Joe Sugarman's Triggers - Mass Delusion and Other Good Marketing Ideas
One of the very critical techniques that I have used in my mail order ads is a process called “linking.” Basically, it is the technique of relating what the consumer already knows and understands with what you are selling, to make the new product easy to understand and relate to.
One of the easiest examples of this trigger is to explain how it works in a fad. A fad is simply a craze that usually captures the public’s consciousness and quickly creates strong demand, awareness or behavioral changes. The demand can be for a product such as for the Beanie Babies in 1998 or the citizen band (CB) radios back in the ’70s. It can be simply the strong awareness of a product or concept, such as the Viagra craze in 1998, or it can be for behavioral changes, such as women throwing away their bras during the women’s liberation movement of the late ’60s.
There are also fads within specific industries. For example, in the exercise industry there might be a fad for abdominal devices; on infomercials, there might be a glut of business opportunity shows.
Usually the fads come and go quickly. But the importance of the fad examples is to show you the process of linking on its most basic and obvious levels. Then I’ll take it deeper to give you a sense of how linking can be used to effectively sell a product or service.
First, a few stories about fads and how this linking process works. A good example of recognizing fads and knowing what to do with them comes from an experience I had with Richard Guilfoyle, a direct marketer from Boston. He had a strong sense of history and prided himself on creating replicas of famous American objects—Paul Revere’s lantern, George Washington’s statue at Valley Forge, a salt-and-pepper set from the time of the Revolutionary War.
In 1975 his company was doing quite well. And no wonder—the country was about to celebrate its 200th or bicentennial anniversary, and this class of merchandise was being recognized as a way of celebrating the birth of our nation. Sales were brisk. Richard was capitalizing on this current fad for any product that celebrated America’s 200th birthday.
Then the bottom of his business fell out. Sales plummeted and he couldn’t figure out why.
And it all happened just prior to July 4th, 1976—the date of the bicentennial.
When he attended my seminar, he was really quite disappointed with his business. What happened? I suggested that maybe it was because people were associating or linking his products with the anniversary of the United States. Because that date had already passed, his sales reflected this perception.
But Richard insisted that this wasn’t the case. “My products have true historic significance and have nothing to do with the bicentennial.” Could I simply look at his copy and help him improve it?
After looking over his copy, which was actually quite good, I saw clearly what the problem was. He had not recognized that consumers linked his products as part of the excitement of the U.S. bicentennial, rather than as a part of American history that they could save and own.
He then showed me a few ads he had prepared after attending my seminar. One of them was for a necklace consisting of a small replica of a Paul Revere lantern that had a small diamond in the center reflecting light as the candle flame. It was a beautiful piece of jewelry.
I read the copy and said, “You have a winner here. This ad will do well—not because of the historic nature of the necklace but because of the beautiful piece of jewelry that it is. You’re now selling jewelry, Richard, not good old Americana.”
Sure enough, the ad was a huge success and he soon realized how a powerful fad can grow and fade. And how sometimes fads aren’t recognized as fads.
I used fads as a way of generating publicity when I was doing public relations for a few of my clients. One owned a ski resort and was trying to increase the awareness of snowmobiles at his resort. At the time, during the mid to late ’60s, the women’s lib movement was new, strong, and passionate. I suggested that the resort owner ban women snowmobile drivers and I issued a press release proudly announcing this fact. The publicity went national. He rescinded his ban after the publicity died down and snowmobile sales grew dramatically from the national publicity and attention. In short, he linked a marketing problem onto a fad and consequently got enough publicity to increase his sales.
At about the same time, one of my accounts—Jerry Herman, owner of the Spot pizza restaurant near Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois—wanted national publicity too.
Women were in the middle of an unusual fad—throwing their bras away and going braless. I suggested to Jerry that he design a bra-shaped pizza and link it to the fad. He too got national publicity.
Later I used an awareness fad as a way of selling products. When it was discovered in 1973 that Nixon was using phone tap equipment to record all his phone conversations, there was enormous publicity about it. I immediately put together a JS&A offer for a system with which anybody could tap their phones and ran it in The Wall Street Journal under the headline, “Tap Your Phone.”
That ad was a mistake. The FBI showed up at my door and The Wall Street Journal
threatened never to run my ads again. Even worse, I didn’t sell many of the systems and lost money on the ad.
In contrast, I caught another fad at just the right time. I offered a walkie-talkie right at the height of the citizen band (CB) radio boom in the U.S. By calling my walkie-talkie a Pocket CB, because it broadcast on the CB frequencies, I was able to capture a major chunk of the CB market fad.
The minute there is a lot of publicity about something and it has the potential to turn into a fad, it could be a great opportunity to link it onto something that you’re doing, either to get publicity or to promote a product.
Recently the Viagra impotency pill presented an opportunity for some BluBlocker publicity. The three side effects of the pill that affected a small percentage of men were blurry vision, sensitive eyes, and seeing a blue cast after taking the pill.
BluBlocker sunglasses helped alleviate all three side effects and I issued a press release to announce that fact. Publicity appeared all over the world.
In another example, I realized that there might be a baby boom from the use of Viagra. With 20 million pills prescribed and the increased “fire power” that men now had, this was a real possibility. I contacted Success magazine and suggested that they issue a press release on the possible baby boom and the future economic effects of both the drug and the lifestyle changes possible because of Viagra. They loved the idea and followed the idea up with an article in their next issue.
Fads are very powerful. And you now understand the basic concept of linking. But how does this help in the selling process when there isn’t a fad? And how could this trigger be used in a personal selling situation?
Whenever I sell a new product or a unique feature of a new concept, I use linking. I take what is familiar to the prospect, relate it to the object I am selling, and create a bridge in the mind of my prospect. Because of this linking, the prospect needs to think a lot less to understand the new product. The product is easier to relate to the needs of the prospect.
Everybody wins.
An example of this process was in my ad on a smoke detector. The headline of the ad was, “The Nose.” I talked about the smoke detector not as a smoke detector (many such devices were already being sold) but as a nose that sat on your ceiling and sniffed the air. When it smelled smoke, it set off an alarm. I took the very human and simple concept of a nose—a part of the body whose function is well understood—and then linked it to an electronic device.
In the ad I also used linking to express quality. For example, I talked about the integrated circuits using gold for the contact points. My prospect was then able to link the expense and quality of gold to this product and come up with a quality image of this product and a justification for its higher price. In actuality, every integrated circuit used gold for its contact points, so this wasn’t revolutionary, but nobody had taken the time to explain it to the consumer.
I have used linking in many other ways. For example, I had a product that was a remote car starter. You pressed a button on a remote control device and your car automatically started.
I called it “The Mafia Auto Gadget.” Can you see the linkage with this product? No? Well, I explained it in the ad. The Mafia often used car bombs to eliminate competition. Because this device started the car for you at a distance, it eliminated the fear and concern for any Mafia member. Of course, the market was also broadened to include those people who simply liked the convenience of pre-starting their car on a hot or cold day and having the car reach a pleasant temperature before they got in. But the positioning of the product was done with a link that the consumer could understand—that of linking it to the Mafia.
I could give you hundreds of examples. But the main point to remember about linking is that it should relate the product or service you are selling to something that is easy for your prospect to identify so that you bridge the mental gap in the mind of the prospect.
Usually products are simply improved versions of previously sold products. You need to relate the older product to the new version to explain the advanced product.
One of the hardest things to use linking for is a miracle product—a product that is too good to believe. For example, I was selling a small pill that you put in the gas tank of your car. It improved gas mileage, cleaned out the engine, and had 10 times the fuel additives that you get from super unleaded fuel. It was truly a miracle product and difficult to link to anything that existed in the marketplace. We used the phrase, “Vitamins for your car” and “tune-up in a pill” as a few of our links.
Linking is a basic human emotional system of storing experiences and knowledge and then recalling those experiences and linking them to something we have to deal with on a daily basis.
We often link things together in our memories. I remember when President John F. Kennedy died. I remember where I was at that precise moment and remember the confusion and the personal pain and emotion I felt. I linked every image and emotion to that moment in time.
I can even remember my very emotions and the precise time and location in a forest when I was hiking with my high-school sweetheart, talking about life and our deepest fantasies. My fantasy was to be very successful and own an exciting sports car, live on a tropical island, and someday write a novel. She confided to me that her fantasy was simply having sex with the entire Brazilian soccer team.
In the personal selling process, simply be aware of how linking works. Presenting your product or service by linking it to something the consumer can relate to and understand is very powerful in that selling process.
Trigger 16: Linking
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