By Jeffrey Hedquist
How can you improve your aim? Narrow your focus.
We’d rather be treated as individuals, than as part of a mass audience. When your client says, “I want to reach everybody, “ask what groups in that universe of “everybody” are their best customers. Each one of them is part of a niche.
Talk to the parents of teens, the extreme sports nuts or the wine connoisseurs… whoever the hot consumers are (there may be more than one group for each advertiser) with commercials that speak directly to them.
Don’t be afraid to exclude the others. The delight a specific prospect experiences when you’re communicating with her will make up for those who feel ignored (many of them will eavesdrop anyway to see what you have for the specific person).
“There’s a woman we know who lives in Knoxville… has all her life. Her parents are from here and their parents and their parents, going back six generations. Maybe you’re like her. Your life is steeped in tradition, yet you…”
Most advertisers have several products or services that fall into niches. You can tell stories about each narrow part of what the advertiser does for their clients.
The restaurant that tells a compelling story about how the owner is at the farmer’s market early every morning, rejecting dozens of heads of lettuce to choose the very finest ones for that day’s noontime salads says a lot about the other offerings on the menu.
The car dealer who describes the complete wash that every car that leaves the service department there receives has made an impressive statement about the care and attention to detail customers can expect at that dealership.
The department store that spends the entire commercial extolling the benefits of one bathing suit will also sell lots of sunscreen, beach towels, umbrellas, books, flip flops, coolers, hats, goggles, floats, shark repellent…
The more thinly sliced the demographic, psychographic, product or service pie, the tastier it can be for the listener and the advertiser.
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© 2005 Hedquist Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.