When you get a chance, do a search on YouTube for "why buy expensive toys" The little boy in the video is delirious about ripping out pages in a magazine.
This video is hilarious, but please don't patronize the links in the video. I learned the hard way that it's connected to a very UN-family-friendly website, if you understand what I mean.
I seriously thought about not posting this video referral at all, but then I got it in an email last week, and I knew God was telling me to share some details.
It's real life, after all!
In essence, the kid gets so slap happy from helping his father tear up the magazine pages that he starts busting out into raucous laughter - even before he tears the sheet.
And here's the marketing lesson: Sometimes simple is best.
Seriously. Sometimes we fret about how to make things so "perfect" for our end user, that we forget about the simplicity of things that already work.
Dan Kennedy says that sometimes "'good' is good enough" I take it one step further and say that sometimes "easy is hard enough"
Sure, there are people in the world that want a Porsche for the price of a moped. But that's not realistic.
Of course there are people that will pay $100 for a plastic toilet seat from Home Depot. But that's exploitative.
When you look at your customer, your product base, and your message - are you making it too hard for people to digest?
Keep it simple. Keep it real. Keep it on the level.
Chris Haddad wrote a post a while back about writing at the 4th or 5th grade level. That's the God's Honest Truth, folks. Even in a technical industry, the more simplified the marketing, the easier it is for people to grasp it.
Sure, your average Chemical Engineer should be able to read at a 12th grade level - but why would he want to? Higher-level thinking takes a lot out of you - especially when the same thing can be said in 150 words (or less) with one and two syllable words.
Take it from someone that loves to use big words:
Not everyone loves big words.
So if a cackling baby can find pleasure and delight in the daily tabloid rag, why can't we, as marketers, take a cue "from the mouths of babes" as it were?
Sometimes the easiest, and simplest messages are the best.
Here's one of my favorites:
"Dear Mom,
I love you.
Can I have a Nintendo DS?"
It doesn't get much clearer than that. I know right away who's being addressed, the message is loud and clear and there's no subterfuge.
Ya gotta love kids!
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