It’s almost impossible to escape them. You hear them on the radio at least once a day. Obnoxious car commercials, claiming that they have the lowest prices, the best deals, the widest selection ...  You can’t miss it because they talk unnecessarily loud, use tinned music, sound effects, terrible fake “real-life skits” (all featuring horrific acting). I can recall all the tactics, but can’t match the tactic to the dealer. Why?  Because they are all forgettable.

The problem with this approach is that there’s no clear message. Sure, in the commercial, the advertisers may set up a situation/action/resolution, but when compared to the rest of their competitors, they are all doing the same thing.  So the message is diluted and muted. Forgettable. Annoying. A waste of my listening cycles. Is that a good spend of advertising dollars? To have a message that can’t really be recalled?

Other industries do this as well. Here in New England, it is common to hear automobile tire companies try out best each other on the radio.  “Buy three tires and the fourth is free!” (Really? C’mon. Just say if you buy all four, you save 25%. No one really only intends to buy three tires.) Sound effects with crashing cars. Screeches. Fathers and sons arguing about price. The list goes on. Just as annoying as the car companies.

But one stands out from the crowd. I won’t name who because I don’t necessarily endorse them (or not endorse them). But the ad was perfect.  The message was clear.

I was in the car with my wife and two kids, radio on, conversations happening, errands in progress. Our minds are all in fourth gear, doing what we’re doing. On comes this ad for tires. It’s one guy, no music, talking in a conversational voice. Like it’s him talking to me. As if he were in the car or at a coffee shop, chatting. He says the name of the company, what they sell, what they offer. He sets up his competitive differentiator (price and service). He doesn’t knock the competition. He says that his sales staff doesn’t work on commission, so there’s no pressure to buy anything (and that’s echoed in the tone of the ad). He adds more detail. He wraps the spot with a reiteration of the company name, locations, his name, and again what they do. All in what seems like 30 seconds.

The ad finished, and the radio switched to some cacophony. I paused and said to my wife, “That was a perfect ad.” She looked at me oddly and asked me why I thought so.

I answer,“There are tens of tire companies trying to get into your wallet here in Massachusetts. They all use the same tactics like the car dealers do: yelling, screaming, cheesy gimmicks. Not this company. It was a conversation. I heard his message. I heard his value proposition.  I know what they do, how to find them, and why I should go to them versus someone else.”

Isn’t that the point of successful messaging?



How is your messaging for your products? Is it cutting through the clutter and reaching---really reaching---your intended audience?