Last Tuesday, Chinese police dragged away over 100 parents who were protesting before the courthouse in the resort city of Dujiangyan, in the province of Sichuan. These were only a few of the mothers and fathers of those children who died inside the 7,000 destroyed classrooms in the recent earthquake.
We’ve all seen pictures of the schools brought to rubble, surrounded by buildings that are still standing. As one rescuer said on site of a school where 270 children perished, “no steel reinforcing bars had been used in construction, only iron wire.”
I assume the schools are built with government money. Somewhere along the line people were trying to save on costs. Three and four story buildings were brought down to rubble in a matter of minutes, during the 7.9-magnitude quake.
This is, of course, is inexcusable. I hope the parents are able to find justice and prevent this from happening again.
But it does serve as a potent example about how we run our businesses. Right now, economists are predicting North America is already feeling the tremors of a 7.9 financial earthquake — a recession that will send aftershocks across the globe.
When the shaking ends
only businesses reinforced
with superior products,
quality marketing and
real customer service
will be left standing
Nonetheless, I’m still seeing direct mail and websites that are using the “iron wire” equivalent of copy and marketing. A promotion came in the other day which I couldn’t make any sense of: A 24-page magalog with super-wide columns and double-spaced text. There literally must have been 4-6 pages of wasted white space.
I can assure you they didn’t make up for it with tight, potent copy. Instead, it was unbelievably vague and dull stuff, promoting something as common and well-known as fish oil with hyped language and little proof.
On the other hand, I also received a bookalog from Dr. Whitaker, that is just packed with information, case studies, illustrations and hard-to-put-down copy. I actually got a lot of great health tips from just reading it. It’s the type of promotion that won’t end up in the trash can.
That’s the type of copy you need.
If people start spending less over the next 3-10 years, I can only see that fish oil company vanishing off the face of the globe, while companies like Dr. Whitaker remain standing.
Of course, if the products and customer service are poor, good copy and marketing can do little to sustain them.
Iron Wire Framing as a
Temporary Measure
I also realize, that if you’re just starting out, have strict deadlines or other limitations, sometimes you need to just put up some iron wire framing for the moment.
But, what I’d challenge you to do, is look over all your marketing material, and see where you have copy in place that would not survive through economical times. You know what I mean, right? Copy that just doesn’t grab the reader’s attention and persuade them to buy in a fast and compelling way.
When people only have 20% of what of their current income to spend on products… will your copy win them over? If what you are selling is the ONE thing they’ll be buying that month outside of basic necessities, will your product be their choice purchase?
If not, I suggest you contact me now about at least getting your copy critiqued if not re-written. You can book an appointment at (519) 273-7969 or click here for more info. Consulting/critiques are filled for June. Openings in July. Still looking for a good project to tackle in September.
P.S. Just a note that World Vision is still accepting donations to help the cyclone and earthquake victims. See my previous post about how to tie a fund raising event in your marketing.
Topics: Copywriting, Customer Service |
November 12th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
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