Clayton Makepeace has released the latest issue of ‘Total Package’. The featured article by Paul Maxey is titled “Benefits or Bust”. [‘Success in Selling’ Article]


Clayton Makepeace has released the latest issue of ‘Total Package’.

The featured article:

Benefits or Bust

by Paul Maxey

Dear Business-Builder,

There’s no doubt that copywriters and marketers who create infomercials are some of the best in the business.

After all, it’s nothing to drop a few million dollars on a 30-minute TV slot. And unlike traditional TV advertising that’s focused solely on building a brand ““ with no tracking or accountability whatsoever ““ it’s possible to know within minutes if your infomercial is a runaway success or a miserable failure.

So you had better know what you’re doing!

That’s why watching and studying infomercials is a favorite pastime for more master copywriters than I can count.

And that brings me to this weeks’ Swipe of the Week.

Now, I’m not going to throw out a link to a 30-minute infomercial here and ask you to watch it.

But the campaign I’m going to share with you today is the online version of an infomercial ““ complete with a couple minute long online video ““ that’s currently running here in my local market for a new fitness product.

There are several things you can learn from studying this campaign. Both what to do and what not to do.

But the most fascinating aspect to me has to do with the way in which they’ve chosen to target men and women differently (as opposed to the marketers of fitness equipment like Bowflex and Total Gym who simply lump everyone together).

These marketers have actually broken their advertising into two completely separate tracks; each of which focuses on an entirely different set of promises and benefits in the ads themselves, as well as in the online video that accompanies them. Men and women are not the same. So why market to them as if they are, right?

Unfortunately, any edge these marketers may have gained in strategy, they may have very well lost in execution.

My wife is a diehard user of the popular P90X fitness DVDs, and is a sophisticated shopper when it comes to fitness programs and workout videos. So I showed her these ads to get her opinion and was quite intrigued by what she had to say.

After reviewing the ad and video targeted at women, she called it a “gimmick” and said she had no interest whatsoever. But after watching the ad and video that was targeted at men, she suddenly switched sides and was almost instantly sold!

So what happened?

She said the ad targeted at women attempted to dumb everything down and failed to give her the facts she needed to be sold on the product. It treated her as if she was “stupid” and talked about the “cosmetic” reasons for buying, rather than the health and fitness benefits.

In short, they targeted the wrong benefits. Consequently, she had zero interest in what they had to say.

But the ad targeted at men went straight to the facts and told her exactly what she needed to hear in order to understand all of the health and fitness-related benefits she would experience using the product. And it did so in a way that didn’t make her feel as if they were talking down to her.

So what do you think?

Download this week’s swipe now and let us know what you think by leaving your comments below. Did these marketers hit the target or did they miss the mark? Would you purchase this product?

Until next time …

Yours for greater profits,

Paul Maxey
Makepeace-Trained Copywriter
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

The Total Package

*IMNewsWatch would like to thank Clayton Makepeace for granting permission to reprint this article.

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