Right Message, to the Right Market, at the Right Time

by Greg Milner on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 12:11 am

Forbes Magazine - for America's richest, most 'sophisticated' readers. So you'd think they'd only respond to so-called 'sophisticated' advertising. Wrong.

So America has a new president - a classic case of the right message, delivered to the right market, at the right time.

Clearly, something I failed to do at a seminar I gave for medspa doctors in San Diego last week.

So at Los Angeles airport on the way home last Friday, I picked up the latest copy of Forbes magazine, for some light reading on the 12 hour flight to Auckland. (Not to mention another 12 hours flying to get home from New Zealand!)

This issue is devoted to the 400 richest people in America; minimum entry level, a net worth of $1.3 billion. The top 25, notes the magazine, could buy the remaining 375 put together. The 80/20 rule applies in all things.

Apart from the interesting reading the articles are in themselves, I mention this because I had just givenÂ my marketing seminar toÂ that bunch of doctors, owners of medical spas.

Most are struggling (see below) but almost all of them gave me the ‘my business is different’ excuse for why they couldn’t possibly embrace ‘my’ kind of direct response marketing. One, I was told, ‘would retire if he had to run one of my ads’

*Sigh* And yet these guys were actually at the seminar because their businesses were going backwards. It was like drowning men preferring to drown because they didn’t like the color of the lifeboat.

So it was amusing to browse through Forbes.

Who, might you imagine, would be Fortune’s target readership?

Yep, the kind of people who’ll buy a yacht for themselves and spend a ton of guilt money on their wives, mistresses, or both.

Pretty sophisticated readers, you would think. Far too up-market, too intelligent to respond to crass, ‘trashy’, in-your-face direct response.

Classic direct response advertising. It could be a lot better, but it demonstrates one thing clearly... so-called sophisticated consumers respond to exactly the same marketing stimuli as everybody else.

Strange then, that Forbes magazine was full of ‘my’ kind of direct response advertising – like the one you see here. (I also picked up a copy of Entrepreneur magazine. Same ad was in that too.) Sure, it ain’t a great direct response ad. There’s a whole bunch of improvements I could suggest that would increase the response to this ad 1000%. But the principle is there. Bold, outrageous headline.
Great ‘proof’ photo. Couple of ways of responding. And at the website, www.cenegenics-biz.com. a name-capture device, and presumably, an automatic responder of some kind.

Of course, no self-respecting doctor would lower themselves to run an ad with a headline like “Who do Plain Girls See When They Want to Look Like a Hollywood Star?” No sir, too ‘unprofessional’. And the fellows at the golf club would laugh at me.

All of which I find incredibly amusing, given that the medspa industry is tanking across the US.

Here’s an excerpt from the Orange Country Register:
“This year, as the economy slowed, so too did the medspa industry. A number of medspas and medspa chains have shut down.
Medspa chains that have closed in the past year or struggled through tough times include Solana MedSpas of Irvine.; Dermacare, based in Scottsdale, Ariz.; Sona MedSpas International, formerly of Franklin, Tenn.; and Medaesthetica of Woodland Hills.
“Everyone is in a financial crunch,” said John Buckingham of Mission Viejo, the former owner of Solana.
(You can find the full article at http://inyourface.freedomblogging.com/2008/07/30/slumping-economy-hits-medspas/487/#comments)
One of the doctors attending the San Diego seminar had spent three million dollars setting up and equipping his spa he didn’t sign up for the new Medspa Platinum Success Program (which is full of ‘my’ kind of direct response advertising) so presumably he’s gone back to business, frantically spending yet more money on advertising that never worked well in the first place, and even less now as the souring economy bites.

But then, I guess that just proves my definition of insanity: continuing to do it the way you’ve always done it, while expecting different results.

If only these doctors could get their heads out of the place where the sun don’t shine, accept that they are not their customers, swallow their pride and do the kind of marketing that actually gets customers in the door, they’d be able to go hit a golf ball with their scornful buddies and smile all the way to the bank.

Here’s the lesson: assuming ‘your’ customers won’t respond to well-crafted direct response (as against standard, ad-agency ‘pretty’ branding ‘imagey’ style advertising is a fatal mistake. You are not your customer. What YOU think about your marketing doesn’t matter. The ONLY opinions you should take any notice of are those of your customers.

And they vote with their wallets. Amen.

A post by Greg Milner

The odd idea, a bit of prodding, a nudge here and there, a little fun, and the occasional dose of brutal reality. Greg is co-founder and CEO of Worldwide Salon Marketing, a writer, direct response marketing consultant, specialist marketing systems adviser and coach.