What’s The Best Way To Sell A Fruitcake?

I just saw this post from two friends of mine, Jim and Travis the authors of Gravitational Marketing. It is a humorus way of looking at the obvious way we respond (knowingly) to ads and offers every day. Basic, but so very necessary in your day to day business life.

Think about it if you wanted a new flat screen TV or vacation cruise, how would you approach your leery spouse? Like me, you would watch your words very closely.

From their post:

The answer: only semantics.

Here’s another example provided by Sandy Franks of Agora Publishing.

Collin Street Bakery, headquartered in Texas, was struggling to generate sales for its fruitcake.

The cakes are delicious. But “fruitcake” has a negative image.

One of the reasons Collin Street fruitcakes taste so good is they are made with pecans grown on the Texas river banks.

So Collin Street Bakery repositioned their fruitcake, calling it a “Native Texas Pecan Cake.”

The results: response rates to direct mail selling the cakes increased 60% … and the promotion was so successful, the bakery sent 12 million pieces of mail.

Take away for small businesses.

Are you presenting your product, service and offer in the best light? Is there a way you can explain it differently for greater impact. How about the name of your offer, guarantee, product or service? Is there a more appealing way to say it?

This is a great place to test and measure folks.

Gravitationally Yours,

Jim & Travis

Get it? I know you do. As always, to your success! – Jamie