Scare tactic differentiation

Woe is the marketing person saddled with the challenge of spicing up a dry category where there’s really nothing new to say (no matter what the “R&D” people might insist). Generally, such burdens fall into one of two categories.

One such category includes products and services which have become so familiar that the marketplace has essentially stopped listening.

Take facial tissue, for example. Until the arrival of a lotion-embedded version for cold sufferers, all this industry could do was make its product and the container it came in bigger (or smaller), and fancy up the box. It is what it is.

The other segment features items that people prefer to shy away from, or think “not now, later” whenever the subject is mentioned. To break through with these types of products or services, a marketer has to give target audience members a reason to rethink what they already know.

You can’t get drier and less sexy than life insurance (“protect your loved ones”) and retirement communities (“live the good life!”). But, companies in each of these categories have recently kicked it up a notch in an effort to get their prospects’ attention.

Physicians Mutual Insurance is running radio spots featuring a somber fellow talking about the struggle his wife and family were going through. His laundry list of maladies includes paying bills, having funds for college for the children, and simply feeling financially secure. His oft-repeated refrain? “If only I’d known.”

Eventually, the listener realizes that the voice is coming, if you will, from beyond the grave. While the copy’s a little sappy and predictable, the message from a remorseful, deceased spouse does stand out.

The other example comes from Kansas City-based retirement community Tallgrass Creek. Their print advertising asks, “Is your house killing you?”

The body copy details why living in your family home – with all its responsibilities – may not be the best for your health once retirement arrives and your family has downsized. The text doesn’t have the same kind of intrigue that the headline does (“Friends have moved on. Nobody drops by for coffee anymore…”), but the headline is a grabber in a category generally dominated by pics of seniors doing water aerobics or joining in a clearly staged sing-along around the lobby piano.

Even if you’re blessed with a product or service that’s causing prospects to beat a path to your door, these examples are still a good reminder that:

• Emotions drive buying decisions. Tallgrass Creek understands that its primary competition isn’t other retirement communities; it's inertia among prospects. By reframing the “move out of your family home” dilemma as a health issue, they stand alone in the category.
• True differentiation requires risk. Having a deceased spokesperson or positioning your prospect’s present home as being hazardous isn’t for the faint of heart, but it sure beats the tried and true (and tired) approaches of the competition.
• Communications should aim to accelerate the sales cycle. These companies know that their targets already have gnawing concerns about their need for insurance or about whether or not to stay in their homes. As such, their ads are designed to drive inquiries, leaving the closing to the humans fielding those contacts.

The message? Successful communications unsettle the target audience…and sometimes the sponsor.