How to add humanity to your marketing materials

Ivan Levison —
Direct Mail, E-mail and Advertising Copywriting

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THE LEVISON LETTER
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Action Ideas For Better Direct Mail,
E-mail, Web Sites & Advertising

Published by
Ivan Levison, Direct Response Copywriting

December, 2001
Volume: 16 Number: 12

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How to add humanity to your
marketing materials
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Remember Mister Whipple? - that old guy in the toilet
paper commercial who kept telling people not to squeeze
the Charmin?

There's a good chance that you do. You see, Mister
Whipple was one of the most successful "continuing
characters" in the history of advertising. Thanks to
the "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin" campaign, the
brand became the category leader and made Proctor &
Gamble a ton of money.

(Factoid: In a 1978 poll, Mister Whipple was named the
third best-known American behind former President Nixon
and Rev. Billy Graham!)

Let's take a look at what Mister Whipple did for the
brand and learn a bit about what he can teach us!

Toilet paper, as I'm sure you'll agree, is not the
sexiest product on the market. Nope. Toilet paper is
not up there with sports cars, PDAs, or luxury watches.
Like many other "package goods," toilet paper falls,
quite predictably, into the "low interest" category.
Which means Benton & Bowles Advertising had a tough
problem trying to promote the brand.

They decided on a "Charmin is the soft one" positioning
and created Mister Whipple to make the positioning come
alive. The logic was that Charmin was so irresistibly
soft, that people just couldn't help squeezing it.
Mister Whipple, the old fuss-budget, had to keep their
urge to squeeze the Charmin under control. He became
the Taliban of aisle five.

Mister Whipple, therefore, is the metaphoric embodiment
of the product positioning ("Charmin is the soft one").
Instead of simply asserting that Charmin is soft or
proving it by tests or testimonials, Benton & Bowles
used Mister Whipple to humanize the product positioning.

That's what all continuing characters do. Take the
lonely Maytag repairman. Maytag's product positioning
centers on reliability. Thus, the sad-sack Maytag
repairman has nothing to do (since he's never needed)
and sits around bored and unloved. Again, the
continuing character serves to imaginatively restate
the product positioning and imbue it with humanity and
personality.

What does this have to do with YOUR business? What can
YOUR company learn from Mister Whipple and the Maytag
repairman?

Simply, that humanizing your marketing-communications
materials can help you connect with prospects.

Let's face it. Many companies, especially high-tech
outfits that focus on product specifications, often
forget that their customers are flesh and blood people
with emotions that can be appealed to. Sure, data
sheets and specs are important, but they're not the
whole story.

Apple computer, in the early days, understood that.
They didn't dwell on the technical features of the Mac.
They created a sense that using a Mac was super cool.
That, in fact, you were super cool if you put your feet
up on your desk, sipped a cup of coffee like the
handsome model, and wrote that great American novel
with MacWrite and 128K of memory.

You know, it really isn't hard to add a little humanity
and personality to your marketing materials. For
example, you can:

+ Show people using your product

+ If you talk about great "customer care," show your
support staff

+ Put photos of people on your Web site

+ If you use customer testimonials, include their
photos

+ Sign your e-mail with a name (instead of leaving it
anonymous)

+ Instead of photographing your fulfillment piece by
itself, photograph a hand holding it

+ In a self-mailer, have a message from the president
along with a friendly photo

And that's just for starters.

The take-away message this month? Product facts and
information are important - but so is the human touch.
Betty Crocker, Uncle Ben, Mrs. Olsen, The Jolly Green
Giant, the Pillsbury Doughboy, and countless others
have made products come alive for consumers. Doesn't it
make sense to bring a bit of the human touch to YOUR
marketing efforts?

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How To Get In Touch
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Ivan Levison
Direct Response Copywriting
14 Los Cerros Drive
Greenbrae, CA 94904

Phone: (415) 461-0672
Fax: (415) 461-7738
E-mail: ivan@levison.com
Web Site: http://www.levison.com

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