When the Power of “You” FAILS

With Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods, it only makes sense that they expand their Prime service and deals to the grocery chain as well.

If you have a Whole Foods in your area you may have received this flier:

Notice the use of a very hot marketing term: You.

You is almost as good as using someone’s name. You makes people think of themselves and of course anything that benefits someone’s self is persuasive!

But what if You puts people on the defensive?

“Can I really do that or is it just marketing?”

When an advert or sales letter is claiming impressive possible outcomes, not guarantees, it’s better to frame the message as I, or using a testimonial.

With this widget you can clean twice as many windows!

vs

With this widget I can now clean twice as many windows!

or

Joey from Wichita tells us that with this widget, he can now clean twice as many windows!

No one can argue against someone else’s improvements. It’s not a guarantee, but a demonstration of the benefits that the buyer might experience. (In no way should it be untrue or impossible, of course.)

Plus we get to use another persuasive marketing term, the word now.