Direct Mail Piece Gets Edited For Truth
Ad-Verse's Eric Weaver recently received a piece of direct mail, as we all have, and it, apparently, was one too many. Weaver took the DM piece and made a few comments and edits altering the piece to make it more truthful. Poking fun at everything from the promised credit line to the ever-so-important "respond by" date to attempts at personalization to unmasking what the marketer would really say if they were honest
Comments
This is hilarious! Sad thing is, he is revealing all my tricks!
hehe...really funny stuff! sadly, like the other poster mentioned, you took off my kimono and now I'm standing here with "compelling" "personalized" copy no more.
Here's the deal though...copywriters and those who otherwise create and produce these efforts do realize that there are smart folks out there that see right through the clever wordsmithing...and even those that view it as incredibly hokey BS.
You and I and anyone else who loiters around this site, probably sees it for what it is...over-exuberant, make me feel special copywriting.
But there are a gazillion CapitalOne card holders out there...and CapitalOne is a gazillion dollar company...
How do you think that Cap1 got that big and so ubiquitous? By sending out (and testing the hell out of) a gazillion pieces of direct mail letters just like the one you critiqued.
Yes, it's funny to see how these letters speak to you when you really break it down...and yes for a new generation of consumers this facade of personalization and over-exuberance probably won't be the best way to their wallets.
But, it still works (in the percentages that are required by company ROI models, otherwise you wouldn't have received it). And yes, folks still read the letter and believe that they are being spoken to in a "gee, they think I'm special" way?
And I dare say that on "occasion" (statistically favorable to the bank sending this stuff out), it probably works on you/me types as well...because, despite the cheesy copy, if securing a credit happens to be at the top of your mind at the time you're reading the letter, does the copy technique really matter?
I'd say if that's the case, then your mind is switching into the "what's in it for me" mode...you're scanning the offer details and if it's an unbeatable offer, then wallah!
A new cardholder is born.
A very useful critique however...because I'll be thinking of the you types when we dev out our next creative piece for a client.
Kyle Dietrich
www.dietrich-direct.com