Clayton is great; I subscribe to his newsletter and I love all of his issues.
But Eugene Schwartz explains in two ways why, on certain occasions, a highly profitable headline will fail…”Why haven’t TV owners been told these facts?”, taken from the “Fix Your TV yourself”.
First of all, Patrick’s comment hits the mark. Telling the customer not to do something or not to buy something implies revealing some secret or new information (benefits) to the reader… so the headline: “Why this or that doesn’t work” responds to the reader’s skepticism, confirms their he doubts, and tells him: “Here is an opportunity to know for sure why this or that does not work” and this opportunity is a PROFIT.
Second, in Breakthrough Advertising, which I assume most of you must be familiar with, Gene Schwartz talks about market awareness, market maturity, and the life cycle of markets.
I think the power of benefits holders is tied to market awareness in this way: is the customer aware that they can have the benefits you offer? Is he prepared to believe in the benefits you offer? If the prospect is not aware of the benefit, that the benefit can be obtained, if they are not aware of the need, but only feel that there is a general problem, a benefit holder might not win against a “Skepticism Holder” or “questioning the holder of the status quo”.
Second, market maturity explains why profit holders become powerless. If 200 products are presented with the same benefits (super generous guarantee, higher sales than others, employee discounts or other performances or offers, etc.), after a certain time, the benefits will be common ground and 1) they will have less impact on the reader 2) no company really offers something different.
Claude Hopkins says something similar about market maturity, in My Life In Advertising. Basically, if everyone is screaming that their beer is pure, then no one is making a favorable impression on the beer drinker…beer drinking has gotten used to and tired of the same old claim to purity. The claim to purity has lost its power.
So, the maturity of the market (how many products have been presented to the prospect, how many wild and even wilder claims have been presented to him, how much of these gigantic benefits is he willing to accept or reject)… market maturity explains why which Benefit Headlines would not work on a SPECIFIC PRODUCT at a SPECIFIC TIME.
I hope I was clear: the level of awareness on the part of the prospect and the maturity of the market can tell you why a High Profit headline will fail. If I haven’t made it clear, get a copy of Breakthrough Advertising, wherever you can, however you can.
Benefit Headlines will not work for a specific product at a specific point in the product’s life and market maturity.
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