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Thinking Beyond the Box
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The thing in the box is not all there is to a product, and the physical features of that thing may not be what motivates the consumer to choose your thing over somebody else's thing.
In his classic book, "The Marketing Imagination," Theodore Levitt wrote:
"A product is, to the potential buyer, a complex cluster of value satisfactions. The generic 'thing' or 'essence' is not itself the product."
To the customer, a pair of jeans is not just an article of clothing that keeps his legs warm and his privates covered. It's an expression, a promise of delight, a satisfaction of intangible and not always conscious desires.
To write or direct a marketing video, I consider the "whole" product. Not just how fast your microprocessor is, but what makes your company better able to meet the customer's expectations. Not just how many raisins are in the box, but what good things you deliver that the customer does not expect at all.
Thanks to the Internet, business customers and individual consumers are better informed than ever before. We share our views and experiences. We read reviews by professionals and by people like ourselves. We are skeptical of advertising claims and more confident about the decisions we make. That's why your marketing video needs to be informative, authoritative, and credible. And why clear, vivid, unadorned prose -- free of unnecessary jargon and hyperbole -- is essential.
I also believe we owe our viewers something in exchange for their time and attention: information they can use, amusement, surprise and delight.
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