Are You Being Frankie?

Apparently we’re exposed to around 3000 advertising messages from the minute we wake until the minute we go to sleep. We’re shouted at by companies 24/7 trying to convince us they’ll make our lives better if we hand over our hard earned cash and bring their products & services into our homes. Pulling at our heart strings, making us feel guilty, incompetent, unattractive, unloved, unworthy, uncool if we don’t have “it” or just blatantly saying buy me because I’m awesome & I’ll make you awesome. Magazines, radio, TV, newspapers, billboards, social media, email spam, telemarketing, you name it, they all want our attention. So naturally the majority of these messages are being drowned out, getting lost in the crowd because we're desensitized or simply switch off.

You have an important message that the world (or your community) should hear, your business genuinely helps people and you care about your customers, so how does one get noticed? Apparently marketing experts being paid billions of bucks by very large companies think: SHOUT louder, longer & harder & we'll take notice!! Honestly, it's not very creative and it’s getting old.

So, as I was browsing the isles of the local supermarket the other day I noticed a quiet, polite & humble magazine – Frankie sitting among the hundred or so other mags promising the best workout you've never done (if this was the case they would never have to print another workout again, am I wrong?), 3 steps to the best sex ever, lose two dress sizes in two weeks - I'd like to ask, "how stupid do they think we are?", I find the content of mainstream media quite insulting, but obviously it sells, so that could be insulting to the general population who buy into it.

So back to Frankie, it stood out for the fact that it was not trying to stand out (and I love a medium that does Retro well). The cover of this particular issue almost whispered the headlines, enticing you to pick up the magazine and bring it in close to you to read the words, its pure genius in my humble opinion. The fact that two of the headlines were ’30 days of good deeds’ & ‘how to become the crazy cat lady’ was a mere bonus, I bought the magazine.

What about you? Is your message being drowned out? What are you doing to stand proud and let people know how different you are from the rest?

Come to think of it, what IS your point of difference, your ‘Unique Selling Proposition’? Have you sat down and really thought about it, written it down & got it clear in your own mind so you can leverage it? You may be extremely clear about this, but are your potential customers or clients? How are you communicating to make sure everyone knows you’re not just like everybody else, like your competitor?

Are you the Frankie of the newstand?