Resources From the Best in an economy that's the "worst"

[David McKee]

I can't know who each of you personally considers to be the best copywriters and advertising men of all time, but some of the names that come up would have to include the late Gary Halbert, and other greats like Michael Fortin, Joe Vitalie, Joe Farinaccio, Ken Evoy, Perry Marshall, David Valeries, Dan Lok, etc.

So with the current economy and people holding onto their money tightly, what strategies and methodologies are still working, what new ones are being tried, and what other strategies need to be retired?

For example, I am seeing copy nowadays that reminds people that the government is inflating currency so every minute they hold onto their money, it is worth less! That is an interesting take - and it works well for selling such things as survivalist gear, gold/silver/precious metals, coins, etc.

I believe we are entering a new paradigm of copywriting and advertising, and I wonder how much of the old information is still true.

David T. McKee

[Loren Woirhaye]

People are much more eager to prevent loss of what they
already have than they are motivated to go after further
gain.

They are more eager to keep a dollar in their pocket than
go out and earn a dollar.

Read Victor Schwab's book. It's revealed there. Human
nature is a constant. The old appeals still work like crazy
as long as they are framed in timely facts.

A lot of the guys you mentioned write "bizop" copy, or are
well-known for it. Not the huge direct-mail controls that
turn-up the heat on FEAR - fear of losing retirement money,
fear of losing health and independence.

Look at Agora publishing stuff if you want to see where the
big money really is. Boardroom books too. Rodale maybe.
Clayton Makepeace writes some of the letters for those
giants. He's known for Magalogs. Huge money.

[travlinguy]

I understand what you're saying but things really don't change much at all. The two primary motivators are fear and greed. Looking at current national and international events both social and financial right now one would expect people to be more motivated by fear (unpleasant consequences or 'pain') than greed (enthusiastic desire or 'reward').

So... you tailor your approach to fit the times. The smart writer has his/her finger on the pulse of the times and writes accordingly. Of course, there will be slightly different approaches depending on the market. The writer's job is to figure out those approaches.

[Bill Jeffels]

Hi David,

I think that ways to market now and years ago is to offer a solution to a problem and offer something that is going to fulfill someone's desires.

Here's an example.

A Gary halbert ad for Milburn publishing and Frank Sarcona from 1979.

The Amazing Diet Secret
Of A Desperate Housewife

A Gary Halbert ad for Slim America Inc. and Frank Sarcona from 1992.

Teacher Loses 70 Pounds... With Out Being Hungary
And After Everything Else Fails Her

I think someone's desire never changes.

Take care,

Bill Jeffels

P.S. Frank Sarcona could also be going to jial for a long time, but that's for another thread... possibly the Jeff Paul one.

[la dominatrix]

Human nature has not changed since primeval times if you believe the evolutioanry psychologists and that tells us a lot of how and why pewople shop, and the triggers that make them do it, as that has not changes in thousands of years why should copywriting?
Peopel will always want something for nothing
La dominatrix

[David McKee]

Thanks to Loren, travlinguy, Bill, and la dominatrix for your insights - I think you are right that there are only a few basic motivators - with the economy the way it might be interesting to go back to the great depression era and look at some of the successful ad copy from those times and see in what ways that could be made to work for today.

I guess what I really want to know, bouncing ideas off of you all - is in what ways do you think your copy will change, or will it? Are there products that you will shy away from now that in the past you would market without a second thought?

I have been thinking about this as well as the problem of information overload that we now have. It amazes me how at some point too much of a good thing has an opposite affect, and people seem less informed or have a shallow knowledge of things despite the ever larger pools of information available.

All of these things affect how we target - I am deeply interested in how our writing must change to reflect it.

[RentItNow]

I think we will continue to go farther and farther on the long tail with content and thus marketing must conform to this. I was watching Dumbo the other day and realized it was made in 1941 and likely EVERYONE saw it when released as there was not much else out. Fast forward to more recently times -- there are some people that still have not seen Star Wars (even though it may have been as big a release as Dumbo). Now there is so many shows, movies that not one of them can achieve what Dumbo did because of the long tail effect. Enter Youtube! Talk about long tail.

So my point is the marketer's job is going to get harder as he/she needs to reach a very small audience in a sea of people. You almost have to know the person's name you are going to write to.

[Loren Woirhaye]

That's what I was thinking too, John.

Unless you are very talented and get tapped to write major
direct mail promotions or mass-market infomercials you'll be
writing to a narrow audience and furthermore you'll be writing
to them based on a standard of what I'll call "niche-cultural identification".

This phenomenon is easiest to observe with teenagers and
young adults who built a public identity for themselves around
the clothes they wear and the objects they own - even as
they age they'll carry residual identification with brands they
preferred in their youth and this will affect both the language
and the appeals that will work to get them to part with their
disposable income.

Young people have a lot of spending power but they are hard
to pin down because of the niche culture thing. As people age,
become parents and get mortgages the responsibilities of
adult life have a way of homogenizing the appeals you can
use to reach them... they cease to be such wildcards as
a market because eventually financial security and health
become paramount concerns for everybody.

[la dominatrix]

Should anyone want to buy David Mckee's copywriting library posted at the end of his post (above) it is excellent value. I need to update my copywriting skills constantly and although everything he is selling there are some absolute gems of information. It is fantastic value and although as he rightly says it can all be found on the Internet in the publi domain would you bother to find it and certainly not if $7.00 is going to save you hours and hours work.

In answer to your question David copywriting does change in the sense that the medium changes ie the Internet but the motivators that make people buy are in my opinion unchanging, and that fact is not altered by a depression. Some markets may be affected more than most for instance if money is tight then consumers will cut down first on the things that they need. For instance they may eat out less, but they cannot cut out buying food entirely.

That does not mean that you do not have to know your market your target audience and your message must be in tune. You can write all you want and have the best sales copy in the world, but if it is not reaching your rabid market then you will never sell a thing. In some ways communicating your message is the easy bit at least for me, finding who you should be targeting when sending out your message is not always that easy.

What does anyone else think
La Dominatrix

[David McKee]

Thank you La Dominatrix for your endorsement! I really appreciate that.

It's good stuff, part of my personal library actually, all in PDF written by masters of the art.

Anyway, I like to try to give more value than I advertise.

DTM