Remember the 1984 Apple Macintosh commercial that aired years ago where the camera follows an athlete running into a hall packed with people? The athlete has a large, heavy-looking sledge hammer in her hands. With armed guards in hot pursuit, she runs down an aisle past those who are sitting. When she gets toward the front, she swings the hammer and hurls it at the screen upon which a video of a dictator is being shown.
A couple of weeks ago ABC aired a commercial for its new program Duets which used this same format with a few key differences. The audience was in color and wore individualized clothing, not gray uniforms as in the original commercial. The video playing was also in full color and featured first a blonde woman, second a snide white man, and then a black, bald-headed guy instead of a gray-toned dictator. The athlete threw a microphone mounted on a five foot stand, not a sledge hammer. When the microphone hit the screen, a white curtain flew off revealing the four stars of Duets, rather than shattering the screen into small pieces.
With the blonde mentioning “Pitchy,” the snide white man commenting on “911 calls having more tonality,” and the bald guy saying “There was something missing for me, Doll,” the audio of the commercial vaguely references The Voice, The X Factor, and American Idol. The announcer claims that all the singing competitions are the same, but that Duets will break through and be different. The last ten seconds of the commercial tell how Duets is different and its air date.
Thirty-four seconds of the commercial are devoted to talking about Duets competition, and ten seconds are spent explaining Duets. That seems a little lopsided, doesn’t it?
I think so.
Think about this: After tuning into a singing competition for several consecutive weeks, talking with your friends about it, and voting for your favorites, don’t you, as a viewer, have some of yourself invested in that singing competition? If so, don’t you have a favorable view toward that competition? You may even have an allegiance to it. Why would you notice or embrace a commercial which dismissed the program to which you have allegiance?
Furthermore, if you like that singing competition, why would you want something different? Would it be because ABC management feels that it has missed out on the singing competition and wants to have a hit program?
I don’t think so.
This Duets commercial is typical of how some businesses handle their competition: They put too much focus on it. Many business people spend more time obsessing and talking about the competition than their own business. Just like this commercial, they easily use three-fourths of their time in front of the customer talking about the competition and one-fourth about their own businesses. This is a grave error. Your customers want to know what you can do for them, not why you are better than your competition. They didn’t come to you to find out about your competition, they came to discover what you can offer.
When talking to your customers always tell what’s in it for them to do business with your business, not that of your competition.
A couple of weeks ago ABC aired a commercial for its new program Duets which used this same format with a few key differences. The audience was in color and wore individualized clothing, not gray uniforms as in the original commercial. The video playing was also in full color and featured first a blonde woman, second a snide white man, and then a black, bald-headed guy instead of a gray-toned dictator. The athlete threw a microphone mounted on a five foot stand, not a sledge hammer. When the microphone hit the screen, a white curtain flew off revealing the four stars of Duets, rather than shattering the screen into small pieces.
With the blonde mentioning “Pitchy,” the snide white man commenting on “911 calls having more tonality,” and the bald guy saying “There was something missing for me, Doll,” the audio of the commercial vaguely references The Voice, The X Factor, and American Idol. The announcer claims that all the singing competitions are the same, but that Duets will break through and be different. The last ten seconds of the commercial tell how Duets is different and its air date.
Thirty-four seconds of the commercial are devoted to talking about Duets competition, and ten seconds are spent explaining Duets. That seems a little lopsided, doesn’t it?
I think so.
Think about this: After tuning into a singing competition for several consecutive weeks, talking with your friends about it, and voting for your favorites, don’t you, as a viewer, have some of yourself invested in that singing competition? If so, don’t you have a favorable view toward that competition? You may even have an allegiance to it. Why would you notice or embrace a commercial which dismissed the program to which you have allegiance?
Furthermore, if you like that singing competition, why would you want something different? Would it be because ABC management feels that it has missed out on the singing competition and wants to have a hit program?
I don’t think so.
This Duets commercial is typical of how some businesses handle their competition: They put too much focus on it. Many business people spend more time obsessing and talking about the competition than their own business. Just like this commercial, they easily use three-fourths of their time in front of the customer talking about the competition and one-fourth about their own businesses. This is a grave error. Your customers want to know what you can do for them, not why you are better than your competition. They didn’t come to you to find out about your competition, they came to discover what you can offer.
When talking to your customers always tell what’s in it for them to do business with your business, not that of your competition.
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