Don’t Be Pissed Off At Me, I Am Not Lying I Am Marketing!
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Have you ever heard of the…
Zoom Teeth Whitening system?
It is a procedure done in the dentist’s office for whitening your teeth and it takes about an hour to complete. If you see the posters and pamphlets of the system it looks amazing… the gist of it is that within one hour you can have your teeth sparkling white!
When you look at the system, it seems great except for the price. Costs can be anywhere between $250 and $500 to get it done but the results are very impressive.
There is one drawback though… and it is honestly a HUGE one:
The procedure can cause you a huge amount of pain with tooth sensitivity for the next 10 to 72 hours.
Now everyone is different with the intensity of this pain but for some people it is intolerable. In fact my wife said she would never do it again because it hurt so much. Others have said it was not too bad and would do it again.
The point of this example is when you look at the marketing material for Zoom, no where does it highlight…
“This May Hurt Incredibly Bad”
So the question remains…
“Are They Lying?”
I think by answering that question you can actually understand how you yourself can be better at getting your potential audience interested in what you have to say and sell.
First of all “NO” they are not lying and if you go to their website and read more about the procedure, there is reference to “Teeth Sensitivity”. The point is, they do not put that front and center for a very good reason. It is not to fool anyone, but instead it is to hit on the “emotion” that will cause the potential customer to want to learn more.
It’s no different than any other well done marketing. Find out what it is that your target audience truly desires… what is the emotional topic that will get them interested in learning more about what you have to offer.
This is what you should do for not only your selling but all of your writing. Try to figure out the “emotion” that you want to hit with your content. Make that the part that stands out the strongest and then make sure you provide the rest of the information as they read on.
Are You Saying Hide Info?
No… No… No!
That is not at all what I’m saying.
You NEED to be upfront with your audience but it is no different than having a privacy policy or purchase agreement on your website. I can guarantee that the majority of people do not read these and most assume that because someone has one it means they are saying that your email will be “safe”.
Well, I know of a few marketers who lay it out very clear in their privacy policy that they do in fact sell your email to others. This is 100% upfront and legal but it is your responsibility to read the information, they link to their privacy policy right from the opt-in form.
So it is not “Hiding” anything, you are very much following the rules. You NEED to make sure you have a solid privacy, terms of use, purchase agreement and stuff like that and you NEED to make sure that it is accessible from every page that is related to the purchase or opt-in.
Just like the ZOOM, there was nothing being hidden, it’s just that the focus is on the benefits.
If you want to engage your reader and sell to them, then first of all “Yes” be honest above all else, but you also must know clearly what your target audience desires and what the best words are to use that will strike at the emotion of the topic and will get them to want to buy.
Now I realize some of you “Hard Core” bloggers are going to get angry and say “blogging is not about selling but blah.. blah.. blah”
My response to that is..… whatever!
Blogging is what ever you want it to be… since it is your blog.
I blog because I like to, I blog to help others and YES I blog to also make money.
If you want to make money blogging, then you are occasionally going to need to sell things and if you want to sell things then you had better know how to market.
Over and out amigos 
Hmmm… I wonder if this post makes sense to anyone but me?
If it does, what comments do you got?
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Definitely, it is not the same “to lie” than “hiding critical facts” about the subject.
Many marketers “hide” some facts, in many cases, irrelevant to the moment of the message but very important to the moment of delivery of the product or service.
If the dentist, in this example, won't tell you that this treatment will cause some pain, then the lier is the doctor, not the marketer.
Cheers!
Virginia.
If you are trying to sell, i guess you are just trying to sell. Honesty can cost you sometimes!
Dinono.com
I am new to the site, but I have to say I am impressed. At first I thought you were going to be doing a product review and that was it.
You made a lot of good points in the post, a lot times I notice that bloggers or even companies that sell products and have no privacy statementd on their sites.
Interesting post JC,
My thought on this, if the information is such that a person may not have wanted the product/service had they known, then it should be disclosed. I think holding back information just to “sell” is just wrong. A good salesperson will not just sell, but ensure that the customer is well served, which would, of course, include disclosure of important details.
Cheers!
Jeromy
Wow I love this post. Sometimes people are disappointed at last if they found out the truth.
It's not different than what the lenders did to potential home owners. They created an atmosphere that played on greed by telling people they could resell their homes 2 years later and reap a huge profit. Little did they know (if they had read the fine print) that the banks don't take responsibility for a down turn in the economy.
So where do you draw the line of personal responsibility and service
That is ultimately the challenge isn’t it….10 people could have 10 different ideas of where that line should be.
Excellent post. My understanding is that marketing, whether online or off, always appeals to the emotions of the prospect. The benefits will engage by getting the prospect to envision how they would feel better, look better, be smarter, be thinner, etc. than everyone else if they just had your product. That is selling. Disclaimers can always be added to keep with the right side of the FTC, but the features are not what sells. The benefits that you will get by owning the product is what sells.
I like your spin on “the message” advertisers project. I agree with trying to surface the “emotion” as long as the product or service delivers.
Now, for those interested in the actual act of whitening your teeth…
I had yellow stain on one tooth for many years that no one dentist could eliminate without literally painting my tooth (this was years ago) I decided to hold off and when the Crest Strips came out I used those that miraculously erased that stain 100%! I now maintain whitening with Listerine's Whitening mouthwash and my once drab looking teeth are brilliantly white.
I flew to Boston a few weeks ago to see my parents and my Dad asked me if I Ajax my teeth or something. LOL
Save time and money and use what I used to get similar results.
There's my two cents =)
In the early sixties, when I started smoking, Marlboro did in fact make me feel like a rugged cowboy, and Camels made me feel like a tough loner, a rebel capable of anything. They tasted great, like the ads promised, once I got used to the taste of dry feces in my mouth and after my taste buds stopped functioning. Madison avenue did not lie.
Does anyone here know where I can pick up a cheap heart and a new pair of lungs?
I enjoyed your analogy. You are right in the fact that if people bother to read the fine print, they would get the whole story. But most people want a quick fix and only read enough to get what they want and complain later. People have a very short attention span (thank you tv) and want what they want and want it now. Emotion is where you get people’s attention. No one reads the fine print. Great insite!
Great blog man we tried it and it works amazing.
We have been marketing our company this way for years now that’s why we are the largest Home Inspection Company in Southern California Thanks!
I agree with Jeromy’s comment. The impact of the hidden/ lied about/ whitewashed information on the potential buyer’s decision is what should be first considered in a decision on whether something is “ethical” or not.
I believe honesty is ALWAYS best. Folks won’t return nor refer you to others, if they feel they have been fooled.
It is okay to state obvious facts — like the coffee company that used the ‘mountain grown’ phrase; although ALL coffee is Mt. grown, they made it sound like a specific benefit to their coffee.
But to leave out something which is a deficit is dishonest no matter who does it.
I certainly bad mouth anyone that does this to me and I assume my customers will/would do the same for me.
It’s not worth it for the reputation hit – most ethical advertisers simply put the deficits in small print at the bottom.
In fact, the government sometimes demands that any deficits be pointed out, i.e., the drug ads in which the ‘killer’ text is always listed really fast at the end – like you can’t hear if they say it speedily – LOL
I personally have gotten credit cards to reverse charges also for just this type of deceit – or failure to reveal info.
Just my viewpoint.
They could always appeal to the masochistic crowd and say “You’ll enjoy the pain.”
great article i like your article……
No, they weren’t lying, I agree with you. Should the pamphlet have mentioned that it may cause sensitivity in some patients — yes, but that doesn’t make them liars. And you said yourself some people you knew weren’t badly affected by pain at all.
I would imagine the procedure isn’t regulated by any governmental body (you know like the drug companies have to disclose everything up front) so — NO what that did wasn’t wrong.
I always enjoy your posts. This one was even better than usual.
I agree. We buy with our emotions, and as marketers we have to be completely honest in order to gain any trust from our customers. Thanks, John Cow
I think its important to make an emotional connection to potential purchasers.
The right marketing strategy for this: “No pain, no gain!” Pretty much potential clients would understand when you say this.
I don’t think this is misleading or anything.
I’ve actually had my teeth whitened with this and it hurt like hell (after the procedure for like 5 hours)
BUT…
This is something your dentist does and the pain can really vary from patient to patient. A friend of mine told me he didn’t feel a thing.
In the end whoever is doing the procedure has the responsibility to warn you about the pain.
If this was a “do it yourself” thing then yes I think they should tell you about it, but since it isn’t the really don’t have to say it upfront.
You are absolutely correct. I’ve been marketing my real world business for years, and front and centre of all advertising are the benefits and features of what I have to offer. I also provide all the terms of service of my business to all of my customers, just not on the marketing material. It’s not hiding anything, in fact I see it as complete honesty and transparency in giving clients a full understanding of how my business operates. I operate my business with full integrity and offering this transparency fits fully with this ethos.