A Tale Of Two Ads?One Passionate And One Effective
By Bruce W. Marcus
Bruce W. Marcus is the editor of The Marcus Letter (www.marcusletter.com). He may be reached at marcus@marcusletter.com.
It?s amazing, after all these years, that major professional firms and their agencies haven?t figured out yet how advertising works for professional firms.
Now, readers of The Marcus Letter (www.marcusletter.com) know that we don?t believe in hard and fast rules in marketing. Any such rule can be effectively ignored if there?s a distinct reason to do so, and there?s a lively intelligence and imagination behind deviating from the rules. We have also long advocated caution in judging advertising, without fully understanding that advertising objectives differ. For example, an ad may have, as its primary purpose, putting the firm?s staff in tune with the firm?s marketing position.
We all know, as well, that advertising must offer the reader benefits, regardless of objectives, don?t we?
How then explain a recent campaign by a Big Four accounting firm that touts, ?Accounting is our Passion? as its main theme, and says nothing more about the benefits to the prospective client? Unless the purpose of that ad is to awaken the passion of the firm?s own people, where is the benefit to the client? We are all glad, I?m sure, that the firm is passionate about accounting (and other firms are not?), but how does that serve the consumer of accounting services? How does that differentiate this firm from its competitors? Stamp collectors are passionate about stamp collecting, but unless you share that passion, you don?t want to get caught in the clutches of a passionate stamp collector, especially if you?re asked to pay for the privilege.
On top of which, aren?t you getting a little tired of the new fad word, passionate?
On the other hand, look at the advertising campaign of the accounting service firm, Jefferson Wells. In one ad, a large print ad, they artfully show the face of a very bright looking woman, with the headline, ?Pragmatism shows.? And the copy says?
Let?s cut to the chase. She?s tackled multiple Sarbanes-Oxley engagements in the past two years. Fifteen years of audit experience before that. There?s no learning curve. She knows the processes, the rules, the regulations, and the most efficient ways to get it all done. So does everyone on her team. Pragmatism comes from experience ? and it shows.
Now, if you?ve got a Sarbanes-Oxley problem, which of these ads would attract you? If you?re thinking about a firm to serve you, which of these two ads tells you the most about the advertiser?
One of the curses of accounting and law firm advertising in its earlier days was that most agencies knew very little about how to do it. Most of them thought you could advertise for a professional firm the way you did it for a product. It ain?t so. Why?
— Because product advertising has three major roles ? to create desire for a product where none may not have existed before ? to build name and product recognition ? to sell.
— Professional firm advertising has a very different problem. First, nobody wakes up in the morning and say, ?Gee, what I really need today is a good audit.? Or ?It?s a great day to sue somebody.? No ad is going to make you sue somebody, or get an audit you don?t really need. You go to a professional because you have to. A legal problem to solve requiring a professional. An audit demanded by either government regulation or a bank, or a merger partner.
— A product can advertise, ?Our product is better than their product.? You can?t say, ?we do better audits.? Or, ?We are better silver tongued litigators than the other guy.? Not only isn?t it ethical, but you can?t prove it.
— For the professional firm, in which the uninitiated client has very few ways to tell good from bad accounting or lawyering, and in which, to the uninitiated, all professional firms do the same thing as all the others in that profession or practice, the idea is to find ways to distinguish your firm from others. You can?t say, ?We do better audits? or ?We write better briefs.? (Not only can you not prove it, but the recent pre-SOX track record has built a mountain of skepticism not easily traversed.) And the answer to ?We do better audits? is, ?Sez you.)
— The purpose of a product ad is to impel you to go out and buy the product. But nobody hires a lawyer or an accountant from an ad. The purpose of advertising a professional firm is to sell capability and name recognition, so that they know you when you come to call. If the advertising is really good, you?ve got the beginnings trust to sell against.
That?s what?s so bad about the passion ad, and so good about the Jefferson Wells ad.
What makes the Jefferson-Wells ad so strong is ?
— It addresses a specific problem ? Sarbanes-Oxley ? and doesn?t try to bludgeon you into thinking favorably about the whole firm. Advertising tends to work best when it deals with only one idea at a time. If it does that well, then it enhances the reputation of the whole firm, and implies that everybody else in the firm is capable.
— It talks about the capability of an individual ? and no matter how large a professional firm may be, it?s the individual professional that matters. There may be a thousand people behind the manufacture of a tube of toothpaste. The interface between the manufacturer and the consumer is the tube of toothpaste. The interface between a professional and the client is the professional. Sell the professional who performs the service, not the firm. Do that well, and the firm sells itself.
— The graphics, by the way, are terrific. Elegant. Readable.
— Technically, the headline, without being in shouting size type, is catchy. And what?s most important is that the text relates to the headline.
— The artfulness in the text is that it makes its point without wasting a word. Short sentences, each of which makes a specific point.
Rules? Different rules for different advertising objectives. And rules, in all aspects of marketing, can be broken, but only by very artful, intelligent and imaginative people. You?d think that all professional firm advertisers would know that, after all these years. But then, as we keep saying, don?t hire the marketing mechanic ? hire the artist.