Remember that supplement ad I said I was writing?
Well, besides discovering just how blatantly corrupt things are with the drug companies and the bought-and-paid-for FTC in their hip pockets… I also had another “duh!” moment about marketing while doing research for the ad.
Something I completely missed until now.
Here’s what happened:
While reading about various pharmaceutical drugs, I was shocked (and amused) by how many drug names sound like the names of wizards and warriors from fantasy books I read as a kid.
I kept imagining some cloaked warlord lifting his sword:
“I am Zyvox!”
Or “Kneel before Zoloft!”
Or “Behold the wrath of King Tricor!”
Heck, I half expected to see a drug for obesity called “Skeletor.”
Anyway, here’s the point:
It dawned on me that one of the actual legitimate marketing tactics the drug industry uses is putting a distinct “stamp” on their product names.
I can only assume it’s intentional.
As there’s really no confusing a prescription drug from, say, an herb, supplement or natural remedy.
You know what I think?
I bet many of their customers simply feel safer using a product that sounds like it came from an episode of “He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe” than an herb that sounds like an extinct species in an old biology book.
I could be wrong, of course.
Just my humble observation.
Either way, it got me thinking about the importance of branding product names with carefully chosen words.
Something I’ll be lots more aware of for now on.
Ben Settle
P.S. Please don’t let the word “branding” scare you. It’s almost like a cuss word in direct marketing. And while the “Good Year Blimp” branding you see during Super Bowl commercials IS a big fat waste of money, there’s a way to do it that’s like putting your current marketing on steroids.
A way that’s quietly been used by some of the world’s savviest marketers — like Oprah Winfery, Rush Limbaugh, and even Donald Trump.
Details are on page 118 of “Crackerjack Selling Secrets”:
I’m extending the special $20 discount until the stroke of midnight tonight — after that, it goes to full price.
