When Billy Mays died over the weekend, his Times obituary observed that
Mr. Mays learned his craft on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, where he drew crowds as he hawked his mops and other wares. His big break came in the mid-1990s when he was hired by Orange Glo International to appear on the Home Shopping Network to promote the company’s line of cleaners, which included OxiClean, Orange Glo and Kaboom.
I liked Billy Mays; in fact, we have some OxiClean and Mighty Putty in our closets here at home (unused, I’m pretty sure). My kids enjoyed his TV pitches. But I think that his passing is an opportunity to re-evaluate how marketers talk about their products.
Because despite the new community-building and discussion tools the internet has provided us, we marketers still communicate more like Atlantic City barkers than friends or businesspeople.
Consider the state of marketing messaging.
Send Sales Rep Productivity Sky-High*
Nokia Saudi Arabia Capitalizes On Its Revolutionary Software & Solutions To Redefine Mobile Use**
Illumina Introduces Breakthrough Software Advancements with Genome AnalyzerIIx Sequencing System***
Just cut, activate and apply Mighty Putty™ to fix, fill or seal almost any surface!
There is one powerful similarity between Billy Mays’ pitches and the “serious” press release headlines above. Their purpose is to get our attention. “Revolutionary!” “Breakthrough!” But these words have lost their meaning through overuse and underdelivery–no one believes them anymore. [There's also one striking difference--Mighty Putty has Billy Mays, a real person, who you can laugh with, remember, and even mourn.]
Isn’t it time to retire “breakthrough” and “revolutionary” marketing copy for B2B products?
Granted that there’s a lot of noise out there about all products, but there are far better and more effective ways of finding and engaging with customers than adding your voice to the chorus of shouters.
* salesforce.com
** Nokia
*** Illumina
