Why are you shouting at me?

I think it started with announcers for car ads … or maybe with Circus barkers … or maybe with the high-octane drag race announcer pitching the top fuelers at SIR on local radio.

I’m not certain of the origins … but I know this: it hasn’t stopped. And, it still happens all too often, I think.

My complaint?

The advertising pitchman who is shouting to get attention.

Oh, sometimes the loud, fast-talking huckster is replaced with bright colors, loud noises, exclamation marks or crazy stunts. You see and hear it every day as you are bombarded with advertising messages.

But such tactics are a bit like sneaking up behind someone at a supermarket and yelling: “Watch Out!” It is always jarring, unnecessary, and rude.

So why do advertisers do it that way?

Chances are, their ad rep or ad agency has told them that’s how it’s done.

They forget that the customer is seldom paying attention to them. We have way too many things to think about, to be concerned about – to be paying attention every time an advertiser wants to give us a pitch.

When exposed to an ad, we know it is there. We just really aren’t thinking about it or concentrating on it.

So, instead of shouting to get our attention, how about if the advertiser skillfully uses words to entice us with a thought more interesting than the thought we are thinking?  I believe words have power. And artfully used, can produce changes in emotion, logic, and attitude.

You see -- our minds are very interesting places. Each day, every waking moment – our mind is scanning the horizon looking for things of interest. It tends to ignore the common, the mundane, the average, the predictable. Instead, it examines immediately those things that are unusual, intriguing, and fascinating.

So if your goal as an advertiser is to move customers away from their routine, daily concerns and to focus on your ad message, you must offer a thought more compelling – more interesting – than the one that is currently in their minds.

And please remember -- this does not require shouting.

Good Selling!

J  Dana

Mr. Dana Kehr

Pro Marketing Northwest
PO Box 731413
Puyallup, WA  98373

(253)579-4040
getmedana@gmail.com

P.S. If you’d like some help creating artful ads with words that entice, please contact me. It’s what I do.