Funny story actually. A few weeks ago I stopped in at a popular gas station chain on my way home. I grabbed my daily iced tea and headed to the counter. Posted right there on plain paper, taped down with big green lettering, was an advertisement for a car wash coupon book. It read something like:
Amazing Car Wash Deal
1 free car wash when you purchase a car wash coupon book
$35.00
1 Coupon for a free car wash.
5 premium car washes.
2 economy car washes
So I ask the guy out of curiosity. “Do you sell a lot of those coupon books?” He tells me that he has only sold one in the last year and a half of working there. Now this was a younger guy, I think I recall at one of my previous pit stops him hinting at, or flat out saying, that he was bored out of his mind. Most likely that was just a side job for him while he is in school or something. Anyway, I looked at this kid and said “Now I doubt you care about this, but that advertisement blows. People don’t give a crap about features when it comes to a service, at least that’s not what will sell them; try something along the lines of:
Don’t wait for the next rain… get a FREE car wash NOW when you need it.
Not only will you get:
5 Premium car washes, useable at any of our stores, any time.
2 Economy car washes for when you just want a quick rinse.
But you also get a completely FREE premium car wash!!
Perfect for getting those after-rain splotches off or cleaning those bird “accidents”
When you need it! No waiting in line!
All for only $35.00,
A $5 dollar savings even before the FREE wash.
Maybe it will earn you a few points with your boss”. Marketing 101… The kid kind of shrugged, I had no idea if he even listened to a word I said, so I laughed and took off.
Now I don’t know if that particular ad was implemented as a chain wide campaign (which I would bet), or if the particular store managers created the ads (unlikely), I was just amazed whoever it was actually thought it would work.
Tonight, after an awesome dinner with our team, I stopped in again… same kid behind the counter. First thing I noticed when I hit the counter was the ad had changed to a close variation of what I suggested, emphasizing the benefits rather than the features, obviously what the kid had remembered from what I said. First thing he said to me was “Dude, I put this new ad up 2 weeks ago and since we’ve sold 13 of those coupon books”. I have to admit, it took quite a bit of self control not to bust out laughing. All I could think was ‘Man, the XXXXXX marketing guys wouldn’t make it a day at eSwarm’. Needless to say, I got my iced tea free along with a Kit-Kat bar and a 5-hour energy. Totally worth it! I asked the kid if he got promoted or something, sadly to say, it seems like they didn’t care.
The moral, I think, of this story is, the basics of e-mail marketing, affiliate programs, and PPC can most definitely be applied to national chain advertisements (and in produce better results). That coupled with working day in and day out with an extremely driven, successful, and all out brilliant team makes that kind of stuff seem “JV”.
