Stop me if you've heard this one before.
"This week all [product] are/is up to 70% off."
Hell, stop me if you've written that one before. Those words that are so ubiquitous that they have made the concept of sale price the standard.
Sure, there is research that shows people want sale prices. Of course they do. I mean have you seen how deeply discounted those leather jackets are? So discounted.
But I digress. Just because there is a sale--and you have to promote that sale-- doesn't mean you need to do it the way you've heard over and over.
In fact, it is detrimental to trot out the tired old sales language that sounds good simply because you've heard it on the Teevee hundreds of times before. However, take yourself, for a moment, back to third grade. When you learn about clichés. And how they're no way to express yourself because they're cliched and have become devoid of meaning. In a similar vein, the way marketers talk about sales is hackneyed. Dated. Boring.
But our third grade teachers didn't teach us how to talk about sales. So we don't avoid these business clichés the way we do literary ones.
So think, for a second, if a sale was presented in a fresh way. (That's our job, by the way, to come up with something fresh because people are tired of hearing the same old shit.) If an ad talked to people like people talk to people. Not how the stock department talks to the CEO talks to the marketing department. Something wonderful might happen. People might pay attention. And maybe, just maybe, they'll begin to like a brand.
Not love it. Oh no no no. Love is a long way away.
Think about relationships with the people in your life. You didn't start out being best friends with your best friend. You started out as two people, delighted by the potential that the other person could be cool. Someone to hang around with. Then that relationship morphs and evolves and soon enough you are best friends. You really like each other.
But if that friend had come up to you offering "up to 80% on all criticism" as an opening line. As a way to get you through the door. How would that have worked out? Not too great in my estimation.
Understanding this is what helps Wieden produce great work for big box retailers. On a more consistent basis than most anyone else.
Sure, Wieden can pick clients better than most. But they also invest a ton of effort into simplifying the message. They talk about one sale item. One price point. One story.
Of course that's the Wieden aesthetic, you argue. That's not what my client wants.
No client wants what Weiden offers out of the gate. They have to be taught that. they have to be shown how powerful a single message can be. How that will endear people to their brand. then and only then will the bend and accept the things you know to be true. It's not easy. It's not common. But it's probably the right thing to do.
(And I'm not doubting the validity of sales. They work.)
