I don’t mean price.  I mean saving money.  I mean creating value that far exceeds the price of what you sell.

Cisco introduced Telepresence about a year ago: meeting rooms that include HD monitors and video cameras that create a hyper-realistic presence of people anywhere in the world, as long as they are in another Telepresence room.   At a price of $100,000 to $400,000 per room.  Not an inexpensive proposition.  Yet, these babies save money by reducing travel.  And saving money is at the beginning, middle and end of every sales message Cisco sends.  As it should be.

Telepresence is also a huge “gotta-have” for egotistical top management at big companies.  But Cisco doesn’t position it this way; as leading-edge technology for leading-edge companies.  Save me money and I’ll buy from you.

Pentair introduced a variable speed pool pump.  You can set it to run longer, at a lower horsepower level, with short full-power intervals.  The bottom line, you’ll spend 90% less on electricity to keep your pool clean.  For me, that saves $90 a month.  It costs $2,200 (a premium for pool pumps) and pays for itself in less than two years, after rebates.  Save me money and I’ll buy from you.

The pump also has other important benefits.  It filters your pool water more effectively, maintains water chemistry better, you’ll end up using fewer chemicals and a pump running at lower RPMs lasts longer.  But Pentair puts cost savings front and center in every sales message.  As it should.

Here’s another great thing about the Pentair saving money positioning.  In the history of swimming pools, you replace your pump when it breaks.  Now, it makes sense to toss your current  pump and start saving money!

Figure out how what you sell saves people money.  Show it.  Demonstrate it. Prove it.  Start with it.  Makes sure it’s front and center.

Does this apply to everyone?  No.  Frankly, there may not be a good argument for how what you sell saves money.  I’m not sure how you demonstrate that buying a $100K Steinway piano saves you money, for example.   And no, “it’s the last piano you’ll every buy” doesn’t work (see “tortured logic” below).

My advice here is consider how you can collaborate with another company to demonstrate a cost savings.

But here’s the deal.  It needs to be real, not a stretch.  You can’t just change your headline.  No tortured logic either, please, just because I say it’s important.  Get feedback and input from customers to help you craft your money-saving message.

Then show it.  Demonstrate it. Prove it.  Start with it.  Makes sure it’s front and center.  And, save me money and I’ll buy from you.

// A NON-AD is something that doesn’t feel like an ad.  It informs.  It has value. 

It becomes an ad when it causes action.

You know what I’m talking about.  A white paper.  A report.  A guide.  An article reprint.  Something you can do for prospective customers that has as its goal to inform, to add value.  Now that’s a non-ad ad. 

Because if you can inform and deliver value, you can persuade.  Correct?  You don’t always have to “advertise” to advertise, right?  Take the video below, it’s a good example.

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwfJqCI74t4[/youtube]

This is a video by a respected member of his industry talking about what his organization feels is important about software that manages cases in forensic laboratories.  If you work in a forensic lab you’d learn some things about how to select case management software.  The company that paid us to create the video, JusticeTrax, is never mentioned.  The video obviously is on their site.  The implication is the software he uses is theirs, but it is designed to help someone in the early stages of considering this type of software.

You know what I mean.  You just need a reminder to plug this type of non-ad into your marketing and advertising program.  So, consider yourself reminded!

//  AN AD isn’t an ad when it doesn’t create action.

Lots of those around, aren’t there.

There are lots of reasons why an ad isn’t an ad and talking about them can help you avoid them.  So let’s go:

It’s not in front of enough of the right people.  You’re selling a high-end product to high-end people so you go into a high-end magazine.  Makes sense.  Until you ask yourself what percentage of those readers are in the market for what you’re selling at any one time.  Buy interest, not income.  If you sell high-end boats advertise where boat buyers go, not where high-end people go.  This is a mistake we see all the time.

Me-too.  Hey, we offer quality printing, personal service and a great price!!  Really?  You and every other printer on the planet.  A huge mistake advertisers make is building their ad in a vacuum only to have it fall flat because it says the same thing every other ad says.  What is truly different about you?  Ask your customers.  Highlight that.

No compelling offer.  You want people to take some type of action from your ad (or it’s not an ad!).  Typically, that means you need to give them an incentive.  Free shipping, a discount, come to our website and register for a free whatever.  Offer them something.

Too tough a call to action.  Ads need to ask the reader to take action.  Too often, ads ask too much (Call for a free, no-obligation demo!).  That’s what you want them to do, right?  But that’s a bit like expecting a kiss on the first date.  Baby steps.  Go to our website and download a brochure, free report, white paper.  Call for a catalog.  You’ll get their email or their address.  You can follow up later for your kiss and probably get kissed more often than asking for a demo right off the bat.

Not enough information.  Oh god, you need lots of white space and don’t ask people to read too much or you’ll lose them!  Thus is born the beautiful ad that your graphic designer is in love with and that generates zero response.  Because you don’t give people enough information to take the action you’re asking them to take.  And take it from someone who has asked millions and millions of people to take some type of action many, many times, it takes a lot more information than you think to generate even the smallest action (call for more information).

Make sure your ad is an ad before you pay to have it placed.  Start early.  Give yourself two extra weeks before it’s due.  Print it out and paste it into a current issue of the magazine and compare it to the other ads.  Do you notice it?  Does is look the same as the others?  Does it make a compelling offer you can find quickly?  Does it motivate you to take action?  If so, then maybe you have an ad!

Did it make sense for CNN to, as one of their honchos indicated, work on doing this for the past 12 years?  Probably.  It will likely become a part of our media in the near future and, why not be the first?  There’s something to be said for the occassional “parlor trick,” or doing something nobody else can.  It gets attention and attention’s a good thing (most of the time).