Thing is, it actually works. That is, it works in the short term. It does make immediate sales.

The problem is that it doesn’t work over the long term. It doesn’t build brand loyalty. It doesn’t create raving fans that come back again and again.

It doesn’t posture you as a thought leader, nor does it create an educational hub that consistently draws and keeps new customers.

Rather, it makes people feel manipulated and drives them away over time. It attracts price-centric bargain hunters who leave you as soon as they find a cheaper, albeit less valuable, alternative.

It makes people increasingly immune to your pitches, forcing you into a hamster-wheel business where you always have to find new customers, rather than keeping customers for life.

The following are four specific sales tactics used by these types of businesses that always backfire.

Below each you’ll find appropriate ways to use the tactic.

1. Scarcity (Limited Supply)

“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.” -G.K. Chesterton

Generally speaking, the perceived value of an item is proportional to its abundance or rarity. By manufacturing scarcity–using the “limited-number” tactic–businesses can generate quick sales.

The problem is that sales-mentality businesses use this principle to manipulate.

In Influence: The Science of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini describes his observance of this tactic in an appliance store, where 30 to 50 percent of the stock was regularly listed as on sale.

When a prospect would show interest in a particular sale item, a salesperson would approach and say “I see you’re interested in this model here, and I can understand why; it’s a great machine at a great price. But, unfortunately, I sold it to another couple not more than twenty minutes ago. And, if I’m not mistaken, it was the last one we had.”

Disappointment would register on the prospects’ faces, and typically they would ask if there was a chance that there would be an unsold model in the back room or warehouse.

“Well,” the salesperson would respond, “that is possible, and I’d be willing to check. But do I understand that this is the model you want and if I can get it for you at this price, you’ll take it?”

Writes Cialdini:

“Therein lies the beauty of the technique. In accord with the scarcity principle, the customers are asked to commit to buying the appliance when it looks least available–and therefore most desirable.

“Many customers do agree to a purchase…Thus, when the salesperson (invariably) returns with the news that an additional supply of the appliance has been found, it is also with a pen and sales contract in hand.”

Sure, they could sell a few appliances this way. But how likely do you think people would be to buy from them again?

The Right Way to Use Scarcity

Credibility is the key to using scarcity appropriately.

People will see through manufactured, manipulative scarcity over time. But if you legitimately have a scarce offering, you absolutely should highlight that in your ads.

For example, we recently marketed this event for our client Williamsburg Academy. Their webinar software has a limit of 500 participants. We highlighted that in an email and registrations shot up immediately.

Every time Wizard Academy markets an event, they highlight that they only have 14 rooms in their student mansion. The first 14 people to register get to stay there for free, and other registrants must pay for a hotel.

When we wrote an email to Atlantic Seafood Market‘s database telling them that they only had 31.7 pounds of blackfish available, that was precisely accurate and therefore credible. We didn’t manufacture scarcity to manipulate; it’s a commonly-understood reality of the industry that blackfish is hard to come by.

Their scarcity of bay scallops was another effective tactic, particularly since the scarcity was created by their fierce adherence to quality.

2. Urgency (Limited Time)

Stephen recently demolished this tactic in this blog post about New Vitality, a health supplement company that emails their database 10 times a month, and almost every email is a “Hurry! Act Now or Lose!” message.

This tactic is usually accompanied by a low-price, “once-in-a-lifetime” offer.

When overused or used without credibility, this tactic quickly loses its efficacy. It trains prospects to only buy when things are on sale.

Prospects also suspect that these low prices are simply evidence that the business’s regular prices are too high.

And as prospects become immune to urgency, it takes increasingly cheaper (as in less profitable for the business owner) offers to interest them.

The Right Way to Use Urgency

Again, the key is credibility–the offer must be trusted as authentic, not fabricated or manipulative.

For example, on this website look for the 50% off ad that says “Take advantage of this limited time offer.” Does anyone actually believe that it’s a limited time? It’s glaringly obvious that that always stays up on their website.

No credibility. While that may be a good deal, it’s not an urgent deal; you know you can get it at any time, so the effect of urgency is lost.

With the Williamsburg Academy event mentioned above, they were able to convince world-class professional speaker Warren Macdonald, who typically charges $10,000 for speaking events, to give them two nights for free. It really is an urgent offer because people aren’t likely to have this opportunity again.

Credibility can be strengthened when scarce and/or urgent offers are predicated on things outside of the company’s control. John Young‘s famous air conditioner sales letter is a great example of this.

3. Reciprocity

Simply put, reciprocity is the psychological principle that we feel obligated to repay gifts and favors.

And, once again, the abuse of this potentially powerful persuasion principle is rampant among short-term manipulators.

As is scarcity, reciprocity is covered in detail in Cialdini’s Influence.

He tells of his study of the Hare Krishna Society, an Eastern religious sect. Their early fundraising efforts were to simply send devotees out into the streets to ask for donations.

It didn’t work well, so they switched tactics. They solicit in public places with a lot of pedestrian traffic, such as airports and train stations.

Now, before a donation is requested, the target person is given a “gift,” such as a book, a magazine, or a flower. Only after invoking the reciprocity rule does the solicitor ask for a donation.

It worked phenomenally well–for a short time.

As Cialdini writes:

“…the reciprocation rule has begun to outlive its usefulness for the Krishnas, not because the rule itself is any less potent societally, but because we have found ways to prevent the Krishnas from using it on us.

“After once falling victim to their tactic, many travelers are now alert to the presence of robed Krishna Society solicitors in airports and train stations, adjusting their paths to avoid an encounter and preparing beforehand to ward off a solicitor’s ‘gift.’”

The Right Way to Use Reciprocity

Two Hub Mentality principles are used for appropriate reciprocity: permission and free content.

You give away valuable and relevant content in exchange for the permission to market to those wanting your content. Then, you continue giving them free content over time.

And implicit to the permission is their ability to opt-out of your database at any time–there is no manipulative chain of obligation hanging around their necks.

Not only does this engage reciprocity, but it also demonstrates your expertise, creates trust over time, and builds authentic relationships.

Free samples of physical products is an excellent way to engage this principle as well, as Atlantic Seafood Market did with their recent holiday open house.

4. Charisma/Flattery

Like scarcity and reciprocity, these related tactics are the counterfeit, transactional sales version of the principle of “Liking” found in Cialdini’s Influence.

The abuse here is to rely on smooth talk, rather than genuine, consistent action. We’ve all been taken by slick talkers who didn’t deliver what they promised.

It’s sad but true that these types have given legitimate salespersons a bad name. This is why we’ve all learned to be suspicious of salespeople, and to put up defensive barriers when we encounter them.

The Right Form of “Liking”

This principle states simply that we prefer to do business with people we know and like.

But to use this principle for long-term customer retention requires much more than personality and being facile with words.

The key here is to let your actions speak louder than your words. In other words, earn your likability through integrity.

Be what you say you are. Do what you say you’ll do. Ensure that your backstage systems support your front stage claims.

Switch to Hub Mentality for Long-Term Persuasion & Retention

Charles H. Sandage said:

“Advertising is criticized on the ground that it can manipulate consumers to follow the will of the advertiser. The weight of evidence denies this ability. Instead, evidence supports the position that advertising, to be successful, must understand or anticipate basic human needs and wants and interpret available goods and services in terms of their want-satisfying abilities. This is the very opposite of manipulation.”

People can be persuaded through misguided and manipulative advertising tactics, but those only work in the short term.

If you want to increase trust and sales, make your marketing dollars more efficient, retain more customers, and build a sustainable business, you must be authentic, trustworthy, and credible.

You must solve people’s needs, deliver what you promise, and be transparent in your offerings.

Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and writer with KGaps Consulting. His firm uses their methodology Hub Mentality to help small businesses generate more leads, sales, and referrals while making their marketing budget more efficient.

Stephen is the co-author of as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interactions as well as the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

After viewing the videos, the subjects were given questions about the accidents and were asked to write down their answers.

The twist was that they were given different questions.

The critical questions were:

1. About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?
2. About how fast were the cars going when they smashed each other?
3. About how fast were the cars going when they collided with each other?
4. About how fast were the cars going when they bumped into each other?
5. About how fast were the cars going when they contacted with each other?

The time taken to conduct the experiment was about one and a half hour.

The results? The highest speed estimates — 40.8 miles per hour on average — were provided by those asked how fast the cars were going when they smashed into each other.

The lowest speed estimates — 31.8 miles per hour on average — were provided by those asked how fast the cars were going when they contacted each other.

A slight change in verbs resulted in a 22.1% difference in recall.

Table: Speed Estimates From Various Verbs

Are you connecting the dots that this has profound and far-reaching implications for advertising and marketing?

Are you leveraging the power of verbs in your marketing messages?

Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and writer with KGaps Consulting. His firm uses their methodology Hub Mentality to help small businesses generate more leads, sales, and referrals while making their marketing budget more efficient.

Stephen is the co-author of as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interactions as well as the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

The primary tool of the old, transactional way of marketing and sales has been a metaphorical gun.

Marketing departments and salespersons “zero in” on their target market, strive to hit the “bulls-eye” of responses and sales quotas, and rave about “making a killing.”

In the new marketplace, consumers view these types of businesses as predatorial.

“Salesman” has become a dirty word—and rightfully so. Everyone has been so pitched, manipulated, hyped, and pressured by typical salespeople that we feel like taking a shower every time we’re approached by them. (When was the last time you had a pleasant, lasting conversation with a telemarketer?)

With information being accessible to the consumer almost anywhere and any time, the role of salesperson is more significant than ever before.

A “hunter” salesperson can send the signal that your company is solely after profit and will pillage at any opportunity made available.

On the other hand, a “farmer” salesperson can be your best advocate. Making sure the salesperson has the right message, along with incredible products, backed by a business culture that supports building a hub is the challenge of this new marketing age.

When possible, all of us avoid salespeople. Ironically, businesses that can’t see this shift to interaction have become more aggressive than ever.

Their sales are down so they’re desperately trying to grab the attention of potential customers. They’re on the prowl for fresh meat—and those potential customers are running for their lives.

Hunters Versus Farmers

Business “hunters” are nomadic—they track down their prey, make the sale, then move on.

They have superficial relationships with their customers at best. Their focus is on what they want to take from customers, not on what they have to give. They have to close hard and fast or they starve.

At best, hunters sell good products with the hope that the customer will buy more, simply because of the product merits.

At worst, they employ one of two approaches, if not both: either they attack viciously through pressure, or they sneak up and pounce through deceit.

Business “farmers,” on the other hand, settle down and cultivate long-term relationships.

They understand that one seed of trust planted in the heart of a customer will result in an abundant, ongoing harvest of profit. They understand the natural law that giving value first is what results in receiving profit.

Where hunters see dollar signs, farmers see relationships. Where hunters are hard and closed, farmers are soft and open.

Where hunters manipulate and try to hide flaws, farmers are authentic and down-to-earth. Customers are wary around hunters, yet they feel secure and trusting with farmers.

You may even interpret this to mean that a farmer shouldn’t ever go “hunting.”

There are times and seasons when hunting should be a regular part of business. But it needs to be part of an integrated effort to create a hub.

Hunting can stir up opportunities and provide company growth. Hunt too much and too often and with the wrong marketing message, and there will be no more game in town.

If you want to survive Information Age business, you must dispense with the short-term approach of “making a killing.”

Instead, sow seeds of trust and goodwill through interaction to reap a long-term harvest. This is the difference between sales/transaction mentality and Hub Mentality.

Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and writer with KGaps Consulting. His firm uses their methodology Hub Mentality to help small businesses generate more leads, sales, and referrals while making their marketing budget more efficient.

Stephen is the co-author of as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interactions as well as the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

It’s a fatal mistake in business to try to be all things to all people. Bland mission statements and ads are the result of companies describing solely what they stand for.

“High quality. Fair prices. Honesty. Blah. Blah. Blah.”

If you really want to make a splash and explode your sales, you must also clearly articulate what you’re against, what you don’t do, what you exclude. For example:

• KGaps Consulting: Against sales mentality.
• Atlantic Seafood Market: Against preservatives, additives, pesticides, growth hormones.
• Garrett Gunderson: Against financial myths spread by the traditional financial services industry.
• Thomas Jefferson Education: Against conveyor-belt education.

Yes, a bold stand will offend people and create enemies. But it will also create a loyal tribe from which will flow more word-of-mouth buzz and greater profits.

Not taking a stand against anything is the surest guarantee that no one will care about what you offer. You may not have any enemies, but you won’t have any customers, either.

If you truly have a remarkable product and you articulate that product clearly, by default you will have detractors.

Check out this excellent example from Smart Cars:

Yeah, they’re going to be vilified by their enemies. But their fans will come running.

Taking a bold stance against something builds a tribe. It makes your tribe members want to wear your product like a badge.

The bulk of our purchases are made to define ourselves to the world. Being remarkable with an exclusive stand gives your fans something to rave about because, by doing so, they define themselves.

Plant your flag. Draw your line in the sand. Ruffle some feathers. Stand out in a crowd.

It’s the best way to draw your own crowd.

Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and writer with KGaps Consulting. His firm uses their methodology Hub Mentality to help small businesses generate more leads, sales, and referrals while making their marketing budget more efficient.

Stephen is the co-author of as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interactions as well as the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

Ms. Newton devised a simple game in which she assigned people to one of two roles: “tappers” and “listeners.”

Tappers received a list of 25 well-known songs and were asked to pick one and tap the song’s rhythm by knocking on a table. The listener’s were asked to guess the song based on the tapped rhythm.

Over the course of the experiment, 120 songs were tapped out.

The interesting twist to the experiment was that Newton asked tappers to predict the odds that the listeners would guess correctly. They predicted that listeners would guess the correct song 50 percent of the time.

Any guess what the actual results were?

Listeners only guessed 2.5 percent of the songs — 3 out of 120.

Why is this? It’s simple: When a tapper taps, he hears the song in his head. But listeners cannot hear the tune. They just hear a bunch of disconnected, seemingly random taps.

Chip and Dan write:

“In the experiment, tappers are flabbergasted at how hard the listeners seem to be working to pick up the tune. Isn’t the song obvious?

“The problem is that tappers have been given knowledge (song title) that makes it impossible for them to imagine what it’s like to lack that knowledge…

“This is the Curse of Knowledge. Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has ‘cursed’ us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can’t readily re-create our listeners’ state of mind.”

The tapper/listener quandary is played out every day in business. Business owners tap out tunes and feel frustrated when customers just don’t get it.

“Maybe if I tap louder and longer,” they think. “Or maybe I just need to offer a 50% discount.”

No. What they need to do is get out of the box to see things from the customer’s perspective. Problem is, that’s extremely difficult to do when suffering from the Curse of Knowledge.

That’s where marketing consultants are invaluable. Because we’re not in your box, we help you overcome the Curse of Knowledge. We help you uncover, highlight, and spread your most effective and relevant stories.

Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and writer with KGaps Consulting. His firm uses their methodology Hub Mentality to help small businesses generate more leads, sales, and referrals while making their marketing budget more efficient.

Stephen is the co-author of as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interactions as well as the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

What’s the best way to lubricate a chicken?

Say what?

Okay, so I caught your attention with a little zany “creativity.”

But what use is that if it doesn’t persuade you to do anything?

In a glutted advertising world, grabbing attention is a marketer’s first priority.

The challenge is this: Grabbing attention is relatively easy. The hard part is actually persuading.

The great advertiser Leo Burnett, named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of the 20th century, once said:

“We want consumers to say, ‘That’s a hell of a product’ instead of, ‘That’s a hell of an ad.’”

Unfortunately, this simple lesson has largely been lost in marketing.

For example, consider the following classified ad for a mountain bike that circulated widely online. In fact, people loved it so much they posted it on their social media profiles (which is how we found it).

After you read it, we’ll tell you what happened.

Mountain Man’s Bike for Sale

I am a mountain man. You are probably not a mountain man, but, you wish you were. This bike is your ticket to two things: 1- Mountains and 2- Being a man.

I ride this bike everyday. Not for fun or sport like the spandex boys, but to hunt and kill food. I know for a fact that this bike will jump over canyons, climb trees, kill bears, and forge rivers. The bike has ridden every part of the Wasatch from top to bottom.

This bike won’t break. It’s half carbon fiber and half bad-ass. Some guy told me this bike is a piece of history. I thought it was new this year, but I also thought it was still 1998. Apparently it is 2010 and time flies when you live in a cave.

The bike says K2 pro-flex 4000 on the side of it. I don’t know what that means. It probably means it can kill an elephant. The bike is red, so the blood won’t show on it.

The tires are knobby so you can pedal straight up a cliff. It has shocks on the front and the back for when you jump off the cliff. The stuff on it all says “Shimano XT”. I’m pretty sure that is because it was cursed once by an indian medicine man named Shimano. The guy was a jack-ass. He tried to steal some of my stuff so I bit off his left ear.

The bike has a chain that I use to kill rattle snakes sometimes. It also has a seat. I don’t use it, but you probably will for the first few years until you build up the muscle. I also installed a shotgun holder on the bike that conveniently fits a water bottle.

If you have questions about the bike, don’t bother calling me. If you don’t understand how tough the bike is, I probably won’t be able to help you.

If you want to buy the bike, then I will take american cash. I need to send some money to a very important man who emailed me from nigeria so I need the cash quick.

Great ad, right? Wrong.

Out of curiosity, Stephen called the owner of the bike a couple weeks after he had posted it and asked him how the ad was performing.

“Well,” he said, “I’ve received about 50 emails from people telling me this was the best ad they’d ever read.”

“But have you sold the bike?” Stephen asked.

“Not yet,” he revealed.

Ah.

“What is a good advertisement? An advertisement which pleases you because of its style, or an advertisement which sells the most? They are seldom the same.” -David Ogilvy

Never confuse good, fun, creative writing with persuasive writing.

In this case, the guy was selling a beat-up, 12-year-old bike for which he was asking too much. He caught people’s attention, but he failed to persuade.

He had two possible audiences he was writing for: experienced and inexperienced mountain bikers.

His ad automatically eliminated the possibility of selling to experienced riders because 1) he wrote directly to the inexperienced, and 2) experienced riders would know that he was asking too much for a 12-year-old, hard-ridden bike. And he turned off inexperienced riders by talking down to them.

He would have been better off to just state the facts and price the bike right.

That would have been a lot more “boring,” but is the job of an ad to entertain or to persuade?

Creativity is meaningless until clarity is achieved. Only when clarity is achieved do you invest in creativity.

Consider a few more examples:

Did you know the “Yo quiero Taco Bell” chihuahua commercials didn’t increase sales a penny?

This Burger King ad features the King mascot sneaking into McDonald’s headquarters and stealing the Sausage McMuffin recipe. Seriously? What’s the message? We suck, so we just steal ideas. Oh, and we’re cheap, too.

A billboard in Austin, Texas features Salt Lick Barbecue, a local restaurant that cooks in seasoned barbecue pits. The message? “You can smell our pits from miles away.”

Oh, brilliant. Nice double entendre. That’s so creative. Way to associate smelly armpits with your food and forever brand that image into my mind. Hold me back.

Relevance and credibility trump creativity. Anyone can catch attention with creativity, but few know how to actually sell.

Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and writer with KGaps Consulting. His firm uses their methodology Hub Mentality to help small businesses generate more leads, sales, and referrals while making their marketing budget more efficient.

Stephen is the co-author of as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interactions as well as the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

Please enjoy this true story of … “Persona Enlightenment”:

Never regarded in school as much of a writer, and with little more then a computer, internet access, and an idea, a young man decided to “enter the unknown blogging corridor” in search of the next chapter. Little did he know it would lead toward a special form of enlightenment…

During his first few months, he simply blogged about what inspired him. Often this included life lessons, stories plump full of gratitude and perspective. Moments of tears, laughter the insight was his bread and butter. Views for some of his early posts, ranged from 30-50/day. Not bad for a beginner right? And when he saw his post, Homeless Man Eternally Changes My Perspective, achieve a record high for 58 views in one day, he danced in elation about the feat, in complete amazement about how powerful blogging is.

(Even though he had no idea what he was doing, haha).

Six months later, with a bit more experience, this newly “found” young blogger attended Michael Drew’s Book Publishing 2.0 (now known as BeKnown), in Calgary, Alberta, and learned some fascinating stuff! Namely, that there’s actually 4 main personality types, or as Michael calls them “Personas“. The Competitive type likes logical facts, with a focus on results; the Spontaneous type wants fun, fast, exciting; Methodicals want details, processes and systems to take them efficiently from point A to B. And last, but absolutely not least, Humanistics, want compelling stories, with emotion, meaning and evidence that others are being cared for.

The picture was now clear and apparent that so many people (including himself – a Humanistic) write to themselves. Also he started to understand that without any form of a platform or gravity well, or focus, his blogging efforts would create all forms of “feel good” experiences, but do little for business. Leaving him working all the time trying to catch up, with no time for friends, family, or the 12-year old boy he mentors. All things that really matter to him!

Since that weekend, and with Michael Drew’s focused and clear guidance, this young blogger is getting better everyday. Still not perfect, but truly, what real story is ever perfect?

What’s your story?

This young blogger hopes you enter the corridor and find Persona Enlightenment too via this starting point. You can also write him personally at kyle@promoteabook.com.

THE END…

“It just shows that everybody’s in the same boat these days, whether you’re a political person or an everyday person,” says Georgia voter Bobbie Huff, when asked about gubernatorial frontrunner Nathan Deal’s failed business venture and outstanding debt. “I think on the whole he’s a good man who got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Deal isn’t the only politician to win public support despite evidence of lapses in judgment and character. Felicia Robinson, a city council member from Miami Gardens, Fla.,  won her seat despite foreclosing on an investment property.

“For the most part, the residents understood,” she reflected. “Because a lot of them are in the same situation — or in worse situations.”

I’ve been blogging about this I’m Screwed Up – You’re Screwed Up phenomenon a lot lately. As a book promoter, my goal is to make the authors and publishers I work with acutely aware of how society’s perspective has shifted from the Idealistic worldview of the Baby Boomers to the Civic-minded worldview of the Millennials. I believe if I can get them to demonstrate how they see the world through the same lens they will resonate more powerfully with their target audiences.

Going back to gubernatorial frontrunner Nathan Deal, he says his predicament is “an illustration of the fact that you need a governor who understands the pain that Georgians are facing.” So my question to you is, how can you illustrate the fact that your target audience needs an author or publisher who understands the pain they are facing?

I have to believe if they can find a way to relate to a bunch of screwy politicians, they can certainly find a way to relate to you.

Cooking with Chef Chamberlain and the Texas Beef Council

No…(kept scrolling)

Tips for Cooking Beef from Chef Chamberlain

No…(kept scrolling)

Wednesday Rambles: My Teeth May Be Crooked, but I Don’t Have Any Cavities

Ah-ha! I thought I smelled something screwy going on here. The opening paragraph should have alerted me —

It’s that time again! You know you’ve been waiting for it for an entire week. Okay, maybe not, but you wish you were. Perhaps. Anyway, it’s Wednesday Rambles again–that time of the week when I talk about really nothing in bullet-point style. Make sure you visit Crazy Texas Mommy, the creator of Wednesday Rambles.

Here are some of the bullets that followed-

• I didn’t blog Monday or Tuesday this week. I didn’t blog Monday or Tuesday because I don’t have time in the morning to blog because I’ve been slave driving my husband’s brothers.
• I watched “Gran Torino” from my living room couch while it was still in the movie theaters and then tweeted about it.
• I had no idea “Gran Torino” was still in the movie theaters until someone on Twitter pointed it out.
• I also had no idea that my neighbor knew how to get bootleg movies.
• My husband finally built a fire pit out back. I’ve been begging him for three years to build me one.
• I’m scared my husband is turning into a hippie.
• A certain Pink Floyd poster when rolled up looks like a rainbow flag when placed in the back window of a Chevy Impala.
• I had to remove “The Dark Side of the Moon” poster when I borrowed my brother-in-law’s car before chicks thought it was an invitation to check me out.
• I mean, I like to check out chicks in private, but not let them know I am doing it. Most women check other women out.
• The chick that cleans my husband’s teeth is hot. I also wish I had her teeth.
• I only know she is hot because she spent over an hour cleaning my teeth. I haven’t been to a dentist in over eight years.
• My new dentist says I have perfect teeth. Except they’re crooked.

Yep, that’s pretty screwed up. And if you surf around you’ll find plenty more sites like this one. But the truth is, if you and I created our own sites just for fun and blogged about random thoughts and feelings, we’d discover we’re pretty screwed up, too!

It’s a good indicator of how society has changed over the past forty years. While my idealistic Boomer parents studied Transactional Analysis in hopes of achieving an I’m OK – You’re OK life position, the attitude being spread by the younger generations is one of I’m Screwed Up – You’re Screwed Up. Let’s not waste time worrying about it, let’s just get over it and move on.

Is there a lesson, here? Yeah – don’t be afraid to be real with your audience. They’re screwed up too, and they’re okay with it. It’s something they can relate to. I pulled the following from an Eminem interview on MTV’s website:
“My insecurities? I’m dumb, I’m stupid, I’m white, I’m ugly, I smell, I’m stupid and I’m white. I have freckles … um … I’m short, I’m white, I’m not very smart, I wanna kill myself. … My nose is crooked. Um … my penis is small.”

See what I mean?

That same phenomenon plagues the world of advertising. Estimates have us being exposed to as many as 5,000 advertising related messages every day. That’s about ten times what it was just forty years ago. Yet for all the ad dollars being spent, businesses both big and small are going broke.  So where does the problem lie?

It has to do with competence. Most advertisers simply don’t understand what is relevant to their audience. They’re still using the same tired methods of the past even though the culture all around them has completely changed. Wake up and cut the crap, man. Hype and style for style’s sake do not work anymore. Are you curious enough to want to know what the new ingredients of relevance are? Do you believe enough in what you do to at least look into it? If so, accept this challenge. Give yourself a respectable deadline to come up with answers to these questions:

1.    How might you change your advertising to become more transparent to your audience?

2.    How might you alter your policies, training and warranties to prove you really are what you claim?

To borrow from something advertising legend Leo Burnett once said, what you want is for people to hear your message and say, “that sounds like a heck of a (product, service, book, seminar, etc.)” instead of “that’s a heck of an ad.” Think substance. Think meaning. Think about how you can earn credibility with a civic-minded generation. If you can accomplish that, your chances of cutting through the clutter increase exponentially.