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A Marketing Idea so Crazy It Might Work -- Be Painfully Honest about Your Product

By GEOFF WILLIAMS, AOL SMALL BUSINESS
Posted: 2009-11-06 17:44:50
Filed Under: Small Business, Marketing, Online Business
You could learn a lot from Robert Lee, CEO of Cullman Liquidation Center, or perhaps it's more fair to say that you could learn a lot from the production company he hired to make an ad for him: I Love Local Commercials.

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    It's a program sponsored by MicroBilt Corporation, a consultancy that assists businesses in reducing risk and managing their business. With I Love Local Commercials, people can nominate businesses (and companies can nominate themselves) that they think are deserving of a free TV ad, and if I Love Local Commercials agrees, they'll send out two production gurus named Rhett and Link, and they'll go out and produce a commercial worthy for TV -- or at least YouTube.

    But about the ad: You have to see it, but just to whet your appetite, it's a little over a minute of your time, and aimed at people who might want to buy a mobile home from Cullman Liquidation Center, which is in Cullman, Alabama. Lee is painfully honest about his product, pointing out that these are mobile homes, "not mansions," and that some of them have stains in them. My favorite line, personally, was when Lee says, "A bouncer in Birmingham hit me in the face five times with a crescent wrench, and my wife's boyfriend broke my jaw with a fence post, so if you don't buy a trailer from me, it ain't gonna hurt my feelings."

    Anyway, check out the video, and we'll catch up on the other side.

    So why does the painfully honest approach work, at least in this case?

    The consumer isn't an idiot: They never were, but back in the 1960s, in that Mad Men era, it was the established rule that the American consumer wasn't that bright. But by the 1980s, Generation X, which was just coming of age, had seen it all when it came to ads, and with Generation Y, and the Recession Generation or whatever we're calling the next wave of young folk, we've become even more saturated -- with ads coming at us not just from TV, newspapers and magazines, but on the Internet, our mobile phones and even at gas station pumps. Everybody expects an ad to have an angle. So why not just admit your failings, if you have some, and see what happens? I know in my case while watching Cullman's ad, I found their approach so refreshing that part of me wanted to throw out my house and drive to Cullman to buy a mobile home.

    The painfully honest approach is still new and fresh, meaning you may get more people to notice your ad. If everyone was as honest as Lee is in pushing his product, would we be writing about this ad?

    When you're painfully honest about a product, people assume the person behind the product is honest. OK, kind of an obvious statement, but as a customer, who would you rather do business with? Someone who brags about their product and makes it seem like the best thing on the planet, when you know well and good that nothing can be that good, or someone who tells it like it is?

    All of that said, this isn't a tactic anyone should try if their product is a pretty good purchase. If the painfully obvious approach always worked, it would have been discovered long ago, and cigarette companies would tout its link to cancer, and soda pop commercials would remind kids that if they drink too much of their product, they're going to spend more time in the dentist's chair. After all, the idea behind an ad is to talk someone into buying your product or service, not talk them out of it. But, clearly, in some special cases, small business owners would do well to remember that they may actually convince customers to give their company a try by underselling, rather than overselling.

    2009-11-06 16:00:15
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    secondbomb 12:32:55 PM Nov 15 2009

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    Ever been to Cullman AL? I have... It looked like a prosperous town...until I witnessed the burning cross in a mobile home yard... ! So yes, he doesn't care if a dark skinned person buys a home!

    klkwid 07:39:39 PM Nov 14 2009

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    It made me laugh! Not exactly an ad that instills confidence, but it made me laugh.....

    wrascil 12:41:08 PM Nov 14 2009

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    you still in most cases rent the spot... you really dont save unless you buy the land, then you own something that is worthless setting on your land

    saratree 12:17:05 PM Nov 14 2009

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    It was worth watching, I laughed. Point made.If you can't see it for what it is, well you might as well just keep on renting!

    missopine 11:58:45 AM Nov 14 2009

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    COMMENTS ABOUT THE COMMENTS....I agree (if this article and video is marketing)...I agree that I would not buy from this guy because he did say, "I don't care." Well, I want my business vendor to care and try to give me the best product consumer buying experience I can have. I just went into a Best Buy store, on a cane, with a list in my hand. One of the store managers too that list, took me to a sitting stool, and brought the products from the shelf to me, in front of me, on that stool. I bought everything on the list and opened an account, which they like, to pay for it in 18months. (I will do that in six months.) I spent thousands of dollars. I got carried away because of sales and service.So, I am use to the way the big retailers have behaved and Macy's use to be one of the best. They showed care and won the business. People developed a "Macy's" style and bragged about their Macy's stuff as if you couldn't buy the stuff somewhere else cheaper.So, if this article and video

    bbs327 06:03:51 PM Nov 11 2009

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    Do you have to be white trash to buy one?

    bbs327 06:02:50 PM Nov 11 2009

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    Do You have to be white trash to buy one?

    rinconmd 02:44:47 PM Nov 11 2009

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    funny

    chicagotampa 09:26:42 AM Nov 11 2009

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    Can't say I give him a whole lot of credit. Seems to me whoever designed the commercial was simply trying to create an angle to help him move product. Honest? I don't think so. He closes the add by saying he doesn't care if you buy a home from him or not. Really? Then why make the commercial?

    phenomnl 08:21:08 PM Nov 10 2009

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    it is what it is. the truth couldn't hurt him. i like it!

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