When it comes to marketing your product or service, remember: what you make is different than what you sell. As with all good marketing, you're not selling yourself, or even your product or service, but you're selling how things benefits your audience, or how it makes them feel.
That's because people make decisions emotionally first, then justify their decision with logic. If that weren't the case, why would people buy Mercedes and Porches instead of Kias and Toyotas? Those car companies have pretty cool looking cars, too. People buy expensive cars because most times, emotion comes first, then reason.
We've all seen the Subaru car commercial with dogs. Those commercials really don't say anything about their cars, but the ads are so emotionally endearing, they're totally memorable. And the two tag lines Subaru uses often are:
- Dog tested. Dog Approved. See more of their "Dog Tested. Dog Approved." ads here and one of our favorites below.
- Love. It's what makes Subaru a Subaru. They even have a "Love Promise" page.
Neither of these ad series is a hard sell for their cars.
Good marketing is all about what's in it for your customers.
Dell makes good computers and Microsoft makes great tablets. So why do so many people pay a premium price for Apple's products? They have the world's greatest ad campaigns that are the standards everyone else aspires to.
Their classic "I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC" ads are renowned for their ingenuity and originality. And they never even showed the product in any of the ads.
And their newest earbud ads don't even mention the product till the end.
How can this type of marketing work for smaller companies?
Glad you asked. When we've create ads for Columbus home builders, we never show the home as the main image. We do that for two reasons:
- Every other home builder does that, and
- Home buying is an emotional experience, so we focus on that.
Instead of explaining it, we prefer to show you. Below are some ads we've done for home builder clients over the years, none of which show their homes as the main image.
Treplus Communities 55+ Living Residences
CMC Communities
Westport Homes
See our Advertising section here.
Contact us today if you're looking for marketing that stands out from your competitors.
