Copywriters are idiots - more

The traditional marketing and advertising world has been driven by demographicis (see previous post) for generations. But why? Because it's easy to get and it is easy to measure. Whereas, people are mess, unpredicatable and difficult to measure.

The step beyond demographics is called "psychographics." That's general descriptions of target markets. Sara Palin represented a psychographic - hockey moms. That descriptive will give you some idea of what those people are like. But, it doesn't give you enough to be really compelling.

You can't use a generic description to target an individual, and all great/effective marketing targets one individual. What kind of information should you be looking for? It's called "mental filters." Actually, the technical term is "meta programs."

You would find people who are representative of the audience you want to attract. Then, you would interview them to determine their mental filter configuration. That would give you the words, phrases and language patterns that you should use in your marketing - and selling.

That is the big secret in marketing! But because it requires a lot of study, training and experience to be able to use mental filters effectively, very few copywriter (or marketers) even know what they are. Instead, they rely on cute. Can you hear me now? -- Michael Lovas