Frontline Perspectives

Speeding prevention promotion.

I got a speeding ticket on my way back from visiting my daughter at Indiana University. I was more than a little ticked when the officer pulled me over- as I was convinced that the “other” cars on the road were going faster than I was (which they were).

Before the officer handed me my ticket, he handed me the paper shown at left and waited for me to read it. “In the United States alone, there is a death related to a traffic crash every 12 minutes. That adds up to nearly 44,000 deaths a year.” I made the connection to my speeding – what if I had caused one of those fatalities? As I looked back at the officer, he handed me my ticket ($125).

On the rest of my five-hour drive (mostly at the speed limit) I thought about a recent presentation by Christophe Moran, founder of SalesBrain. Their premise is basically that getting a marketing/sales piece to be memorable (eliciting a purchasing decision) requires developing a simple message that speaks to what they call the “reptilian” brain, where the basic emotions reign: fear, etc.

I am generally not a proponent of using fear in marketing messages. But this event was a good reminder for me that creating memorable impressions can include images that speak to our prospects’ fears. Not that it should be the principal message, but it can aid in making your solution memorable.

Think about what keeps your customers and prospects up at night. How can you include these fears/concerns in your messaging to differentiate your company and products/services?