by Chuck McKay | Nov 23, 2021 | Ad Testing, Budgeting, Pricing, and Return on Advertising Investment (ROAI), Fishing 101 - the "How To" Class, Market Segmentation, Targeted Marketing, Database Marketing, Systemic Marketing (TM)
Pretend with me you’ve been conducting a direct mail campaign. In testing your headline you’ve discovered that changing its focus from greed to fear increases the response rate from 1.5% to 1.85%. Not bad. Three-tenths of a percent. That’s enough to get marketers...
by Chuck McKay | Nov 22, 2021 | Ad Writing / Copywriting, Minimizing Risk, Persuasion / Power of Words
Researchers must be careful to neutrally phrase a question, so as not to influence the response. My partner, Roy Williams, offers a perfect example. When a penitent asked if it was proper to smoke during prayer, he was told it was not. But when the question was...
by Chuck | Jul 29, 2017 | Planning for Growth, Video Post
A number of years ago the late Fred Murr asked me, “How old do you want to be when you retire?” I said, “I don’t know. Seventy five, maybe?” He asked, “Are you serious?” I said, “Fred people retire and they...
by Chuck McKay | Mar 19, 2016 | Customer Focus, Retention, and Evangelism, Customer Service
I’ve just had an unpleasant experience with my bank. Interesting. I called it “My” Bank. Why did I do that? Merely because its the institution I’ve used for several years? I remember why I chose this bank to begin with. I’d just moved to a new...
by Chuck McKay | Jan 3, 2016 | Uncategorized
In the last post we used the persuasion diagram to organize advertiser information, which we then used to compose a radio ad. Let’s use the same exact information to build our newspaper ad. We fleshed out the rough points into this radio script: “Sometimes...
by Chuck McKay | Dec 15, 2015 | Ad Writing / Copywriting, Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Let’s create an ad using the Persuasion Diagram from What I Know About Writing Ads I Learned In High School. This ad is for Elite Exterminating in Corpus Christi, Texas. Our objective is to promote their monthly in-home roach treatment. After interviewing the client,...
by Chuck McKay | Oct 14, 2015 | Ad Writing / Copywriting, Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
On August 23, 1969 the late Carol Jacobson began teaching us how to write effective advertising. By us, I mean the English composition class of Alamo High School, Alamo, North Dakota. Oh, she didn’t call it effective advertising. She called it “writing.”...
by Chuck McKay | Jul 9, 2015 | Ad Critique / Classic Examples, Advertising / Marketing Strategy
You get your new insurance bill, and grumble about the rate. You’ve grumbled every month when the bill comes, but today you’re especially irritated. “I wonder if I’m overpaying,” you mumble as you walk to your computer and search for “auto insurance.” You go to the...
by Chuck McKay | Jan 31, 2014 | Advertising / Marketing Strategy, Persuasion / Power of Words, Video Post
Swipe Files / Headline Banks Have you seen those ads for “headline banks” or “swipe files?” Collections of the 100 greatest advertisements of all time so you don’t even have to learn anything about marketing or advertising. You just have...
