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ISSUE 01
PERSUADER
Why would anyone pay 14¢ for a 3¢ cough drop?
BY PETER BROOKS
Marketing expert since 1984
SUMMARY: I was at the
store waiting for a prescription, so I compared ingredients
and costs of cough drops. Most cough
drops had the same ingredients but
the high-priced cough drops cost 300%
more than the generic brands.
How can you charge more for your
services and products?
I went into the supermarket the
other day and a display of caught my
eyes. It was for cough suppressants, of
all things. Throat drops and oral lozenges. I was intrigued. Why were there
so many brands, I wondered?
I was bored waiting for a prescription so I compared the ingredients and
costs. I didn’t know the cough drop
market was so competitive. I was surprised at the range of cost.
Why would one brand be four cents
a drop while another would be 12 cents
a drop?
Why is it that one can charge not
twice but three times the amount of
another competing brand? And did
you know that most of them had the
same ingredients?
Cough drops are just one industry.
Every industry is just as competitive.
Why is it that some products and services are priced low and some priced
high?
It doesn’t matter what you are selling. It’s all about marketing—making
your product appear more different
and valuable.
Have you ever wondered how you
could make your product appear more
valuable?
I’m going to give you some hints on
how to improve the actual or perceived
value.
Here are five ideas:
1. Raise your price
Number one: raise the price. If you
want to appear more valuable, raise
your price. A lot of times people assume higher priced items are worth
more. Look at any product that costs
more and you’d think it is worth more.
The cosmetic industry does this very
well. They have a notorious reputation
for over charging the poor women of
this world. How can they get away
with such high-priced items? It’s easy:
women pay it.
2. Improve your design
Number two: improve the design.
Design increases the value of a product. If all of these cough drops—Fisherman’s Friend, Halls, Ricola, Vicks,
Ludens and Generic—were side by side
and all were the same price, which one
would you choose?
If you notice each one of them kind
of appeals to a different market. Fisherman’s Friend take the approach that
they have a better product because
they’ve tested it on the high seas with
fishermen.
Ricola has that gimmick of the big
horn with the guy in the Swiss Alps.
So if you want to differentiate yourself,
pay for better design.
3. Increase the size or quantity
Number three: increase the size or
quantity of your product. Add more
value by increasing the product. I see
this done with all kinds of products.
For example, the other day I saw
dog food where they offered 20% more
than the normal bag. I thought that
was kind of odd but if you think about
it, there is extra value there and it
makes the dog food appear more valuable than other products.
4. Add something special
Number four: add something spe-
cial. Add a special ingredient. Take
the approach where Certs breath mints
add a drop of that magical ingredient Retsyn. And then there’s Listerine
that kills germs that cause bad breath.
Those are just two examples. Both
Certs and Listerine focus on that one
thing that makes them stand out.
5. Use a cool spokesperson
Number five: use a cool spokesman. The spokesman represents your
company. The Marlboro Man. The
Jolly Green Giant. Ronald McDonald.
Danica Patrick for Go Daddy. You get
the picture.
No matter what, give your product
a first-class image. You must decide
what image you want for your brand.
Image means personality. Products are
like people: they have a personality.
The personality is the combination of
several things: name, packaging, price,
style of advertising and above all, the
product itself.
If you want to be different than your
competitors then be different. Good
luck and keep on marketing your business and let’s make your sales go ape.
THINK ABOUT IT: How can you charge
more for your products? ✦
Comments? Call 801-768-1344 or E-mail
[email protected]. Past issues
can be found at www.BrooksAd.com.
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Peter brooks
BROOKS
ADVERT ISING
Why is this one of the most successful ads of all time?
This ad was created by
advertising legend David
Ogilvy.
I’m going to let David
use his own words from his
book Ogilvy on Advertising.
“You don’t stake a tinker’s
chance of producing successful advertising unless you
start by doing your homework. I have always found
this extremely tedious, but
there is no substitute for it.
“When I got the RollsRoyce account, I spent three
weeks reading about the car
and came across a statement
that ‘at sixty miles an hour,
the loudest noise comes from
the electric clock.’
“This became the headline,
and it was followed by 607
words of factual copy.”
It starts with an incredible
headline
How important is the
headline?
David Ogilvy says: “On
average, five times as many
people read the headline as
read the body copy.
“When you have written
your headline, you have
spent eighty cents out of
your dollar.
“If you haven’t done some
selling in your headline, you
have wasted 80 percent of
your client’s money.”
(SOURCE: David Ogilvy,
Ogilvy on Advertising, John
Wiley and Sons, Toronto,
1983 ISBN 0-517-55075-X) ✦
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