Radio Hed: Commercial Conflict Is the Crucible

By Jeffrey Hedquist

Your client has solutions, products, services, methods, techniques, and skills to solve the problems of your audience.

But…that audience has heard it all before. They are awash in half-baked entreaties, lame offers, and poorly constructed messages from thousands of advertisers. How can you get them to believe in your client’s solution?

You use the key element of a good story – conflict. Without the emotional context, the audience might easily remain skeptical, unimpressed, unmotivated to action.

Think of a successful movie. Any one – they all use conflict. The tension builds; the forces preventing achievement of a goal seem insurmountable. We are caught up in the drama. It’s an emotional high point.

It is then that the discovery is unveiled, the cavalry rides in, the secret is revealed. And for the most part, we accept it. We have been engaged in the conflict. We suspend disbelief. We believe.

Conflict is the crucible from which your client’s solution emerges.

What kind of conflict? Overcoming physical, mental, emotional, environmental, societal, physical, occupational, educational (the list goes on) challenges.

Where do you find the conflict for your advertiser’s story?

Your client’s story might be one of overcoming the objections of the “establishment,” of persistence in the face of adversity, of frustration, of serendipitous discovery, of persistent research, of brilliant insight, of casual observation.

What conflict led to your client’s recipe, their community involvement, or their unique selling proposition? Find it. Tell that story in an emotional way that catches the audience’s imagination.

Then out of that fire reveal the benefit that the client delivers which will bring relief, joy, savings, ease, or convenience to the potential customer.

Every client has a story of how they developed the benefits they offer. Help them tell it with drama and heat up sales.

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