“You’ve been specially selected for this exclusive offer (not available to the general public)” Is this tosh good for your brand?
“Don’t miss out” it says in a little red flash on the big envelope from Virgin media that pops through our letter box.
I don’t worry too much that I might “miss out” (a phrase high on the list of cliches deployed by second rate copywriters). That’s because they send me the same envelope at regular intervals
So it must work, otherwise they wouldn’t keep sending it out. But for how long? And how well?
Do you or or I really think I’ve been “specially selected”? Do you or I really believe this offer is “not available to the general public”? Are we not both damn sure that if any member of the general public asked for this deal they would be greeted with a resounding “yes”?
I believe such guff steadily but surely eats away at your brand’s credibility, because it demonstrates no clear point of difference. In the end people just go for what seems to be the best deal.
As my favourite client, Victor Ross of The Reader’s Digest, once observed, “Loyalty is what is left when you take the incentives away” – one reason why loyalty programmes are a zero-sum game – a race to the bottom.
If you look at all the various Virgin businesses, only one – the airline – runs human, sometimes witty messages that reflect what the name stood for originally. The rest rely on the name and common visual elements.
And oddly enough it is the only Virgin business that is really different to its competitors. I hope their merger with Delta doesn’t drag them down to the dreary depths of all the American airlines.
