New Year, New You - Episode 34

Welcome everybody to this edition of CPG Insiders. I'm your host Mark Young with my co host Justin Gerard. And you know what we're going to talk about today, Justin? We're going to talk about 2020 and how to use, to put it plain, how to use this disaster of a year as a way to market your products.

Absolutely. We've got the January's rolling around and so the new year, new you season is about to start. But I think the year that it has been is creating new opportunities for that timeframe.

It does. So first off, when Justin just said New year, new you, this is something that in the ad business we always focus on for certain clients. So if you ran a health club, if you sold gym memberships, gym equipment, diet aids, protein drinks, things of that nature stuff where people make a New Year's resolution, then being heavied up in January is your deal.

Yes.

So if you're hearing this now and it's not January yet, and you are in that category, January is the time for you to hit it. Because over 60% of Americans make some type of New Year's resolution. And you know what the number one New Year's resolution is?

No, what is it?

Take a guess. Does it have to do with weight loss? It's losing weight. Guess what the number two New Year's resolution is?

Man. Oh boy. Well, I think this year it will be a little different actually.

But normally number one is the weight loss. Number two is to exercise more. And this is why if you go to a gym on January 2, you can't get a treadmill. Seriously, have you ever gone to a gym on the day after New Year's? You can't get in it.

Yeah, yeah.

Because everybody's in there. This is the year I'm determined to get in shape. And then by the third week of January, you can bowl down the center of the lane where the treadmills are in the. The gym. But that's the nature of it. But it is an opportunity. But there's another opportunity here, and that is 2020 has been a train wreck of a year for most people.

Yeah.

And it's been difficult. The country had a diagnostic rating for anxiety of about 3% pre Covid. And anxiety is now expected to be at a diagnostic level of over 30%.

Right. Which is insane.

Yeah. It's like 1100 more than 1000% increase. Almost 1100% increase. There are not enough mental health professionals in this country to deal with the stress and anxiety that people are having. So one of the Things that we know is we're going to talk about a few techniques here. One is using 2020 as a way of building rapport and building credibility. Another one is a way of casting a future. So as an example, my point is a great, compelling story will always outdo a good argument any day.

Absolutely.

So don't just tell me why I should do something. Paint a picture for me. Tell me that I've got a bigger future.

Yeah.

If I use your product.

Right.

Well, this sets up a situation like that. So the first thing we can look at with 2020 is 2020 is a universal truth.

It is now. Yes, it is now. Yeah.

It's a universal truth. It would be very hard finding Anyone who thinks 2020 was a great year for the world, let alone just the United States.

Right.

And as you mentioned, off air, just before we started, you're saying there is now a hit song coming out, which is F. 2020.

Yeah.

So, I mean, that. That's. This is literally part of the conversation in America right now.

Yeah. For everyone.

And. And again, it wasn't just Covid. If you think about it, it's Covid. It's the politics, it's the violence. It is people mad at the police. It is an election that hasn't ended yet.

Right.

It's huge unemployment. So, I mean, it goes on and on and on. And not only are people stressed out by this, but all the shutdowns and the time at home has really stressed people out.

All the kids at home doing this digital learning stuff, it's hurting the children. I mean, there's so many things.

It's changing lifestyles, it's literally changing the way people live right now. Yeah. So going into 2021. It is November right now, as we record this, going into 2021, one of the things that can be done in your advertising is to make the universal truth of 2020 is behind us. This creates an ethos, this creates people to. I want you to visually think of right now, somebody stressed out, holding their shoulders up, and I say to you, 2020 is behind us. And your shoulders kind of drop down a little bit and say, wow. Yeah, it is.

It's like a deep breath.

So it becomes a universal truth. The more truths that we can get people to relate to our messages, the more likely they are to believe the next thing we say.

Yes.

Now, there's another thing we use in the NLP side of advertising, so we're really getting into the psychology of how we do things, and that's called a yes set. And A yes set is really kind of the psychological version of Newton's second law, which is a thing in motion stays in motion until acted upon by an outside force. And what that means is that the more often or the more times I can get you to say yes to me, the more likely you are to continue saying yes. Now, this was really discovered way before you were even born.

Oh, I know.

And this was really built from the company Encyclopedia Britannica. So when I was a child, there used to be encyclopedia men who would go door to door selling encyclopedias. And they worked on this compliance set model. And the first thing is, they would knock on the door. Are you the lady of the house? If yes, move to the next question. If no, find out if she's available or get off the porch and get to another opportunity.

Number one.

Yes. Are you the lady of the house? Yes, ma'. Am. Do you have children? Yes. If no, get off the porch. No sale. Move on. Number three, are you concerned or interested in your children getting a better education? Now, notice the question is postured in a fashion where, what are you going to say? No, I want my kids to be idiots, right? Well, yeah. Number three. Number four. If I could show you how you could improve your kid's education and it wouldn't cost you anything, would you be interested in that?

You just got four yeses.

Got four yeses. Now, what do we say? Well, if you could give me a half hour of your time, I could show you how. Would that be okay, Right? Sure. We had this yes, yes, yes thing going on, and that fourth yes was, I want to come in your house.

Right.

Now, we can't even imagine that happening today.

Well, no, right.

We can't picture a stranger walking up to our door and saying, can I come in your house? And you're saying, oh, yeah, come on in. But that's how it used to be. Now, this whole sales pitch would happen with all the. There was like a routine of like 27 yeses. And at the end of that yes, you walked out with a check from this woman. Even though you said it wouldn't cost anything, you walked out with a check for these encyclopedias. And then as kids, we used to have these racks of encyclopedias in our homes which took up about 3 or 4ft of shelf space because it was when Google was printed. And you would open book A and it would start with aardvark, and you would read your. Read your way all the way down to zebras.

Well, you did.

Yeah, it is true. I actually did read the Entire set of encyclopedias. But that's a whole nother issue right there. But then again, have you maybe read all of Google?

Oh, obviously. Who has read all of Google?

It's the same thing. So you've probably read everything Google has. So at any rate, we can do that in our ad messages. As an example, was 2020 a stressful year for you?

Yes.

Was 2020, you know, was 2020 just really a tough time on your family?

Yes.

Are you happy that 2020 is behind you?

Yes.

Would you like to make 2021 better?

Yes.

Then listen to this. Yes. Yes. Yes. And the next time you get to the next thing I tell you is, yes, that's a way you can posture it. Another thing that you can use to posture this, besides for the compliance set or the yes set, is by creating a brighter future. So what is it about your product, what is it about your service that can create a better future for 2021? How can you tell me to make 2021 my year? This is going to be a better year for me.

Yeah. And what we just talked about, too, what you were mentioning is not only does this year posture this opportunity for your traditional categories to be able to have this clean message and create that much brighter future because it has been such a rough year, but it's opened up that messaging and that strategy to other categories that traditionally this wouldn't be open to.

Right. Let me give you an example. I'm gonna use a political ad as an example. One of the great political ads and one of the great turnovers in politics was when Ronald Reagan beat the incumbent Jimmy Carter. Now, it's usually pretty tough to beat an incumbent president. Jimmy Carter had a lot of issues, but Ronald Reagan, a Hollywood actor, comes along and he's going to run against the president. Now, he could have ran on. Jimmy Carter has us into an Iran hostage because we had a hostage situation. Jimmy Carter's got us in the double digits. Unemployment. Jimmy Carter has us in the 20% interest rates at that time. What one Ronald Reagan, the presidency was an ad which is called It's Sunrise in America. And it was an ad that started where you saw the sun coming up over the ocean. And the story was, it's sunrise in America. Our greatest days are behind us. And of course, nobody could deliver something like that like Ronald Reagan. He had a great delivery, an amazing voice, but he delivered this story about its sunrise in America. And our greatest days are in front of us. And together we can accomplish anything and so on and so forth. And that's what sold? Because the compelling reason beats the great argument. Yes, and he gave people a compelling reason to vote for him. Not a good argument to vote against Jimmy Carter. Well, we can use that same kind of thing for our products too. How do we set a better tomorrow? How do we tell people 2021 can be better? So is this the year that you lose weight? Is this the year that you get healthier? Is this the year that you start meditating? Is this the year, you know, that you decide to exercise? Is it the year that you decide to change your hairstyle? You know, whatever the case is, how can you position me for a better time? The last thing I'll leave is how does your product, is there something your product can do to bring me comfort?

Right?

Because remember, we have this anxiety, this high anxiety. So does your product provide comfort? Does your product remind me of a happier time? So as an example, are you selling comfort food? Are you selling some type of product that has a nostalgia angle to it? Maybe you're, as an example, maybe you're revitalizing an old brand, an old brand that was hugely popular in the 70s or 80s and you're bringing the brand back to life, Right. All of a sudden, if you can leverage in, right, you can leverage in and make people unconsciously get the feelings that they had back at that time.

Correct you. Yeah.

So I'll tell you this really quick. There's something that happens in people's brains which is called anchoring. And we anchor to things. So a. Another doctor, hypnotherapist friend of mine was talking about this and this really happened to him. His wife and he had an argument during. And in the background there was, he had a, a CD playing and it was a certain song playing in the background when they had the argument. Two or three months later, he had that CD playing again. And he noticed within a couple of minutes his wife started getting argumentative. So he cut the music, got her back down, then he tested it again.

So his wife is now a part of an experiment. I hope she excited, was excited about that.

And he tested it again, making sure everything's cool, she's happy, everything's fine, puts the music on. Lo and behold, the argument started, she started arguing again. Now, as a therapist, as hypnotherapist, he went and re anchored the song, right? So what he did is he explained to his wife what was happening and hey, here's what's going on in the song is the trigger. And she knows what he does, obviously. And he said, okay, we need to Read. Because we love this. We love this musician. We love this song. We need to re anchor this song to a good feeling. Well, we can do that in our advertising too. So if we can anchor to nostalgia, we can do that. If we can anchor to a song. This is one of the reasons why hit songs are used in ads.

Yeah.

It's not because, oh, I recognize the Black Eyed Peas. It's because I feel happy when I hear this song by the Black Eyed Peas.

Right.

It's a party song. It's a happy song. It's like, you know, listen to the song, you know, don't worry, be happy.

Right, Right.

Or, you know, there's other songs that just are uplifting and make you feel good. The Rocky theme.

Right.

How do you, how does anyone listen to the Rocky theme or Eye the Tiger without wanting to go exercise or do something physical?

Exactly.

Because it's anchored to that in you. So what are the things that you can do that will anchor you and anchor you away from 2020?

Yeah.

So here's what I'm. Now I'm going to tell you something I'm noticing. I'm going to share right now. There are some television shows that are back in production and some of them have chosen to produce Covid related TV shows. I have seen that I'm predicting right now that those shows will fail miserably.

They're going to tank.

I've seen two of them so far. One of them is a series called the Good Doctor.

Yep.

And they. And the series opens with COVID is ripping through the hospital and people are sick. And the second one, which is a comedy is the series called Superstore and they're opening on the Walmart store. Having to deal with COVID Yeah. I'm predicting both of these series this year are going to tank miserably.

Well, I've seen shows that are all about it, like dating during COVID or things like that that are have a lot of these zoom elements. And I think they're going to really struggle because people don't want to see.

That because this isn't entertainment. I turn on the television to get away from 2020, not to re experience it.

Right.

If I want to re experience it, I'll turn on the Crisis News Network.

Right? Absolutely. Now, again, to your point, what you've talked about before, you can still leverage even if you're not in these and some of the categories we've kind of mentioned here, whether it's anxiety, weight loss, things of that nature, some of the, you know, the easy Ones you could still leverage the experience to build rapport with your audience. You can still, because as you mentioned, it's a universal truth now. So you can still have part of your initial message aligning with the universal truth of 2020 being so bad and posture into hey, yep, we're the same. This brand gets it. Yep, exactly what I thought too. Now get to your product because you start the rapport is the foundation of any type of. Well, I don't want to use the word manipulation, but persuasion.

Persuasion, Right. Yeah. So I want to. Last thing I'm going to leave people is I want to warn people, don't let the COVID thing overtake your advertising.

No.

Now, if you're in the business of selling face masks, well then. Then you probably need to show me the face mask.

Right.

If you're not in the business of selling face masks, don't show me face masks. No, don't remind me of my unhappiness because I will neuro associate my unhappiness to your product.

It's the last thing you want to do.

Just like I was telling you about how my friend's argument with his wife was anchored to this song, I will anchor my unhappiness in isolation and shutdown and lockdowns and Covid to you.

Right.

If you are going to use it to market to me.

Right, Right.

So you can be sensitive. You don't necessarily have to show, you know, a mosh pit of people using your product that are not socially distanced. But be sensitive quietly. Be sensitive subliminally.

Right.

And don't make it obvious that you're trying to deal with COVID Just make it so that nothing about your communication triggers me to think about COVID Yep. And I guess that's probably where I'm going with this.

Yes.

Don't make it the focus.

Right.

But go out of your way to not make it the focus.

Right. Yeah, you have to. You have to. Right now. We have to escape. Everyone has to escape. Wants to escape. It's not even has to, they want to. So it's just like you said, stay away from actions that could be considered tone deaf. But don't make it about COVID Bring us back to the good life.

We did a poll recently and we polled 1700 people. And our 1700 people, the question we asked people was, when you see a zoom meeting screen, what feeling do you get? 10% of the people said they had a good feeling. 28 or 30% said they had a bad feeling. And the other almost 60% said reminds me of the pandemic. So avoid the mask in your ads. I wouldn't recommend using zoom screens in any ads unless you're zoom.

Right, Right.

I wouldn't use masks unless you make masks.

Right.

And be sensitive, but don't be obvious.

Yep, agreed.

Any of us here at CBG Insiders or at Jekyll and Hyde Advertising, go to our Go to either the website for cbg insider or jekyllheidlabs.com you can reach out to us, contact us. We are happy to take phone calls and give advice and give guidance without necessarily having to sign a contract or pay any money. Not that we're going to give you advice for the next 20 years, but if you have a question, you can call up and we're happy to talk about it. And that's it and we'll see you on the next episode. If you're looking to greatly increase sales on your CPG product, don't hesitate to contact us at Jekyll and Hy Advertising and Marketing. By the way, the only advertising agency with a guaranteed result. Just go to jekyllhideagency.com or feel free to give us a call at 800-542 10.