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Marketing Is About Relevance

By Phil Grisolia

A marketing message without relevance is useless. It�s a waste of your time and money. But more important than that, it�s a wasted opportunity, a wasted chance to communicate effectively with would-be or present buyers of your Stuff, your products or services.

Let�s take a look at the three primary areas of relevance. For a marketing effort to be effective, your message � the point you�re trying to communicate � has to be relevant to your audience � the people who see or hear that message � and, at the same time, relevant to your product/service � whatever Stuff you�re trying to sell.

It may be easier for you to understand the importance of relevance if I share with you some examples. We can do that by taking a look at a few ads you�ve almost certainly seen on TV. I�ll be discrete and not mention the advertisers by name. But I�m sure you�ll recognize them.

First, there�s the TV spot for a luxury car maker that starts out showing water flowing into an overhead trough. The camera pans a little wider and you see a car enter your screen from the right. The water from the trough splashes over the car, then the car quickly exits left. But, remarkably, the falling water retains the outline of the car. Off camera a deep, dramatic, male voice says, �A line has been drawn.�

Where�s the relevance? What�s so outstanding about the car that this spot makes you want to buy it? The fact that the car can get splashing water to retain its outline? What�s the spot�s CTA � it�s call to action � what the advertiser wants you to do? Can you even remember the name the car? But you know for sure that ��a line has been drawn.�

Then there�s the soup-slurping boob who can�t seem to pry a soup container away from his mouth. With head tilted back, stumbling blindly around an office while making all sorts of ugly sounds, he bumps into walls, partitions and people. Ultimately he ends up in a cubicle that�s not his, and plops down on the lap of a fellow employee.

Where�s the relevance? Did the advertiser even mention taste? Nourishment? Price? Variety? Or do they mean that if you drink their brand of soup you, too, will be struck dumb and act like an idiot? As for the spot�s CTA, does it make you want you to run right out and buy their soup? They sure didn�t say that. They barely implied it.

Don�t waste time implying. If you�ve got something you want people to do, tell �em! Nicely, of course, but spell it out for them in words they can understand.

Then there�s the commercial featuring father and son sitting side by side in a sports car, the son behind the wheel. Son guns engine, tires leave 50 feet of rubber on pavement, father sits grinning proudly at son, asks son if he wants to repeat the behavior.

The theme of the spot is one word, �BOLD.� In fact, that�s been an ongoing theme of a number of similarly senseless spots lately by this same �nobody-is-buying-our-cars-any-more� car/truck maker.

Where�s the relevance? When was the last time you sat calmly in your car while your son or daughter did a burn out? And of course you encouraged him or her to do it again, right? OK, so they�re selling a particular brand of sports car, but to whom? To parents who are idiots? To teenagers who can�t afford the 25 grand price tag?

The spot obviously says the car is fast � well, at least quick. But does it saying anything about style, engineering, quality, service, price, warranty, any of those things � beside fast, that is � to make you want to buy that car? No, the voice-over talks about �BOLD.�

There�s nothing bold about that spot, or any other spot in the series, actually. While the story lines differ from spot to spot, the lack of relevance is obvious in them all. You have to wonder if the lack of relevance might be one of the things responsible for the company being in its present �nobody-is-buying-our-cars-any-more� position.

Anyway, that�s relevance. Actually, the lack of it. But you get the idea. Whatever your marketing efforts may include, make it a point to check them for relevance � what you�re saying, to whom, about whatever Stuff it is you�re selling.

ฉ 2006, Philip A. Grisolia, CBC

Phil Grisolia is an accredited Certified Business Communicator (CBC), author, educator, business coach, and an award-winning copywriter. His latest book, a 137-page how-to ThinkBook� is titled �101 Questions You MUST Answer BEFORE You Start A Business.� To learn more about Phil and the help he provides for his clients, visit him at http://PhilGrisolia.com . While there, sign up for his free his best-in-class newsletter, Making Sense of Marketing�.

posted by garmonza @ 5:40 PM