The 10 Greatest Marketing Concepts in One Sentence Each

Plus: The latest hits, tests & promising products

Many years ago, I started keeping a list of the greatest marketing concepts I had come across, each summarized in a single sentence. I eventually lost interest in the project, but I decided that I’m going to complete it today in the form of a ‘Top 10’ list.

This is just my list, of course. You’re welcome to agree, disagree and/or share the marketing concepts that would make your Top 10 list.

DR Dynamite!🧨

Welcome again to my new feature where I write about high-impact advertising wisdom from the ‘Masters of DR.’ Come to think of it, maybe I should broaden that to the ‘Masters of Marketing,’ since not everyone I admire is a DR practitioner.
(And I ❤️ alliteration.)

Last week, we remembered Joseph Sugarman and revisited three of his most powerful psychological insights. This week, as promised, we’re going to go from three to 10. Here’s my list of great marketing concepts.

1. The most effective advertising message is a strong, clearly expressed reason why the consumer should buy. - John E. Kennedy
   In addition to the insight that advertising is “salesmanship in print,” the concept of “reason-why advertising” was Kennedy’s biggest contribution to our craft. He was one of the first to teach the wisdom of getting inside the mind of the consumer.

2. Every advertisement should present a motivating and unique selling proposition. - Rosser Reeves
   Reeves, who may have been the inspiration for Mad Men’s Don Draper, coined the term “USP” in his 1960 classic, Reality in Advertising. The concept might not seem so earth-shattering these days, but it was certainly a big idea at the time. Speaking of which…

3. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will quickly be forgotten. - David Ogilvy
   The root of this concept — asking, ‘What’s the big idea?’ — is itself a big idea that has not been forgotten. Like the term “USP,” it has become part of the advertising vocabulary. Of course, this whole list could be Ogilvy concepts! And quotes. One of my favorites is: “The consumer isn’t a moron. She’s your wife.” 😂

4. Effective advertising involves using headlines and visuals that immediately communicate the product’s benefit to the reader. - John Caples
   I will no doubt be dedicating a lot more space to Caples and his Tested Advertising Methods. For now, I picked just one of his many foundational teachings. Just the other day, I heard an Amazon guru turn this concept into a “seller hack.” It seems Amazon listings tend to be heavy on features and light on benefits. Experienced DR marketers know that’s a rookie mistake.

5. The most effective TV commercials follow the pitchman’s technique: set forth the problem, explain the solution and then demonstrate the product. - Al Eicoff
   Eicoff is to DRTV what guys like Sugarman and Caples are to DR print. He’s also the person who coined the phrase that served as the title of his autobiography, Or Your Money Back. He is often considered the “father of infomercials” and was the founder of the first DRTV agency, A. Eicoff & Company, in 1959. I got a lot from his book at a time when I was just learning the ropes (and DRTV was still king).

6. It’s not about being first, it’s about being first in the mind. - Al Ries & Jack Trout
   This is one of those concepts that forever changed my thinking about marketing. With example after example, Ries & Trout proved that the first company to market is usually not the company that becomes #1 in a new category. The reason: Marketing is a battle of perceptions, not products.

7. Build the marketing into your product by making it a “purple cow,” something truly noticeable and worth talking about. - Seth Godin
   My office library features rows of standard-size books wrapped in unremarkable covers. There’s one exception: At the end of a particular shelf is an odd, tiny book speckled with purple spots. Yes, Godin practices what he preaches, and I have never forgotten his Purple Cow concept as a result. In a digital world cluttered with more brown cows than ever before, this concept is still highly relevant.

8. People don’t buy products, they “hire” them to do jobs. - Clayton Christensen
   A highly influential professor at Harvard Business School and a renowned author and business consultant, Christensen was best known for his “disruptive innovation” concept. However, this concept is more useful for marketers. It invites us to remember that consumers are most often looking for a solution to a problem.

9. Persuasive advertising leverages key psychological principles such as reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. - Robert Cialdini
   If you’re a marketer and you haven’t read Cialdini’s Influence, then you must do two things: 1) hang your head in shame, 2) stop what you’re doing and read it RIGHT NOW.

10. There are only three ways to grow revenue: increase the number of clients, increase the average transaction per client, and increase the number of transactions per client. - Jay Abraham
    This last one may seem more appropriate for a list of top 10 business concepts, but I included it because it focuses on the other side of the equation for direct marketers like us. Since we run everything off carefully monitored KPIs, we need to keep Abraham’s maxim in mind. In our world, it translates into familiar metrics such as conversion rates (number of clients), average order values (average transaction per client) and lifetime values (number of transactions per client).

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Chart Watch 🆓

Pocket Hose Copper Bullet

Pitch: “The first and only Pocket Hose infused with real copper”
Offer: $29.99 for the 25-foot hose
Marketer: BulbHead

Premium subscribers knew about this one back in March. It’s now in the DRMetrix Top 5 (week of 5/1). Here’s what I wrote back then:

Employing the same sort of strategy we’ve seen with nonstick pans, BulbHead keeps releasing new versions of its popular expandable hose with slight color/material differences. This year, it’s copper. In 2018, it was silver. In 2017, it was brass. In 2015, it was also brass…

Although Pocket Hose was a very bumpy ride that began with a triple duel, it has now been dominant on the shelf for more than a decade.

When I wrote that history, I forgot to include another project that tested in 2020: Pocket Hose Black Bullet. It was an interesting digression at a time when BulbHead was heavily focused on hemp (because of its Hempvana brand).

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Recent Tests🔒

Speaking of BulbHead line extensions, Ruby Space Triangles is in the DRMetrix Top 10 this week, Ruby Sliders Outdoors tested just last month, and now yet another Ruby item just hit the airwaves …