger, even when deep down we really do want to hear the truth. But if you’re willing to look down the barrel of that gun without flinching, you may be the one judged worthy before the final credits roll.

For more about me, my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Repo Man, the amusing story of a kid named Otto’s accidental entry into the bizarre world of car repossession, has earned its status as a cult classic, in part from its refusal to follow the standard connect-the-dots formula of a Hollywood comedy. It stands out by virtue of its sheer originality — while making its own sharp comment on the lack of originality in our society.

One of the funnier running gags in the movie involves the generic branding on every single consumer product seen on store shelves or kitchen countertops. Beer cans sport plain white labels with the word “BEER.” A liquor store shootout destroys several bottles labeled “LONDON DRY GIN.” One moment singled out in Roger Ebert’s review of the film shows Otto entering his kitchen and opening the fridge door to reveal a cluster of generic goods, then digging into a can marked “FOOD – MEAT FLAVORED.”

Do you buy generic products? I do, when I see no meaningful difference in product quality. A company that doesn’t at least imply some particular feature or advantage will lose out to the generic with the lowest price.

What kind of brand identity scores points? Any kind that speaks to your audience. To many people, for instance, a paper towel is a paper towel. But some brands absorb more fluid, others look prettier, and still others make responsible use of recycled paper. Any of these sales points could very well be the deal-breaker for certain consumers. The brands that make these claims don’t want to compete over price — they want to capture the loyalty of a defined target market. That’s why they have names like Brawny (it’s tough!) or Ultra-Posh (it’s soft!) or Ecolo-Wipe (it’s green! — okay, I’m making some of these up, but you get the idea).

Do you have a brand that appeals to your target market, or are you Brand X? Not all of my clients know what sets them apart from their competitors. I’ll ask them what makes their product or service special, and they’ll stumble like crazy to find something. If you don’t know what makes your product unique, then you can’t aim it at a segment of the population. You get lost in the shuffle.

And before you know it, you’re a punchline in a cult movie.

It’s nothing personal. I like you. I like communicating with you at events and whatnot. I might well enjoy reading regular, relevant articles, tips and news items in your e-newsletter. But somehow it just isn’t working out that way.

Do you wonder why more people don’t respond to your e-newsletters? I can’t give you a definite answer without actually taking a look for myself, and even then you’re getting my opinion, not your target audience’s. I can, however, tell you what turns me off. I get plenty of e-newsletters each month. I don’t read many of them. It’s not the medium — it’s the content.

Many of the people who send me e-newsletters have apparently mastered the art of ensuring that I won’t read them. For the rest of you on the borderline, here are a few things you can do to guarantee that I will NOT want to read your e-newsletter:

Don’t ask me if I want it. After all, we chatted at an industry event six months ago, right? Okay, we didn’t chat, but we met. Okay we didn’t actually meet, but we traded business cards. Okay, we didn’t trade cards but we were physically in the same room….None of this automatically means that I’m dying to receive regular emails from you. Ask me first.

Don’t allow me to opt out. Assuming I agreed to receive the e-newsletter, I still might want the option to remove myself from the email list at some point. If I don’t see that option, then I’ll have to opt YOU out instead — by sending all your emails to the spam bin.

Send massive amounts of content that I have no time to read. Most of us check our email on the fly in the midst of a busy workday. If that in-depth white paper or industry study looks like it’s going to seriously derail my forward momentum, I’ll put it aside — and it’ll never get read.

Send the same info over and over again. Tweaking 10 percent of your e-newsletter content each issue does not create a new experience for me.

Send me something every freaking (day/2 days/week/choose your own irritating interval). Even if it’s great stuff, send it too frequently and the signal turns to noise. I tune noise out. How frequently is “too frequently?” Ask your readers.

Send at irregular intervals. Are you publishing quarterly? Monthly? Randomly? Create a regular schedule and stick to it, because that’s what professionals do.

Ask me for money. Just — don’t.

For more about me, my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Here’s another of my mini-interviews with some of my regular collaborators from the marketing world. Today we’ll hear from Jennifer Davis, a freelance graphic designer I’ve worked with on many print marketing jobs. Jennifer not only has 15 years’ graphic design experience, but she also has an advanced knowledge of printing, copying and document management systems.

WR: How has your experience as a document management specialist helped you as a graphic designer?

JD: Document management involves the most efficient movement of information through a company. My knowledge of document management strategies has given me an edge when it comes to seeing the pieces I create and understanding what role they play in the company’s organization. I can visualize the documents I create in terms of how they reflect and complement the business’s overall branding and corporate philosophy, and how they will interact with other forms and documents to help make the company’s intended statement about itself.

WR: What’s the collaborative process between a graphic designer and copywriter?

JD: You and I both need the same information when we work on a project. We need to know the purpose of the piece, the target audience and what it needs to accomplish. You have your job and I have mine, but we both have to stay on the same page and make sure each of us knows all the answers to the critical questions. One thing we often find in working together is that the initial spark can start from either end. Your words might inspire a certain visual approach in my work, or I might give you an image and have you write to that image.

WR: What should someone look for when shopping around for a graphic designer?

JD: A portfolio with a varied style, something that shows range. If a designer’s work all conforms to one style, that designer may not have the flexibility to handle a wide range of jobs or clients. Make sure your designer is willing to look at your competitors’ marketing and use the styles that work best within your industry. Look for a designer who will put your needs first. I tend to think of myself as a salesperson first and a designer second. I love the creative side of the work, but it’s never just me trying to express myself on paper. I put my creativity at the service of the client because the priority, to me, is to give the client a final product that represents a high professional standard, makes an impression and affects the way the client is perceived in the marketplace. It’s about making sales, not pretty pictures.

WR: Why do you specialize in print marketing design in today’s multimedia world?

JD: Well, 15 years ago when I was starting out as a graphic designer, web design technologies weren’t as user-friendly as they are today. I preferred the real-time rendering and previewing I could get while working on a print piece. Also, I really like the physical nature of the finished product, holding that piece of paper with the full-color design printed on it. But I have strong networking relationships with web specialists and other types of designers, so I’m always happy to help a client who needs design for other media as well.

So you’ve decided to hire a professional writer to help you with your marketing content. It’s a no-brainer, right? Assuming you’ve taken the right steps to make sure you’ve got the right person, you can now set yourself on cruise control and let the writer write. Right?

Well, not quite. No matter how much of the creative burden you offload to the writer, you still have an important task to perform — communicating what you need and want to your creative team. If your writer (or graphic artist, or web designer, et cetera) receives wrong or incomplete information about your mission statement, corporate values, target market or the other things that make your business tick, you’ll get marketing content that misses the mark. Effective communication with your writer will help ensure strong, effective copy just as effective communication with an architect helps ensure that your home ends up with the right number of bathrooms. “Hey, the house looks great now that it’s built. By the way, did I mention we’re a family of twelve?” Oops.

Some items you want to make sure you discuss with your writer include:

Priorities. Writers love background information, so by all means Continue reading ‘How to Get What You Want from a Copywriter’ »

“Which person should I be? Am I ‘I’ or ‘we?’ Or should we be ‘they?’ And are my clients ‘you’ or ‘them?’”

No, this isn’t a transcript from a nuthouse. I have this kind of conversation with clients all the time. It’s actually a very sensible and important conversation, too, because we’re discussing what kind of “person” works best for which situations.

By “person,” I mean grammatical person, in the sense of first-person, second-person, or third-person pronouns. We use these pronouns a zillion times a day in everyday writing and speech, usually without giving them a second thought, and yet these simple little words contain tremendous power.

Pronouns shift perception. You can make me, your reader, see you as an individual, as a team, or as a large, impersonal corporation by merely swapping out a word. You can address me directly or have me see things through your eyes. Powerful gadgets, pronouns. But with great power comes great responsibility, and all pronouns are not created equal depending on the task you want them to perform in your marketing content. That’s when I get into mind-bending conversations with my clients about “we,” “I,” and “they.” So which person makes the strongest impact? It depends:

First person singular: First person allows you to present yourself as an individual. If you’re a sole proprietor serving as a trusted advisor for your clients, talking them directly as “I” can build trust and open an imaginary (and later, hopefully, real) dialogue between you and your reader. Many small businesses live or die by their owner’s image and personality, using “I” as a powerful tool for getting that image across.

First person plural: A.k.a. the “Royal We.” If you’re speaking for a team, “we” presents a collective image of that team. Companies of any size can use “we” to give the impression of a unified group effort dedicated to fulfilling the customer’s needs. Even sole proprietors sometimes describe themselves as “we” or “us” to puff themselves up a bit, because in some professions being the only guy at the helm makes you look non-competitive or unsuccessful. Small businesses may shift between “I” and “we” to speak as the boss occasionally while still giving the impression of teamwork.

Second person: “You.” Employing the reader’s perspective shows that you understand their feelings and needs — and remember, from their point of view it’s all about them anyway. “You” enables the reader to imagine about how the product or service impacts their quality of life. “You can have it all! Change your life today!” Et cetera.

Third person: In some cases a larger company, or a small company that wants to appear large, can opt for more formality by referring to the company employees as “they,” with formal bio blurbs describing individuals in terms of “he” or “she.” This works well for a bio or mission statement in a fancy-pants panel program, business plan, and so on. It also lends gravitas to a person in a relatively sober-minded profession such as medicine or law. But occasionally I’ll warn a client against third person, because it also puts up a kind of wall between writer and reader instead of creating the comforting bond some businesses need to establish.

So, which person does the job for you? They all can, depending on the emotional impression you want to make on your reader. Once you’ve know what impression you want to make, you can attach the right person to the right job.

It would appear that Leonard Nimoy, a.k.a. Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, has announced his intention to “hang up the ears” and retire, not only from the character but from a six-decade career as an actor.

Sure, I watch Star Trek. Writers spend a lot of time cooped up at home, and yes, most of us are okay with that. I enjoy cruising through the galaxy at warp speed with the Star Trek gang, mainly because it allows me to pretend that I’m getting out of the house occasionally. But even if I couldn’t care less about the franchise, there’s no denying that it has developed into a formidable chunk of pop culture over the past half-century. So even those of us who don’t know about it kinda-sorta do.

Anyway, Nimoy’s announcement got me thinking about the show, and about Mr. Spock’s home planet, Vulcan. You see, Vulcans have this ability to “mind meld” with people. They grab your head and perform a kind of telepathy on you, reading your thoughts and feeling your emotions (which must stink on ice for Vulcans who mind-meld with humans, since they really aren’t into the whole emotion thing). For a moment, the Vulcan sees the meld-ee’s point of view in perfect clarity, “becoming” that person long enough to achieve a deep level of empathy.

Vulcan must have fantastic marketing departments. Want to know your target audience? Invite a representative of that demographic into your office, plant a hand on the subject’s noggin and blam, instant market research.

We poor humans have no such skills, at least not readily on tap, as far as we can measure. Yet we who market ourselves must perform this very task — we must get inside the heads of our audience, as best we can, and see through their eyes. We must feel their pain or frustration, recognize the things that make them smile, or look at that product or service as if we’ve never seen it before and have no idea what it could do for us.

It’s an acting technique of sorts. Actors train long and hard to learn to inhabit another person’s skin, to make that fictional character move and talk and feel as a flesh-and-blood person by first asking, “How would I feel, what would I do, if I were this character, with this background, education, physical condition, mental state, et cetera?” Writers have to go into this mode as well. When we write fiction, we have to understand our characters so clearly that we can empathize with them from cover to cover — even if we don’t like them. We also have to understand our readers and know what’s most likely to make the right impact on them. And marketing writing requires no less.

So my challenge to you, when you’re planning that email blast or brochure or website, is to try to read the mind of your ideal prospect. Picture that person in your mind as completely as you can. Try to “become” that person long enough to get a crystal-clear idea of what that person wants, fears or needs. Then write your marketing piece to that person.

Live long and prosper.

In 1966, Yoko Ono exhibited a now-famous artwork called the “Ceiling Painting.” It was more than a painting, really — viewers had to climb a ladder and point a magnifying glass up toward the ceiling, where a framed sheet of paper awaited their gaze. On the paper was written a single word: “YES.”

Why “YES?” According to the artist, it was a reaction against the prevailing negativity in the world, an attempt to fight back with a positive attitude by “activating the ‘Yes’ element.”

I like that way of putting it, because the “Yes” element may well be the most important one in the copywriter’s Periodic Table. “Yes” carries power. “Yes” affirms. “Yes” indicates agreement. “Yes” gives permission.

I hear a lot of “pain and reward” talk when people discuss copywriting techniques. “Create the pain, then take it away.” Paint a dismal picture of the reader’s current problem, then part the clouds to reveal the radiant glow of your solution to the problem. But during the recent economic crisis, I found that the last thing people wanted from a marketing message was a pain statement — they had plenty of pain already, thank you. Adding yet another dismal picture to their gallery of misery served merely to turn them away.

What worked instead? The power of “Yes.” Going against the prevailing funk to snap people out of it. Starting positive and staying there, while cranking up the excitement level until it was the reader’s cue to buy or call or whatever. A pain statement can work well in a relatively cheery economic environment, because there you’re going against the grain to get the reader’s attention. But when people want to feel better, give them what they want!

“Yes” also gets people agreeing with you. A string of “Yes” answers to your questions can prime your audience for the big “Yes” at the end: “Do you need a change?” YES. “Are you ready for that change to happen?” YES. “Do you want to make that change happen today?” YES. “Then whip out that credit card and call us right now!” YES!

Does the “Yes” element work? John Lennon thought so, in recounting his first glimpse of the future Mrs. Lennon’s painting: “I would have been quite disappointed if it had said ‘NO.’”

Last week I missed a blog entry. I think this is the first or second time in over a year. However long it’s been, the streak is over.

It was just one of those things. I was deep into other work, including ghost-blogging for clients so THEY wouldn’t have to miss their regularly scheduled posts, when I turned my weary eyes to my blog stockpile and saw — nothing. The cupboard was bare. I had nothing to post.

Of course I could’ve whipped up an article quickly; professional writers are pretty good at that sort of thing. Or I could’ve just posted the following week as if nothing had happened (okay, technically “nothing” is exactly what happened, but you know what I mean), whistling to myself and avoiding eye contact with studied nonchalance. “Last week? Huh? By the way, here’s this week’s article.”

But I’m doing neither of those things. I blew it. I dropped a blog post. And it’s significant, because it shows that anyone can get behind the 8-ball on blogging, even those of us who should know better and are in the business of keeping others from making that very same mistake.

What’s the big deal? First of all, each blog post represents fresh content. Google loves fresh content. Additionally, every post you publish gives you something new to link to from your various social networks, forums, of other online hangouts. More links on heavily-traveled websites equals more inbound traffic to your site. So with every blog post we skip, we’re blowing off potential new readers.

Second, an irregular blog won’t sustain a regular audience. I know people — business owners, yet — who blog maybe once every four months, twice a year, or at crazy random increments. They can’t have a regular readership, because there’s nothing regular to read — how can the target audience possibly guess when the next post will come out? They can’t, so they don’t try. That blog becomes invisible. Regular readership comes from regular posts — once a day, once a week, once a month, whatever. You have to condition your audience to come back for more, and that includes their knowing when to expect more.

So today I’m working on my blog stockpile. Hopefully you’re doing the same, or you have a writer who offers regular ghost-blogging services to keep you in articles. If your website serves as a virtual stock-ticker or provides other kinds of up-to-the-minute news, then your blogs may have to come more frequently. But a stockpile of solid, timeless articles will help ensure that you never have to feel this kind of embarrassment.

So do as I say, not as I do.

What is a blog, anyway? There’s no set answer. In the good old days, a “weblog” consisted of little more than online diary posts occasionally sprinkled with recommended links that the blogger had stumbled across that week. These days, a blog can be:

-An informative article
-A rant
-A review
-A debate topic
-A request for info or help
-A news item or alert
-A humorous interlude
-A meditation
-A lecture

…or just about anything else that fits the needs and personality of the blogger.

A business blog, of course, has its own requirements. The tone of the blog has to match the tone of the company’s overall brand or message. A dark-humor piece about death, for instance, might not work too well on a funeral home’s website. (An extreme example, but you get the idea.) A business blog that includes helpful information related to its field can help the business or its owner build a reputation as an industry expert while converting tire-kickers into customers and fans.

How long should a blog post run? Speaking as an expert in the field — I have no idea. I hear all kinds of things from various sources that have their own opinions. My answer is, “Long enough and no longer,” depending on your subject matter and your audience. The posts I write as part of my Blogger’s 4-pack product tend to run about 300 words each, give or take, which strikes me as a nice compromise between an easy-to-read blurb and a full-blown article. Darren Rowse of Problogger recommends a broad range of 250 to 1000 words for SEO purposes while pointing out out that no one really knows anything. Your mileage may vary.

Does a blog always have to include articles? Not at all. Blog posts can take the form of video clips, photo galleries, podcasts, or any other media that can be uploaded and accessed by the reader. And there’s nothing wrong with the old tried-and-true recommended links. I tend to write articles because, well, I’m a writer. A videographer might choose to post videos. A painter might choose to post image files. Whatever gets you more web traffic and boosts your reputation, do it. Or hire me to do it. Either way, happy blogging!