Hype sells without it we would all starve

Looks like a Burger King Whopper to me lol. You're making me hungry.

I get what you're saying though.

LOL, interesting point. I used to think that restaurant franchises should get hit with false advertising because the stuff you get NEVER looks like the product that was advertised, but now i accept it as being apart of the hype.

Know that I'm just bustin' yer balls a little here...

..but this post and your bottom sig link are killin' me.

LOL

I suspect that the hype is not really going to stop here hahaha.

Here's some more food picture hype if anyone is interested:
ThisPiggy.com Blog Archive Fast Food Reality

You're example (although your pictures of two different products) is spot on.

A Whopper actually does look like picture #1 if it is made correctly.

When you give the ingredients to a lazy employee, then you wind up with picture #2.

Many super hyped IM products are actually capable of producing what they promise.

But then they get into the hands of a lazy IM'er who does it all wrong, only partway, and you get less than optimal results.

That's just one school of thought - it's not a fact or a necessary.

Hype sells - but it's NOT required to do well and make money.....

Mind you I've known for a long time I'm not cut out for this IM thing.

You can't imagine how many times i was about to "really" take a legal action
against the big fast food chain(s)... because of their false advertising!

But then i get discouraged, because they probably have deeper pockets than me! and will probably get away with it.

Yes hype sells... BUT it leaves a "bad taste" in your customer's mouth!

Tamer

Food Photography is an art within itself.
The dirty tricks of food photographers :: Photocritic photography blog

Here's a few "Secrets" of the trade:

• Use Motor Oil instead of Syrup.
• Use Misting bottles to make stuff "wet".
• White Glue instead of Milk.
• Blowtorches to selectively melt cheese on pizzas.

Hype or no hype. Everything in the picture actually is On or IN the burger.

Looks like Burger King might be able to help me with my e-covers...

I think there was a site that compared the promo food pic with the actual. Just can't recall at this time... but yea, nobody seems to deliver in that area. LOL

Robert,

Thanks for making this thread man. I've been getting so sick of the hype bashing people have been raving about over the past few weeks here.

Hype is part of marketing. Live with it. If you don't hype your product at all, you are significantly hindering your sales!

A really smart chap I met at Affiliate Summit NYC had a a good analogy:

'You have to make your sales letter somewhere in between being realistic, and it giving you a BJ."

If you stick to far to the realistic side, your sales will suffer, and if you stick to far to the BJ side, your refund rates will suffer.

Hype makes you a sale... It does NOT build you a business,

Fool me once, shame on you... Fool me twice shame on me

Shannon

GREAT EXAMPLE!!!

Is that how you maxed most people out at LFMpire Bristol?



On a serious note, I use McDonalds example all the time, when talking about sales letters and advertisements. There is a thin line between deceiving and hyping things and making them "want" the product, As long as you know what you are doing and not exactly deceiving anyone. Its all good.

Maddi

Here is some latest info from adwords relating to hype policy on pages that people should note if planning to run adwords with the lot.

> No Misleading / Inaccurate Claims meaning:

> 1) the site cannot say it will work for everyone
> 2) cannot say the product is "Fool Proof"
> 3) Basically cannot over-hype the product's ability in any way

lol. such a good example. Yup. Hype sells. But at the same time, you also put your credibility in line. Trust is important dude.

I agree somewhat. If you ask me, McDonald's loses a huge market share due to the fact that they produce a trashy product. Their brand is so ingrained into the American psyche at this point that they can get away with this, but I honestly think they could do a lot better than they already are if the 2nd burger looked even half as good as the first.

then again, last time I checked they weren't calling me up for business advice, so....

Anyways, I think all the defending of hype is a little over-rated. I'm not one of the ones on the threads complaining about it, but I think sticking up for people who misrepresent their products is a little misguided--especially at the extremes it happens in IM. I get where you're all coming from, but I think if you claim something to make a sale it should at least be true.

Sure, if you're product really is all that, then rant and rave about it, but don't lie to me. If you're going to put 3 seeds on the bun and stomp on it before sending it out to my table then don't show me that first picture at all. That's just lying, and no matter how into marketing I get, I'll never allow myself to condone that.

All the best businessmen I've followed or met, offline and online, were really honest, straight-up people who accomplished more with what they produced than what they said beforehand. Sure, they knew how to market too, but in the long run, your products and business ethics speak more than a long-winded pitch or a sales page. At least the marketers I respect, anyways.

I've followed other people who sold me products based on hype and got my money, and I even formed relationships with some of these people. But once I realized that I'd been fed a little BS, I never really got over that and was able to trust those people again, even if their products did have some value to me. Because any time they told me something I wondered in the back of my mind what the real story was and what they really stood to gain.

Am I cut out for this internet marketing thing? I suppose the OP was half-joking, but I've seen some pretty genuine people out there that are making quite a bit of cash. Seems to me that just like in the offline world, you've got people on both sides.

Bottom line though--I don't like being taken for a fool or lied to. I'm not the majority I guess, and some hypesters, like Mickey-D's, are amazing marketers, but I'd honestly rather make a pretty decent living than ever put myself on their side of the fence.

packaging sells the product...always has done always will

it doesnt look much but its nutritous wouldnt sell a burger

anymore than

it takes work and a certain mentality to make it work
Its all in there somewhere you just have to find it

or

but you to can earn 50k a day even if you cant read or write, your fresh out of jail and dont have an internet connection

will sell

And if you never sell any product because you dont use the right amount of hype and sexy words to sell your product how is anyone ever going to know how good it is

The burger comparison is more about packaging then hype.

It was mentioned earlier that everything in burger A is in burger B - thats correct
Its just packaged differently.

Its OUR perception of what burger A is going to taste like vs burger B

They probably taste the same except our brain is telling us burger A LOOKS better than burger B so it probably tastes better too.

Packaging is as much of an art as copy writing
We've been visually sold to for many many years. Look in any magazine

Your brain has been telling you for years (for the guys in this thread) that the sexy woman showing all her assets holding the wrench in front of the tool box is the perfect woman who will fulfill all your fantasies, make your meals, clean your home and fetch your slippers.

Maybe .... LOL

.... Just thought I'd put a different spin on the thread

Thanks for raising the point Robert

By the way, my burgers always look like burger A LOL

Robert,

Good post. One sentence and two pic's says a lot.

Some honest hype dresses up or puts life into a promotion. To me that is much different than blatant lies and extreme exaggeration.

P.S. I have purchased many McD hamburgers that look somewhere in between both pictures.

Any sales manager I've worked under, any book on how to sell that I've read, all say the same thing, "Emotion sells." People, for the most part, buy with their emotions. When you sell something you have to make them want it, most of all. Of course there are other factors that contribute to make a sale, but it's pretty basic, really. There must be financial logic, and then, most of all, there must be an emotional reason to want to buy. That's the part of the brain that actually pulls the trigger most of time to buy something.

That's selling. And that's one reason we see hype.

Now, we don't have to lie or make false claims, etc. But if you can hype something up enough to really connect with the buyer and make them really want it, then you're in business, baby.

Wow I'm speechless
You definitely prove your point right there

Maybe hype makes a sale, but it rarely ever makes a return customer out of me. I haven't eaten in a fast burger restaurant for many years because I always get one that looks like pic #2 and they make me ill just looking at them.

Same with products of any kind. If it doesn't deliver on that hype ... I may refund and I will never buy again.

Hype is often used as a nicer word than blatant lie. If that belief makes me "not marketer material" I can certainly live without the "marketer" tag by my name. I still sell stuff and make my living online.

An interesting topic. I think that KenStrong nails it when he points out that "hype" can have two different meanings.

One is to lie/deceive, whilst the other is simply to do the hard-sell.

And I think most people agree that the former is completely wrong (and lets face it, there *are* junky IM products out there which pretty much are lies and are sold on deception), whilst the latter is fine in many cases.

I'm not a big fan of hard-selling, but I certainly don't mind it. I guess the problem occurs because - as I say - there *are* junky IMers and IM products out there who pretty much do lie, and this then gives 'hype' and IM a bad name.

Depends on your definition of hype I guess.

I dislike lies and deception. I'm fine (to a point) about the hard-sell.

Hype is the dressing you put around your product to make it more appetising, just like McDonalds do

hype is what feeds the world, not just because of the burger in the picture, but because every product is dressed up with it in order to make the sales to pay the wages to feed your kids.

Packaging and hype is the reason everyone eats...

There is a huge difference between hype and deception...

And customers are the ones that read into the message more than is in there, usually the complaint about hype is not because it was mis presented but because the reader read into it what he/she wanted to hear

let me give you an example
we have just rebranded the LFM software, we charged a small token fee for existing owners to move over to the new version. One owner blasted me with the comment in bold and caps "SO MUCH FOR LIFETIME UPDATES ANOTHER SCAMMER NOT KEEPING HIS WORD"

I pointed out to him the sales page says free updates for a year not lifetime, and they had been getting free updates for 5 years. I well over delivered on the promise

But still he read what he wanted to read

Hype is the readers eyes as much as it is the writers words, sometimes (manytimes in fact) more in the readers perception than in the original words used.

OR

"you told me it would do this and this" I cant make it do that you lied

MY reply yes it will go to page 29 of the manual its laid out there how to do that

Their reply... I havent got time to read a 90 page manual it should be easy to find I shouldnt have to go looking for it.

The problems with hype are a lot to do with how people read the same sales page, and come up with 100 diferent versions of it in their own minds

@Daniel Brock

There is a difference between hyping and building up the customers expectation and lying. A good example are the 'emails' received by supposed 'marketers' that are very brief and say, "hey xxxx is a great guy check out his really good new product which made him $xxx in a month," when the 'marketer' has not even seen or tested the product.

Ring any bells?

Or the blatant scarcity BS stating only 234 copies will be sold, this seems to be a very popular number lately, and then, when you try exiting the page you get a pop-up telling you about an upsell that only has 3 spots left, again, more lying.

I could keep going but I am sure this should be ringing some bells with a lot of people.

Respectfully
Chris

P.S. I have no problem with hype when done properly.

It doesn't look as good, but the substance of the first pic is all there in the second pic. It is hype, but not empty hype.

The "make money online!" IMers rarely have substance to deliver. They are indeed empty hype.

I think we're confusing hype with emphasizing the benefits of your product in order to create excitement/anticipation and make it as attractive as possible. I think hype implies that you're being dishonest. You can do effective marketing without hype.

If you look up hype in the dictionary, it says:

exaggerated publicity; hoopla
a swindle, deception, or trick
to intensify (advertising, promotion, or publicity) by ingenious or questionable claims,methods, etc.

The fine line between hype and good marketing is determined by whether or not you can actually back up your claims.

The burger and movie trailer examples are good ones to represent marketing and advertising being used to position an offer in the best light possible - which is exactly the point of marketing and advertising.

I wouldn't call them hype though.

In both cases, you get the same ingredients as the burger in the picture or the same scenes as the ones you say in the trailer... although neither are what you were expecting.

In these cases, the strategies used to sell slightly misrepresented the reality of the offers, but not to the level of being considered hype.

This is especially true when you take into consideration the fact that most people are aware the pictures aren't real and the trailer can sometimes be better than the movie.

The fact we all share this common knowledge dampens the effect of these strategies, making them almost non-factors in our decisions.

I've never seen anyone pick a burger at McDonald's because it looked the nicest in the picture... and I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon.

The bigger problem with using these examples in an attempt to make an analogy to the internet marketing crowd is they aren't comparing apples to apples.

The IM marketer doesn't simply "put his offer in the best light possible", he outright lies and deceives.

It's not about making the product look better than it really is... how can it be?

Most of these offers don't even reveal what you're actually getting in return for your $37, $47, $67, $77 or $97 payment, focusing the majority of the letter on their story and the rest of it on the results they and others are presumably getting.

McDonald's uses their packaging and pictures to say "This burger looks good. Don't you want to have one?"

They don't say "Eat this burger and women will sleep with you, you'll become a millionaire, and never have to work again."

Do you not see the difference?

Take your own RobertPuddy.com site in your signature - nice play on the Hype angle BTW

The black guy in the nice suit who pops-up onto the page in a video doesn't work for you. He doesn't really care about whether or not people leave a comment either.

But that doesn't make it hype: it's a marketing tactic.

If someone where to come to the site, believe what he's saying, and leave a comment... that's the power of marketing and the effectiveness of that specific tactic to generate those results.

But...

The hype line gets crossed if he were to say "and I'll give you a free gift that's not available anywhere else" and you end up giving those people who leave a blog comment access to a free PDF report you plastered all over the internet six months ago.

Since the "not available anywhere else" part of the marketing pitch is a lie aimed to deceive people into believing they are getting something that's more valuable than advertised, the entire tactic becomes hype.

The only way to move off the hype train would be to remove the offending statement, bringing the entire marketing tactic back into reality.

Simple solution.

So, why do we have this problem with hype then?

The problem is: What happens when the version with the hyped-up statement actually converts better?

You guessed it... greed wins.






Jason

I agree, hype is about 90% of trying to flog a product

There's a current pizza commercial (don't recall the company) that
is 'confessing' to these photography tricks in their ads and is now
asking their customers to send in pictures of the real thing.

I don't know what they hope to accomplish by this confession
except maybe to appear more honest than their competitors.

-Ray Edwards

A friend of mine is a food photographer who make images for many of the national food chains and manufacturers - everything from Wendy to Post cereal.

The reason the hamburger in the advertising photo looks sooooooo good it the way it is photograhed.

He said they start with 250 buns and out of those will find 5 that are perfect. The meat in the advertising sandwich must be the same cut and weight of that in the product being sold, but...

...it does NOT have to be cooked for the advertisement.

That burger is still frozen at some below zero F temperature. They use a blow torch to sear the outside edges, then a food stylist creates a sandwich by cutting a hole in the lettice and the tomato to keep the sandwich looking flat.

It can take a week just to get the one perfect photo. His day-rate used to be around $6,000 plus the cost to hire the food stylist.

It is a very narrow field of interest.

:-Don

Hype is only worthy with substance...real results,no doctored clickbank and adsense paychecks

I hear what you're saying Robert. Here's a great example of definition #1.

I was doing some online dating and the woman on the profile looked like this:





But when we met up for coffee this was she REALLY looked like.



Not even the beer goggles worked for me that day....lol

I know that's not the point you were making in your OP, but it gave me an excuse to put up those pics.

RoD

Hilarious, but hey you are right. If hype means
make it look better than it really is, sure,

Kingsley