The AZO campaign features a fatal flaw that can kill the effectiveness of any advertising: it’s not clear. While AZO is advertising a compelling and effective urinary pain reliever, the commercial uses “company speak,” not consumer language. Throughout the spot, AZO is presented as a solution for UTI’s. That’s great if you are a doctor or work for AZO and know what that is. Sadly, however, most consumers don’t know that they mean ‘urinary tract infection.’
It’s a tragically common, and avoidable, mistake in marketing communication. Companies get caught up in their own knowledge and internal language and forget who they are talking to. Remember, when you do any marketing communication, you must talk to your consumer in THEIR language, not yours.
So, sadly, this commercial only reaches and persuades a fraction of their potential audience. Make sure you keep it simple and avoid wasting money. Keep it simple and talk directly to your consumer.
Lessons Learned:
1. Keep your target consumer at the forefront of all marketing communications. Talk to them in their language, not yours.
2. Before you produce anything, double-check that your communication is clear with unbiased consumers, or even internal employees who are not involved in the marketing or technical development. They are often too close to the process to stay unbiased.
3. Stay flexible. If you happen to overlook an important, fixable issue like this, fix it! In this case, the small cost of changing the words (with a new audio recording), would dramatically increase the effectiveness and sales impact of this advertising campaign.
Filed under: Brand Management Tagged: ad campaigns, Advertising Effectiveness, Brand Management, katz marketing solutions, tammy katz
