OPEN 2

SELL ME SOMETHING
Ben Coulson, Chief Creative Officer,
GPY&R Australia and New Zealand
...
Imagine walking into a luxury store and
loudly announcing to anyone within earshot,
“Sell me something, God damn it. I’ve got
a hunger to buy and the buffet is open,
let’s eat!”
“Excuse me sir, can I help you (are you
crazy, should I call the police)?”
“You heard right, my consumer demand
is peaking and if I don’t get some retail relief
real soon, it’s gonna blow!”
Not something I’ve done before, but
it would be worth it to see the look on the
sales assistants’ faces as they struggled with
these new rules of retail engagement. You
are going to buy, it’s now just a matter of
what and how much.
It sounds a bit far-fetched, but this
is really what happens when we do our jobs
properly. People want to buy things. Sometimes
so much it doesn’t completely make sense.
It’s worth keeping in mind when selling
to people that advertising is demand stimulus.
We’re the ‘want makers.’ We are the hands on
the bellows that fan the flames of capitalism.
Okay, that might be a little dramatic, but
our role in driving confident and successful
economies is significant. Without sufficient
demand for goods and services, some of the
building blocks of the economy (like GDP) fail.
The right advertising moves a person
into the buying box seat. It isn’t some kind
of dark voodoo that can make us act outside
our will. But it is the little retail bird whispering
in our ear; the voice that says, “Go on, you really
deserve this. Hell, you actually need it. It’s
a very smart buy.”
And it can be a really fun game. We
all like buying stuff. And we like the whole
courting process (whether we admit it or
not). Often, it is a lovely flirtation, a little
psychological cat and mouse with our capitalist
programming. Done properly, it’s outright
seduction. Rational thinking is swept away
in the moment.
Suddenly, we have that new fishing rod
with laser scope, the smart TV that will let us
watch Game of Thrones nights before it runs in
the US, the blender that will make the smoothie
that will kick start our new healthy lifestyle,
the shoes that will absolutely make the outfit.
Think about some of the things you have
bought recently and the story you created for
why you need them: “It was such good value”;
“I’ve been looking for one of these for ever”;
“It will last a lifetime”; “It was the last one”;
“They have just come in and I was lucky to snap
them up.” Sometimes, we even need the things
we buy, but we still like to make up these little
justifications.
Whenever you notice yourself inventing
a wonderfully appropriate validation for your
purchase, understand you have been ‘sold.’
It’s not a bad thing, you’ve got the product
or service you wanted and it has been fun
choosing it. This ritual rationalisation is
just the last move in a big game of corporate
seduction (I’m sure market researchers have
a much fancier name for it).
On that note, marketing does have
a habit of turning this romance into a somewhat
less poetic science. We’ve all been in meetings
where the depersonalisation of the process and
the weight of anachronisms make it all seem
a bit creepy.
Selling doesn’t have to be creepy; it’s
not something to be ashamed of. Everyone
is selling something. The doctor is selling you
a way to get better (often involving at least
two consultations, a set of scans, plus a referral
and a trip to the chemist; masterful on-selling.)
The architect who built your home sold you
a vision, the yoga teacher a lifestyle, the school
a future, and so on.
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