One of the items that are drilled into our sometimes thick copywriter heads is the importance of believability. It’s a fine line we walk between wanting to make our product/service appear exciting and unique and the to-be-avoided-at-all-costs, exaggerated fabrication where we whip ourselves into a frothing frenzy and leave reality behind.

I doubt that most copywriters get to pick and choose celebrity endorsers for our clients. I doubt we’re even asked. ( know I haven’t.) But the whole celebrity endorsement thing certainly does drive much of DRTV (direct response television.) That’s why I found The DRTV X-factor: Celebrity Endorsements a very interesting read today, especially this part:

It is helpful to think of your product and endorser as two brands. “The actual product has to be in alignment with the celebrity brand,” says Andrew Gordon, president of Newton, Mass.-based Direct Impact Group, a direct marketing agency. For example, consumers did not believe that Tiger Woods actually drove a Buick, so the company recently dropped him as a sponsor. (my emphasis.)

Of course, they didn’t. Did you? I know I didn’t when I saw the ad for the first time. My first thought then and every time I saw the ad was “Yeah, right.” Why some advertising smarty didn’t figure this out early is beyond me. Somebody must have thought, “Hey, Tiger is a winner. By promoting our car, by extension, car buyers (in whatever demographic being targeted) would view Buick and themselves as winners, too! ”

So Buick paid Tiger a whole bunch of money. Tiger . Buick, however, didn’t move enough cars. Buick

A “Yeah, right.” from your prospect is a sure-fire deal-breaker and campaign killer.

That’s why I encourage you to have “civilians”, non-marketing/advertising types, to review our letter and display ad copy. Ask them to “yeah, right” themselves through every line and paragraph and circle them. Why? Because every “yeah, right” is a big STOP sign. It wrecks the rhythm of your message. It throws sharp tacks in your prospect’s path. Every “yeah, right” is a warning light for you to bolster credibility with a fact, a figure, a positive review or maybe a honeymoon testimonial or two.

Buick learned it the hard way, but you don’t have to.

So remember, if you’re writing a promotion with a message so over-the-top you couldn’t pay your mother enough money to believe it, here’s what I suggest: back away from the keyboard, slap yourself a few times, return to the keyboard and rewrite it.

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[tags] buick, tiger woods, celebrity endorsements, brand mismanagement, DRTV, marketing credibility, writing believable copy [/tags]