Pushing consumers’ buttons when times are tough
Although it seems that the economic news is generally more positive, we’re probably not out of the ‘downturn’ woods yet. While the government is trying to convince us that things have bounced right back from the global financial crisis, there may be a longer ‘hangover’ through rising unemployment and interest rates.
All this means that consumers are still feeling financial pressure. So what types of offers will push their buttons in times like these?
In fact, it’s not too different to the things they worry about the rest of the time – but these concerns are magnified.
With direct response TV, to encourage viewers to respond to your advertisement, you have to solve a problem – and in these tougher economic times, people are thinking most about money: how to save it and how to make it.
So you need to show people how they can save money or make some extra cash in areas such as:
- Credit cards: to help people get on top of their debts, for example, 0% balance transfer offers are popular, or rebate offers, where for $500 spent on a particular card, $50 will be rebated.
- Mortgages: bundling debts from credit cards or personal loans with a mortgage for debt consolidation and getting them paid off quicker.
- Essential services such as telecommunications: bundling multiple services such as broadband and mobile plans for cost savings.
- Business opportunities: for example, offering viewers a free report on how to convert unwanted items into $2000 cash on eBay. For an company advertising a system to make money from eBay, this recently received a huge response.
Basically, by thinking about what might be keeping your customers up at night at the moment, you can find the right buttons to push to get the best possible response to your commercial.
