Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatwhat/
Have you noticed that it doesn’t matter what some marketers are trolling for, votes, cars or cat litter, a lot of people are yelling at us! The other morning on TV I heard Hillary yelling about her credentials in a gym full of voters, followed by NBC’s Al Roker yelling about the weather in my neck of the woods followed by a car dealer who was actually using a bull horn to sell his cars.
Is yelling effective? Its like pressing harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are about shot. Of course not! In marketing to people over the age of 50 yelling is a complete waste of money, for several reasons. Women find it rude and inconsiderate. Men are yelled at at home so often they simply tune it out! ( I speak for myself.)
The reason there is so much yelling is the theory that yelling stands out and gets attention. In todays advertising clutter the feeling is that you have to grab and hold onto the potential customer. It’s easy to yell and far more difficult to write a commercial that grabs the attention of a customer. For example travel is big on the agenda of many 50 plus people. Whistle and yell or “May I tell you about a vacation that will last a lifetime?”
Is there ever a day when mattresses are not on sale? By the time people are thier 50’s they are in the market for a new one. With something that is synonymous with peace and quiet, why yell about the sale? Nor will the 50 plus market fall for that old line, “On sale today only!”
When your next ad campaign comes due think about that huge 50 plus market and “Don’t yell, Tell!”
August 1, 2008 at 5:47 am |
I liked the lemon aid stand. I have to say my dad does these things at the farm daily, and has for over 50 years. Not many people are owners and still there greeting and telling them to bring more friends. He also has the biggest heart, giving things away and helping all kinds of people, always have and he always will.
The yelling, your right. I having kids, can not stand yelling. I cringe when I hear someone yell. Kid or parent. I am accused of being a bit rude when I ask people (kids or adults) to not talk so loud. So I agree. They say the softer you speak the more people listen.
One day sales never worked for me either. (personally)
I agree with woo them not wow them.
A big problem I hear is the old customers we have being around for more than 50 years is increasing prices. We can not please all and stay afloat. I find myself personally, daily reminding people over 50 or 60 the price of gas has gone up. They get upset on us raising our prices. It is and has been very hard to keep our prices from going up and still keeping it all made fresh. In 1995 the chicken dinner price was $9.95 so it went up to only $12.50 in 2008. Give me a break.
The CBS comments make me recall when I worked for Pepsi at Taco Bell. Pepsi ,the mother company in the early 90’s decides they needed more bottom line to the shareholders and such, so they cut the managers at each store level. They called the individually runed TB units teamed managed units and split a GM salary between 2, 3 or 4 stores. That meant a GM manager was a good GM they would be split between stores. I lived it, it didn’t work. You can’t have the same result with one GM at one store by spreading them so thin. The company spread the GM first then told us to hire and train those under us, it was backwards. I and many others were not set up for success before being spread so thin.
I agree about not only looking at the bottom line, but sometimes you have to try to perdict some of the uncertianies that come our way. I have always been causious. I am the one who would bet at the nickel slots in Vegas to make it last longer.
It’s good to have insight from those over 50, what can you tell us business people on how to answer those about increasing prices?
These were some quick thoughts, didn’t have much more time to read, but I will read on.
Laura