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Analogy Marketing: How to Think Like the Web's Top Paid Creative Professionals
Stand-out marketing: you know it when you see it. Clicking on a page, and suddenly you're hit with a burst of fruit-juicy goodness. Vibrant colors, bold headlines. Simple, bright copy that swiftly wipes your mind clean of all its clutter. A trustworthy smile, and a clear voice that fills you with big ideas and a sense of purpose, all in a matter of seconds.
I'm talking about that thing that only some marketers have, that makes other marketers bow down to their expertise and declare them "Brilliant!" "One in a million!" "A real thought pioneer!"
What makes some companies so magnetic, while others have you swiping at the little X in the top right-hand corner of your web browser? If you find out what this "secret" is, can you get it for your own business?
I have a name for that "thing", that talent that only A-list creatives seem to have been born with. I call it Analogy Marketing, because that's what it is.
The effective use of a simple analogy can make your promises gleam more brightly than those of the competition. It can imprint your name in the mind of your target audience and keep it there. And it frequently works, over time and through repetitive contact, to convert fans and admirers to paying customers.
So how can you use analogies to make your marketing beam a strobe light across the World Wide Web, and make you globally known and revered in your niche?
According to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, an anology is "a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based: the analogy between the heart and a pump."
In the same way that we use analogous thought to color our every conversation, we can use it to give our advertising message a boost and help our customers remember us more easily. If you're not in the habit of thinking in analogies, it's a conceptual strategy that can be refined over time, and with regular practice.
Suppose you want to develop your brand identity and corporate image. How can "thinking in analogies" help you carve out a concept that works to attract more customers? Kick off the process with a branding brainstorm. First, cover the primary benefits that you can offer your key customers. Establish the "unique selling proposition," or USP. Once the USP is clear, follow with a series of representative analogies.
Let's try it now.
Suppose you're a marketing firm (if you're reading this, you probably are one). Your customers love you because there's always something fresh and new emerging from your staff of brainy creatives. You decide this is going to be your USP.
Okay - that's a good explanation, but it's not a visual. You need a visual - something that you can turn into a graphic, so that it becomes an iconic representation of your company. People retain information more easily when it's presented with a symbol, or icon, that they can visualize in the right hemisphere of their brains.
How can we turn this into a visual? Start thinking in analogies. Imagine the ideas bursting forth from your marketing people. They're spewing out at a constant rate. Ideas flowing. What's that like? Maybe... a geyser? There's your analogy. "Our marketing ideas burst forth like a geyser." Okay, but it sounds flat. So, let's turn it into a catchy line:
Geyser Marketing: Bursting with Fresh Ideas
You can picture a geyser here, can't you? Good... that's what we want - to prompt a visual. This is how we "stick" with our readers so they remember us later.
Maybe the geyser in your brain is a photograph. It could be Old Faithful! Or, perhaps it's a cartoon geyser, like the one in my head. You will decide later, with the help of your graphic designers, what the "actual" geyser on your logo will look like, based on the personality and preference of your target audience.
Once you get the hang of this, analogies will just start coming to you. Can you see how the following brands and taglines originated in analogous thinking?
Want to get into the habit of thinking in analogies? Do this: start a blog that's relevant to your selling niche. Then, wake up an hour earlier than you normally would each morning, and let your mind roam where it may. If you come up with some blog topics that your audience may find useful or at the very least entertaining, try to spin those thoughts into an analogy or two. For example, you might think to yourself, "My client entrusted me to communicate on her behalf. That's almost like saying, 'Here, hold my egg.' (yes, this is a direct quote from my own blog).
Thinking in analogies can even help you develop those clever, one-liners that keep your audience on the edge of their seat: "Find out what your SEX LIFE has to do with the way you market your business!" (I think it may have been Andrea J. Lee who said that, but I'm not certain. What I am 100% sure of is that there is an analogy behind that thought).
Truth be told, thinking in analogies isn't for everybody. If you can't do it, don't beat yourself up. This is why advertising creatives get paid top dollar to help develop award-winning brands. Remember though, that if you want to blow past your competition in the sales running, you're going to need unforgettable marketing. A good, hard-hitting analogy-based branding message could well be your first big step toward success.
Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing. All rights reserved.
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