Two simple marketing principles
I have been fighting in software and games marketing for a while, and I’ve read many books and tried several techniques. I’ve launched several software products with diverse results, and I’ve also taken creative writing courses, studied storytelling techniques for marketing, studied TV advertising, even created a game on this theme.
Whenever I see an ad, read about a new product idea, see any kind of promotion I’ found it useful to ask these two simple questions, that somehow are my brief “extract” of all the experience and study process (I use “product” as a generic term for product / solution /service):
1. What is the fatal flaw that this product meets?
2. No direct fatal flaw met: so what is the narrative transmitted by this message?
Products that don’t meet any fatal flaw usually need more investment in narrative construction. If a product does not make me beautiful, perfumed, seducing, healthy, slim… (fatal flaws) – e.g. its an iPad – so its a solution is search of a problem – I need to create a powerful narrative so that some fatal flaw solution is evoked.
Next ad you see, ask yourself the two questions above. May be a useful exercise.
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[...] addenda to the previous post on fatal flaws in marketing: yesterday I saw a big ad of the new mini saying more or less “If feel like you are not living [...]
An iPad does not address a fatal flaw? Are you restricting “fatal flaw” to human aspects? What fatal flaws then do cars, radios, TV, etc NOT address? And the Internet itself? Aren’t some flaws only apparent *after* they’ve been solved?
“Aren’t some flaws only apparent *after* they’ve been solved?” – Yes, they are. It is what in marketing is called “creating the need”.