In search of the perfect promise: Dead chicken parts versus finger-lickin' good
I was evaluating at an attractive-looking website while talking on the phone to the entrepreneur who created it. As I clicked around, I realized that the website suffered from a common problem. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but this whole website is about 'dead chicken parts, fried in grease at 200 degrees,'" I told him. "What's missing from this site is 'finger-lickin' good.'"
In other words, the entire site was all about the process behind his product, rather than the satisfaction his customers will get from the product.
He's going to change the site, after he interviews some customers to find out what they consider to be "finger-licking good" about his product.
What is "finger-licking good"?
It's something I call the visual moment of satisfaction. It's that moment when you are still licking your fingers, happy you ate that fried chicken, (and, in the case of Kentucky Fried, it's before you've gotten heartburn from those secret spices). It's the moment when you have gotten the maximum benefit out of a product or service, and you are pleased with your purchase.
This is the image you must identify and communicate to your potential customers. This is marketing at its best.
This is also the promise that customers want you to make and keep. Yes, you could call it a tagline or slogan, but those words are associated with mass-market branding campaigns on the consumer side and ridiculous mission statements on the business-to-business side.
I prefer "promise" to brand, slogan, tagline, or positioning, because a "promise" infers an interaction between two people. It's a statement of "what will happen to you after you buy our stuff," and, because it is a promise, and not just marketing speak, what was promised should actually happen. If you're promised finger-licking good, you'd better be licking your fingers.
Where do dead chicken parts come from?
It's rare that you see a company promoting that peak moment of satisfaction. Instead, most marketers and managers take the path of least political resistance inside their companies. They don't interview customers. The customer isn't "in the room" when they have their strategy meeting. The meeting is dominated by the product, not the customer's experience with the product. The strategy focuses on what's in the product and how the product was created.
Dead chicken parts, fried in grease at 200 degrees.
Examples of excellent promises
The companies that manage to capture the visual moment of satisfaction have given us the most memorable campaigns. Before they turned the chicken colonel into an acronym, KFC ran the "finger-licking good" campaign. It was a perfect example of communicating that "as good as it gets" moment.
Other memorable promises include:
- "Does she…or doesn't she? Only her hairdresser knows for sure." (Clairol)
- "When you care enough to send the very best." (Hallmark)
- "You'll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsident."
- "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight." (FedEx)
- "Because I'm worth it" (L'Oreal)
- "Betcha can't eat just one" (Lay's)
- "The power to be your best" (Apple)
- "A little dab'll do ya." (Brylcreem)
- "It's everywhere you want to be." (Visa)
- "Breakfast of champions." (Wheaties)
- "Tastes great. Less filling." (Miller Lite)
Promises like these provide the conceptual framework for an entire campaign. They help to get the buzz going. They tell people what's good about your product, before they go to a store or visit your website. And when it's time to buy your product or service again, a good promise will remind the buyer why he or she bought the product the first time, and reinforce their desire to buy it again.
Even more importantly, it plants a positive mental image in the mind of a potential customer. A woman who is considering a new hair color can imagine herself smugly satisfied because no one has guessed she colors her hair. The lawyer can assume he'll sleep peacefully, because he knows that an important signed document will absolutely, positively be delivered overnight (assuming a lawyer can actually sleep peacefully). The young man can picture himself eagerly wolfing down his cereal, confident that he's eating a breakfast of champions.
The promise and the complex product
There's also another important reason for developing a promise. Some products are so complex that you need a phrase that sums up what they can do for the buyer.
That perfect phrase is not easy to come by. First you need to understand the product yourself.
This is as far as many marketing people get when they're selling a complex product. They are so proud they figured it out, and so exhausted by the effort, that the new campaign is just a recitation of their new understanding of the product. But these campaigns don't reflect the visual moment of satisfaction. No matter how well they understand the product, marketers won't correctly identify the visual moment of satisfaction without interviewing customers.
I remember writing white papers for a company that sold finite element analysis software, which is definitely a complex product. I interviewed the product developers until I understood the dead chicken parts part.
Armed with my new knowledge, I was able to explain, to anyone who asked, that finite element analysis software divides a physical object or structure into small segments called elements, then uses assigned characteristics of the elements - such as the way an element responds to heat, cold, and stress - to predict what will happen when the element is subjected to these forces.
As an example, a civil engineer could use the software to predict how a bridge would behave at rush hour when the temperature has dropped below freezing. Subsequent customer interviews convinced me that the peak moment of satisfaction was the ability to predict how something would behave before it was built. A plain-language, finger-lickin' good promise for finite element analysis: "See it in action, before it's built."
You're still selling to human beings
In this age of Web, it's easy to get too wrapped up in the details of visitor logs and keywords. It's important to remember that we are still marketing to human beings, who are definitely not interested in dead chicken parts. They want finger-lickin' good. A peak-moment-of-satisfaction promise will stay in the mind, and help them think of you when they decide it's time to buy your type of product or service.
How do you identify the peak moment of satisfaction for your product or service? You call your current customers and ask them to describe it to you.
"What was the moment when you were most glad you bought our product?"
Your interviews will reveal words and phrases that you'd never come up with on your own, no matter how brilliant you are.
What are you selling? Dead chicken parts, or finger-lickin' good?
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Resources and inspiration for great promises (typically referred to as slogans):
Wikipedia list of advertising slogans (best source--organized by type of industry)
KnowThis.com's "Advertising Examples, Slogans and Advertising Awards"
Advertising Slogan Hall of Fame (a bit outdated, but there's still some good content in here)
BusinessWeek article about slogans and taglines
TV Acres advertising slogans
