What claims do you make about your products or services? Unless you’re in the business of selling “get rich quick” schemes to a highly gullible target audience, it’s important to make sure your claims pass a basic “reasonableness” test. This month’s article gives an example of what can happen when your claims fail this test. |
KEEP IT BELIEVABLE
Is a major US retailer really committing murder? Eventually I got curious, took a flier, and struck up a conversation with the man. The flier stated that Gap’s third world contractors have such abysmal working conditions that over 1,300 workers have died in workplace fires. This man was trying to motivate people to sign a petition demanding that Gap do something about this situation. I suggested that he needed to change his line. Instead of saying “Gap is killing its workers,” I recommended he say “The shocking truth about the Gap!” He did, and for the next five minutes I watched as 100% of the people he approached took the flier – and appeared eager to read it. Non-believable claims get ignored So why did my line work while his failed miserably? Because “Gap is killing its workers” is not a believable claim. His line sounded like overblown hype, and saying it made him look like a nut case. It’s no wonder most people ignored him, and the few who did take the flier probably put it directly into the trash without giving it a glance! It’s better to spark people’s curiosity My line, on the other hand, which did even better than I expected, was intriguing and believable. People had no idea what this “shocking truth” could be, but they were curious enough to want to find out. Bottom line: If you want to catch people’s attention, avoid overblown hype and keep it believable. |
CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT: VACATION CLUB MANAGER |