Creating Effective Business Advertising: A Lesson from Mercedes

One thing I always impress upon my clients is that business advertising, whether online, offline, or any other form of advertising, will succeed or fail on the strength of your message and how it resonates with your customers. A strong effective message is in turn built on your USPs, or unique selling points. But what do you do if identifying your unique selling points is not possible?

Every business person knows that effective business advertising is built upon USPs; unfortunately, this makes life very difficult for some businesses planning new advertising because of the market they operate in. Let's suppose you're a plumber. You pride yourself on:

Reasonable prices
Quality, guaranteed workmanship
Prompt attendance

Unfortunately, so do your competitors. You can't think of a service you offer that they don't, or something you do significantly better than they do. So, if you cannot find something that sets you apart from your competitors, and gives potential customers a reason to call you first, what do you do?

Well, I usually start off by telling my clients about the 1980s Mercedes advert shown in Australia, and the 'Make it Your Own' approach. You might like to watch the video here. For those who can't view the video, the advert shows a Mercedes that was involved in a high speed collision whilst carrying a family of four. The car is badly damaged; the front is crushed, windscreen shattered - it looks nasty. Now the camera zooms out and we see the family standing, all safe and well.

As this is unfolding a voiceover informs us that their survival is down to the 120 safety features built into the Mercedes. We are told that the pedals retracted into the floor saving the driver's legs, seatbelt pre-tensioners held the occupants deep in their seats, and that the passenger safety cage remained intact. We're left in no doubt that these features helped to save their lives. It is a powerful advert.

Unsurprisingly, Mercedes sales rose significantly after this advert was shown. It was considered a great success and BMW, their main competitors, were not happy. In fact, BMW were so unhappy they made a complaint. Why? Because, at that time in Australia, the safety features shown were a legal requirement for all cars in that class. Mercedes were not the only cars to have them. BMWs did too.

Mercedes used a concept here called 'Make it Your Own'. The advert was powerful and direct. It created a link between a safe car, and a Mercedes car. People now associated Mercedes with safety, over and above any other manufacturer. The two went together and as a consequence sales rose. Mercedes made 'Safety' their own.

The point here is that sometimes your business may not be different or unique. Others may offer quality, value, or whatever quality it is you strive to offer your customers. In a market with lots of competitors you may not be able to trump everyone else. What you can do however, is make sure that customers associate a certain set of qualities with your business, over your competitors. This is what advertising is all about. Make sure that when they think quality, they think of you, or when they think value, your business springs to mind. You choose the value you want your business to be associated with, and create that link. Create a powerful message, promote it, re-enforce it and over time you will can 'Make it your Own'.

Now, take a look at some Low Cost Marketing Ideas for Businesses and see if you can incorporate your value into some new advertising.