A Great Ad Campaign Can Last Forever

By Dan Kennedy - Entrepreneur.com

Related Articles in: Sales & Marketing > Advertising

On closer examination, this little story reveals even more. It shows two peoples' very different values, and why what I call "marketing to values" is so much more important and powerful than is the marketing of products. My business associate is a woman who, her whole life, has competed with men, has made herself successful in a field difficult for women, has fought being taken for granted as a "blonde beauty," and prides herself on her mental toughness, shrewdness and won't-take-no-for-an-answer-ism. One of her highest and most important personal values is that "nobody pulls wool over her eyes." Her neighbor is the second, younger wife of a wealthy doctor, from a wealthy family--but she came from a poor family, grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, and, in her first marriage, lived a blue-collar life. Her beauty got her the trophy wife position, but she found herself thought of and gossiped about as a classless bimbo rather than accepted into the rich wives' sorority. She has been a relentless social climber ever since, using donations to charities, sponsoring of charity balls, patronizing the hair stylist, the cosmetic surgeon, the personal trainer, being seen in the most current designer fashions, in an orchestrated effort to force her husband's peers' wives to accept her into their circle. One of her most treasured values is their acceptance or their envy. In reality, neither her payment of $67,000 to her architect and my friend's payment of her negotiated $7,000 to her architect had much to do with the comparative intrinsic or actual value of the work reflected in the two sets of blueprints.

Another way to look at this, as a marketer, is a choice between selling things with ham-handed, brute force, typically against resistance, or selling aspirations and emotional fulfillments with finesse, typically with little resistance. Which seems like it might be more pleasurable? More profitable?

Dan Kennedy has earned him the moniker “Millionaire Maker” through his network of consultants, which help more than a million business owners succeed every year. He is the author of the bestselling No B.S. Series and co-author of Uncensored Sales Strategies, available from Entrepreneur Press

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A Great Ad Campaign Can Last Forever