Video Production Lessons From Ron Popeil

Ron Popeil is the absolute master of selling on television. Can anyone else claim to have sold over two billion dollars worth of products? He recently sold over 7,900 Showtime Rotesseries^TM in a single hour on QVC at $127 each.

You do the math.

Popeil did the basics better than anyone.

Basics? Yes. There are only four.

Popeil's Basic Number One: The words you use are critical.

Ron learned his craft pitching knives and kitchen gadgets on Maxwell Street's open air markets in Chicago. The concept is simple. If he was persuasive, people bought. If not, they didn't.

Study his presentations and you'll notice two things consistently. Popeil's catch phrases (“Set it and forget it.” “But wait, there’s more!” “It slices. It dices.”) get said again, and again, and his use of rhetorical questions gets the audience involved. “Isn't this amazing?”

By working in front of real people and dealing with their questions, he learned to anticipate common objections and build the answers to common questions into his presentation.

As important as the pitch was, he never scripted his famous TV ads. “If I've been chopping away for 10 hours a day, giving the same pitch over and over again, refining it a little bit each time, why would I need a script?”

Popeil's Basic Number Two: Noting is more important than the product.

When Michael Jordan pitches Haines, Michael is the star. When Ron Popeil pitched the Showtime Rotisserie, the broadcast opened with a series of shots of meat and poultry roasted to perfection and rotating in the Showtime. The offstage announcer described a “mouthwatering pork-loin roast,” or a “delicious six-pound chicken.”

Not until our interests and our appetites were whetted, does Popeil even enter the stage. Watch any of his infomercials. You don't see much of Popeil, but you see the product solving problems and making life easier for consumers.

Popeil's Basic Number Three: Show, don't just tell.

Ron Popeil never simply told us what the Veg-O-Matic would do. He showed us.

He showed how easily the product worked and how quickly it got results. There were no complicated settings, no buttons to press, no hidden gears, just a simple device that worked flawlessly each time.

Through close ups we saw an onion sliced into uniform thicknesses with one motion, whole tomatoes sliced with every seed in place, a whole can of Spam sliced at once. He showed us how to turn the dial to make thin slices of cheese.

Popeil also showed us the effect his products had on other people. He used to stand at the enterance and asked each member of the audience if they'd had a big breakfast. He wanted all of the hungry members in front when the food came out.

Popeil's Basic Number Four: You can't fake passion.

If you're genuinely thrilled with the product you're selling, selling it becomes the easy part. If you're not excited about your offer, its time to find a new offer. Or a new career.

Popeil's autobiography, Salesman of the Century, has fallen out of favor, which is a good thing if you've never read it. Pick up a cheap copy and let the man tell you in his own words how to do what he does.

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Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who works with professional practices and owner operated businesses. Questions about producing effective television advertisements may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.

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Songwriters, Copywriters, and Income Taxes

Kenny Rogers has said he sings songs that men wish they could sing to their women, and that women want to hear from their men.

Songwriters understand that.

A number of years ago I audited a UCLA Extension songwriting class from my friend, Grammy nominee Barry Kaye. Barry made a point during a song critique that I've never forgotten: people identify with songs and singers. No singer will ever sing a song that paints the protagonist as a wimp. Even more importantly, no listener will identify with such a character.

His advice to aspiring songwriters? Never write a song that doesn't make the singer an admirable character.

An advertising lesson.

As you may suspect, aspiring advertising copywriters can learn from Barry's comment. Never write an ad that doesn't make your purchaser an admirable character.

In general, I like the H&R Block “I've got people” campaign (“I can deduct my gauplattlerhosen?”), but right now there is no way I'd buy that particular software package. I've been soured by the advertising.

The ad opens with a man sitting in front of his computer as his wife enters the picture.

She: “Hey, how's taxes?”

He, quite sheepishly: “I'm stuck.”

She: “Stuck, huh? Humm. Maybe you should get some people to help us.”

She becomes sarcastic. “Oh, that's right. We didn't use people. We used a box.”

Then, like a mommy driving home a point to a naughty child, she holds the box in front of him and says, “Well, maybe you should tell the box you're stuck.”

He, cowering: “I'm stuck.”

The announcer then ties the software to the “I've got people” campaign: “Tax cut from H&R Block is the only tax program that gives you direct access to H&R Block professionals.”

I have in the past acquired tax software packages and calculated my own return. If I didn't already have a relationship with an amazing accountant, I might consider purchasing H&R Block's software.

At least, I might have before I saw this ad.

And as we get closer to tax time and it airs more frequently I'm finding that it's grating on me. First, I'm annoyed by the wife. Second, I'm even more annoyed by the husband who allows himself to be scolded as if he were a 3 year old caught raiding the cookie jar. By extension, I've become negative on the product.

Am I the target?

Perhaps I'm not a member of the audience this ad is designed to persuade, and my opinion is not relevant. And, whether it is or not, you should never let one person's reaction to any ad influence your decision to run it.

But I suspect that my reaction to the characters in that ad may be a common one.

Be careful how you portray the people who may buy what you've got for sale. As Barry Kaye pointed out, nobody identifies with a loser.

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Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who works with professional practices and owner operated businesses. Questions about writing effective advertising copy may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.

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Going For The Gold

There's something to be said for experience. For that matter, there's something to be said for age.

There comes a time for most of us in which we realize that we've already considered the current topic. We realize that we've come to some conclusions. We realize that there's no new evidence to change our conclusions.

I think this is why older people are considered by younger people to be so set in their ways.

The older people have already considered whether a particular behavior is supportive or enabling. They've already determined that shorter-term investments come with higher volatility than longer-term investments. They've already determined that bad advertising concepts can't be saved by creativity.

And I, it appears, have become one of those crotchety old advertising people.

I'm no longer willing to give the benefit of the doubt to lame ideas that, although they won't go away, have never proven to be of value to any company, anywhere.

Like this one: “The Olympics, the political conventions, the elections, leap day, the landing on Mars and some exciting anniversaries give advertisers lots of potential themes in 2008.”

The author goes on to list such door-busting themes as:

Feb. 18: Presidents' Day
May 25: Indianapolis 500.
Aug. 8-24: The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

I won't be reserving judgment on this one. These are bad ideas.

But the sad point of this list? Somebody will attempt to use these.

Some office supply store will offer a “200 Meter Freestyle” printer ink discount. Some family restaurant will offer a “Team America” platter. Some car dealer will hold a “Gold, Silver, or Bronze” sale.

By association, these people may get some weak attention.

Maybe.

Regardless, its dangerous to assume that people interested in the original event have any interest in what you have to offer. And if they do, they need to associate you as the solution to the problem they're trying to solve.

What's your positioning statement? “We know that you're interested in the Olympics. Unfortunately, we're not them.”

And the shelf life of these ads is, at best, only days. Once the event is finished, so is the entire budget you've spent on it.

Then there's the problem of trying to get your ad to cut through the clutter of all of those other companies doing Gold, Silver, and Bronze sales.

Conclusion: Don't waste your money trying to piggyback on someone else's theme. Invest your money, instead, in getting your unique message into the minds of people who are interested in what you offer.

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Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who works with professional practices and owner operated businesses. Questions about advertising themes may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.

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Pencils Down.

For two months now the Writers Guild of America has been on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Have you noticed, yet?

Most of the television drama is produced months before it's aired, so no significant changes in drama.

“Reality” programming such as Survivor, American Idol, American's Next Top Model, or Celebrity Apprentice doesn't use written scripts (so they say), which means no problem there.

It appears that the only programs showing any immediate effect of the writer's strike are the daily comedy shows – such as those hosted by Jay Leno, David Letterman, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Conan O'Brien, and Craig Ferguson.

The writers seem determined to continue their strike.

The networks are rumored to already be considering programs produced in other countries. (BBC anyone?).

The producers are betting that Americans don't care enough about quality to affect their viewing habits. If they're right, the nation will watch whatever is put before them. If they're wrong, there are always writers in other countries. (Did we mention the BBC?)

The writers are betting the opposite - that people will angrily demand better programming.

They're both wrong.

While the writers and producers play chicken with the prime time lineup, they're all missing a major point.

Today's younger audience considers TV to be just another option on a much bigger menu. These viewers are much less likely than their parents to watch programs which are only marginally interesting to them.

If viewers don't care for Letterman, Stewart, or Colbert (who have all returned to the air without writers), then YouTube or World of Warcraft are only a mouse click away.

And, as advertisers, we should always be thinking about advertising where the viewers are.

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Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who works with professional practices and owner operated businesses. Questions about the the future of television advertising may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.

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