Wouldn't it be great if you had a nickel for every time you've seen a
commercial or advertisement touting new this or new and improved that?
These terms may get overused, but they certainly draw consumers'
attention. The problem is, just what does new mean? Newness applies so
differently to so many things that it seems impossible to pin it down.
And there's such a thing as being too new, right? And I think I hear you
saying, "Bill, isn't "What's new" dependent upon the audience?'" Yes,
you're absolutely, brilliantly, 100% correct! Imagine trying to explain
the excitement and fun of playing the computer software game Warcraft to
a teenager named Zuru, who lives in an African rain forest with a bone in
his nose, wearing a zebra loincloth, and has never heard of a computer.
You wouldn't get very far, would you? It's a sure bet he wouldn't know
what you're talking about, even though he might have some idea of warfare
and show keen interest in that magical-sounding computer thing you
mentioned. Zuru is the kind of sales audience you should hope never to
have! You need an audience that already has some knowledge about your
type of product or service, so they are somewhat familiar with it in
terms of features and benefits. Regardless of what you are selling or
marketing, your audience needs to already have a certain level of
familiarity or knowledge with your type of product or service in these
categories: ? Values ? Expectations ? Experiences ? Reasoning
? Language Such already-acquired knowledge is what I call the old
view. In order for you to say anything new to your sales audience, you
have to have a pretty good idea of what's already familiar or old to them
about your type of product/service in one or more of the types of old
views. Only then can you be sure you are saying something meaningfully
new to them. Thus, newness depends directly upon what you do with the
old view, and I call that the new view. Remember Zuru? If he had enough
of the shared, basic old views of Values, Expectations, Experiences,
Reasoning, and Language about computers and computer games, then you
might have gotten a sale (paid for with lion skins or elephant tusks,
maybe?). Since there was no shared information in Zuru's personal old
views about your type of product, there was little communication, no
recognizable newness---and no sale. So what do you do with shared old
views when you want to communicate a new view? Simple-you make a bridge
from the old view to the new view by using the following five simple yet
powerful processes that make anything new, either singly or in
combination: ? Reverse ? Add ? Subtract ? Substitute ?
Rearrange Now, this relates to some interesting marketing theory.
For instance, in his bestselling Wizard of Ads trilogy, Roy H. Williams
(a well-known marketing guru) talks about Broca's Area, which is an area
of the brain just over the left ear and barely forward from the Auditory
Cortex. To make sure we're on the same page (note that I'm establishing
the old view, here), let me tell you that the function of Broca's Area is
to filter, arrange, and then forward information to the Prefrontal Cortex
of the brain, just behind the forehead part of the skull. That's where
decisions are made, such as decisions about buying products. Williams
teaches, and science supports, that Broca is stimulated by patterns that
are not anticipated. In short, Broca is stimulated by newness: "'Interest
me!' cries Broca. 'Surprise me with something I didn't know. If you're
not carrying new information or a new perspective, you'll not enter my
Yellow Brick Road [direct pathway to the Prefrontal Cortex]'" (Magical
Worlds of the Wizard of Ads, p. 50). Did you notice that, according to
Williams, surprising Broca requires "new information or a new
perspective"? Sounds like he's talking about a new view, right? Up 'til
now, that world of new information and new perspectives has been mostly
formless for marketers trying to surprise Broca. You can take the shared
types of old views of familiar --- Values, Expectations, Experiences,
Reasoning, and Language --- and put them into your new view kaleidoscope,
with its set of five new view lenses, and turn the wheel to see the old
view in new ways, in new views. You can use those five types of new views
as processes for focusing on any old view and actually tweaking them to -
-- as Williams so brilliantly asserts --- surprise Broca! So let's
construct in our minds a table for generating new views to surprise
Broca. It will have five columns coming down from the top and five rows
going from left to right, so there are twenty-five blocks within the
table. Now, across the top of the table, as titles for each of the five
columns, visualize the five types of new views, from left to right -----
........................Reverse...............Add...............Subtract.
..............Substitute...............Rearrange And, coming down the
left side of the table, there are the names of the five types of old
views -- Values Expectations Experiences Reasoning Language To use
this table, you'll first write in short phrases under each of the old
view headings on the left, and then you'll fill in the empty squares
under each of the five types of new views to the right. You fill them
with new views by doing the option at the top of the column (Reverse,
Add, Subtract, Substitute, or Rearrange) to the old view at the far left
of that row. You'll see in a moment how that works. Creating Material
for a Commercial Ad Let's take a look at how our table can help you
write an advertisement. Here's a realistic business situation we can
work with: Harper's Cabinets in Birmingham, Alabama, sells great
cabinets at thrifty prices. They need advertising ideas --- they're not
sure just what --- for the marketing push they want to make so they can
expand their business. To use the our table to help the folks at
Harper's Cabinets to write the copy for some advertisements, we'll put in
a blank line just above the table that states the overall old view that
people have about cabinets in their home. So visualize this just above
the table: OLD VIEW: Cabinets are very useful and can add style to any
home. In the old view spaces on the left side of the table, we'll
identify all the familiar features and benefits --- the old views ---
that customers generally have about cabinets, including Harper's, like
this: Values quality materials, elegant, inexpensive, easily installed,
trusted Expectations last long, resist damage, friends will admire
Experiences customer testimonials; quick & clean installation Reasoning
have a need, can afford it, & guaranteed, so buy the bargain Language
familiar & standard vocabulary, font, grammar Now it's time to fill in
the new view squares off to the right for each row. Once you've got those
old views filled in, you'll be surprised at how much more quickly new
ideas will pop up in your mind. It frees your mind up, really! And don't
be too particular about what you write down for your first reactions in
the empty squares. As with other brainstorming techniques, the big idea
is just to get something written down, without being too critical, and
you can make changes to it later, as needed. Most importantly, never
forget this timeless and true adage: "Good writing is ALWAYS the result
of REwriting." To demonstrate how you could fill in the empty squares
with newness for each row on the table, left to right, here are some
possible new views to enter for the Values row, which has, "quality
materials, elegant, inexpensive, easily installed, trusted": Reverse
all that quality plus such low/reasonable costs--- naw, can't be true
Add lasts WAY longer (grandkids will grow up with them) & WAY more
stylish Subtract 2/3s cost of competitors; no install charge; warranty-
- no worries Substitute show your adult kids & get them to buy it for
you Rearrange priorities---don't go on vacation: buy it & add lasting
value to your house Now, let's just take a closer look at the contents
of that Reverse block: By reversing the entry from the old view features
under Values, and using that verbiage now in the Reverse block ("all that
quality plus such low/reasonable costs---naw, can't be true"), we can
fairly easily imagine the following TV or radio spot------- A man and
his minister are sitting in a living room watching TV, and they have just
heard the last line or two of all the fine features and benefits about
Harper's Cabinets. The man turns to his minister and says, "Reverend,
that's all just too good to be true, isn't it?" The minister turns to him
and replies, smiling: "Well, son, I had Harper's Cabinets installed a
year ago, and I can tell you that everything we've just heard is true ---
at least in my experience." The man replies, "Wow! Wait 'til I tell
Melanie!" and he excitedly rises, hurrying from the room with a big smile
on his face. End of commercial. Cha-ching (ring of a cash register)!
Remember, any features or benefits of your product or service that are
meaningful and new --- the new view --- have to be linked to familiar,
old, and shared material --- the old view --- which is made up of Values,
Expectations, Experiences, Reasoning, and Language that are already
meaningful to or valued by the audience/customer. How linked? With one
or more of the new views --- by Reversing, Adding to, Subtracting from,
Substituting for, or Rearranging the keywords and key concepts of the old
view material. By using this table, as we did above, you can tweak old
views with each of the types of new views to generate interesting,
attention-grabbing, and interest-holding content for your advertisements.
And you can surprise Broca more frequently and more reliably now that you
know about the five types of old views and the five types of new views.
As Yoda says --- "Burn images into minds, you should, with laser
precision. Stimulate sales, you could, and watch company bank bags
ballooning, you would." Right on, Yoda! Learn more about
writing advertising
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