Marketing is strange, mysterious, at times unexplainable. Well, not really. But from the outsider's view it must appear somewhat puzzling.

In order for you to take advantage of its "weirdness" and become a guerrilla marketer we need to look at some insider marketing secrets. We're doing this so that you can see what's going on and create better, more effective marketing strategies for your small business. Let me share a few examples with you.

Pick up a recent copy of some major magazines designed for specific markets. Look at the latest copies of Vogue, Playboy, Mademoiselle, George, or Parade. Picture, if you will, some recent mega high priced marketing advertising pieces we've seen in these magazines. A close analysis will reveal some secrets you can use to be much more effective in your next local newspaper display ad.

Let's look at an ad together. Here's one for a Cadillac Allante. Cadillac probably has mega bucks for advertising, right? Right.

Okay, so the first thing we see is a steering wheel. There are hands on the steering wheel of this way-cool red convertible, and, guess what? It's following another identical red convertible. Hmmm, what are they trying to get across here?

First of all, take another look at the hands. Are those male or female hands? You don't know. That's because they're designed to be any hands. Actually they're designed to be your hands.

This is you driving this great car. Now take a look at the car you're following. Why, it's exactly the same car. Why are you pictured following this car? Because they want to show you how great you will look when others see you driving, specifically when others see how it looks to follow you! The marketing message: "In this car, you will look great to others."

The marketing specialists at Cadillac know that no one buys anything because of the specific features or even because of the benefits to them from that product. People buy things, primarily, because those things will make them look good.

You see, in our North American culture, looking good is much more important than even feeling good. Did you hear this: In our culture, looking good is much more important than feeling good.

To illustrate this major truth, how many of us regularly spend a lot of time, money, and effort on disguising a facial blemish while ignoring a painful canker sore inside our mouths? Most of us.

One major truth about our culture is that we would rather look good than feel good. Remember this important marketing truth and communicate it to your customers and potential customers.

"With our product, you'll look great." Get that message across and again and you'll be far ahead of the competition.

© 1995 W.K. Gallagher, Ph.D.

Bill Gallagher is the author of the best seller "Guerrilla Selling". You can view more articles by the author at the Guerrilla Marketing Site.

As a convenience to our readers, for more information on the topics and ideas presented in this article please call Guerrilla Sales & Marketing at 1-800-800-8086.

next page
contents