BzzzzING KAMIKAZE COPYWRITING: In which Doreen explains why there she gives so many Bs, so few As.

Term before last (Summer 2013) four writers forced me to give them an A.  Half the number I gave the entire previous year. 

Last quarter (Fall 2013) there were none.

First assignment, I pegged three of my Fall students As for sure.  A few on the verge. Everyone fully capable if they brought their game.  The deciders of shirt-worthiness:**  personal process, growth, attention to detail, quirks, creative point of view, ability to determine, write on Concept, in a strong Language of Concept,  work ethic, professionalism, external & internal realities, how well students learn and apply what I teach, Copy Sins, Mercury. 

Talent?  Not on the list.  If a student doesn’t have it, the Circus process usually weeds them out before they get to me.  If a student somehow manages to cry/BS/insist their way through, they either put it together or crash and burn when they go Doreen.

I pushed.  Prodded.  Exposed tricked forced called complained explained cajoled complimented.  Like all writers, each used writing relics from J-school, life, academic Creative Writing programs, high school English teachers you love to hate.  Writing tics so ingrained in each student’s idea what professional, motivating communication is, so habitual, writers spend all quarter learning to see them in their work. 

They learned well, changed how they read and consider copy, how they think about writing it, what it needs to do.  Except for one clunker assignment (my fault), the class got most or came close.  Students learned to think in Kamikaze Copy – and the Kamikaze Creative Strategy driving it.

They tell me they’ll never read or write copy the same way again.

Still, no As.

As different as students are, too many suffer from the same personal Kamikaze Key Fact:  Students slave over KKFs.  Think them intuit them throw them against the wall to see if any stick.  Get confused, get frustrated, come up with a few more.  Pick out one or two with potential.  Promptly forget what KKFs do.  How to use them.    

One saving grace, they get pretty good at Kamikaze Prospect Definition and Prospect Driven work.

Ignore KKFs, all that’s left is product.  

The Language of Concept may speak fluent Kamikaze Prospect Definition.  But without those KKFs to lead and feed concept, the work becomes Product, not Prospect, driven.

Worse, it can create creative product-based sameness.  Prospect perspective, common human emotions truths – in other words, Kamikaze Key Facts - Be Damned.

No matter how good a student’s writing became, conceptual growth trended I got lucky.  Often the Kamikaze Creative Promise and KC Reasons Why took the place of Prospect +KKF.  Thankfully, most of last term’s group did learn to integrate product features and benefits as if they were Oxford and/or other unnecessary commas.

All of which left a huge dilemma – and disappointment.  Not a single A, tons of Bs, B-s, B+s.  How does the lack of using their KKF doom otherwise excellent copywriting students to Bs at best? 

My classes focus on copy writing.  So we learn a lot of tricky, often anti-grammar minutia. What I call the Three* Sister Aspects/Koans of Kamikaze Copywriting. 

The Three Sisters aren’t about proper grammar as much as the power of words.  Words + Concept create Theater of the Mind.  Put pictures into prospect’s conscious and unconscious awareness.  If you nail the Language of Concept, the Prospect will read.  All.  Knowing the rules of American English grammar – by education or instinct – gives great ad copy power to motivate manipulate sound structure content connection voice outside the rules.  Where Concept lives.  Where life happens.  Where/how products are bought and sold. 

Marry learned knowledge/gut grammar to a Kamikaze Key Fact strong enough, unexpected enough; you have classical archetypes of motivation and belief.

Kamikaze Copywriting Sister Koan #1:  To create subtle emotional connections, powerful motivations and identifiable archetypes, you cannot expect product + copy to do the job.  As Gypsy once sang (look it up), You gotta have a gimmick.  An idea.  Concept.  To get those (sing along if you know the tune) you gotta have a Kamikaze Key Fact. 

Kamikaze Copywriting Sister Koan #2:  It’s not enough to have a great KKF.  No matter how good it is, it won’t work if you don’t use it.    

Kamikaze Key Fact – something bigger picture in the Prospect’s life which unexpectedly puts the product within relevant importance/in direct participation/perception of need to the Prospect. 

It may or may not be a benefit.  The Kamikaze Key Fact’s not about the product.  It’s about the Prospect’s life, needs wants dreams fears relationships.  About what’s going on in the Prospect’s sphere of experience.  It’s the link to where the product lives in the Prospect’s life.

A good KKF is NEVER about direct product benefits/features.  It’s about the Prospect’s world.  Makes unusual, conceptual connections driving the Prospect/Product connection.

This is where the majority of Bs-shoulda-coulda-been-As come from.  Students try to write KKFs like they study for tests.  And there is a test – weekly.  Each Skype session, students bring in strategies, with/without copy.  I show them where it’s good, where it sucks, how illogical it is/isn’t.  I try to show them how I’d do it - not because it’s the only or best way.  I hope it’ll lead to their way.

No matter how good your writing is.  You gotta have a gimmick.  You gotta have – and use – a good KKF.

Unless you'll settle for a B.

Not one of them took that step over the line of product expected into concept brilliant.  Not one of them rode their KKFs to conceptual copy brilliance.  Most copy didn’t relate to the KKF at all.  Very good writers.  A few Writers’ Writers – those who can fearlessly tackle any structure, any style, any topic, any voice. 

No A shirts.

Is it possible?  To get an A in my Kamikaze Copywriting classes?  A dozen people have done it since I’ve been back at the Circus (six terms?). 

It isn’t enough to be a good – even great – writer.  To be Kamikaze, solve the problem creatively.  With great smarts, great skill.  Motivate the Prospect to participate in the idea, in your solution.

Come up with that unexpectedly relational KKF.  Push it conceptually until the prospect has no other choice than to follow.  Apply all your skill, product knowledge.  Use the KCWP fearlessly.  Be Kamikaze.  Understand, concept from the Kamikaze Key Fact.  Why?  Here’s the shocker – it’s easier to kill a great concept with so-so Copy than with Gawd Awful Art Direction.  The Prospect may forgive the weak visual, design.  The Prospect will never forgive – or read – conceptless, artless no KKF Ad Copy.

* I didn’t forget there are three Sister Kamikaze Copywriting Koans.  The third one is “Develop your Kamikaze Copywriting Gut.”  Covered before, I promise will be covered again.  Not applicable here – gut or no gut, nothing to do with grades.

**Earn an A in my class, earn a t-shirt your ECD will envy.

As with all material published in KamikazeCreative@blogspot.com, this post is (c) Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative. This entry, (c)2014,  Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative

More Haiku for you: What every Kamikaze Copywriter needs for inspiration, lessons in writing visually

More on why Haiku are so good for learning to write copy

As with my post of 1/13/13, What Japanese Poets know about Kamikaze Copywriting, I appreciate both the freedom – and strict limitations – of traditional Japanese Haiku.  Growing up in Japan, the form was all around me.  At best, I spoke/read pigeon Japanese, but mine was a family of readers and in keeping with our surroundings my parents often shared these amazing little poems with me. 

I think what I love most – and learned best – from this early (ongoing, really – I still read them for inspiration, in admiration of their form) exposure was how visual words can be without using descriptors.  When I write on a student’s paper “be more visual!” I don’t mean add a string of modifiers.  I mean put me (and your prospect) in the word picture you’re painting.

  

Writing visually is more about the experience than the description.  Visual writing is active, engaging.  Does this mean “I watched little Sally’s chubby legs run in ever-widening circles around the riot of blues, pinks and yellows that is her granny’s old English garden?”  Absolutely not.  Visual writing is active, puts the reader into the picture.  It isn’t about an experience.  It is the experience.  It isn't about the product, it is the product.

I often tell students “don’t write about the product, put the product – and the prospect – in active, sparsely worded perspective."  Product as hero.  Here are a few clues:

Action verbs, not passive verbs

Make the reader see what you’re saying, not hear it in their heads.  This means there’s also an engaging emotional component to your words and structure.

Don’t add more words, enrich the words you already have.

Visual writing is about the depth, quality¸ rhythm of words, how they fit into the line’s structure.  Playing with structure itself can add a visual sense.  Here’s a line I often use when defining Translate the Thought:  I know why birds fly (the thought it translates, I hate sitting in traffic).  The line contains no descriptors, but immediately brings to mind the image/feeling of birds flying freely and how I wish I could do the same.  In my mind, I see geese in chevron flight.  A friend of mine sees hawks circling.  My husband wonders if the canary got out of his cage.

My point is, the action the birds take – flying – gives the mental picture I can see myself in.  The knowingness speaks to how I feel about it.  It’s visual writing, sans descriptors.

I've given the assignment of writing advertising Haiku before (see post captioned above).  It’s always a big hit, although I am often perplexed by the difficulties students have with the 5-7-5 and using words that aren’t weak verbs, meaningless fillers (see Kamikaze Copy Sins). This assignment is going to be a bit different from the one I usually give.

This week’s assignment is to write three advertising Haiku.  How do ad Haiku differ from traditional?

 

• You must use the 5-7-5 syllable pattern, write visually and include a strong kiru (twist).  The language/tone/voice however, must speak to your prospect.  Thinking of the first two lines as posing a problem, the third, final line as its answer may help you get your head around the assignment, kiru, etc.
• You must include at least one feature/benefit (see blog post 8/27/12, Features, Benefits and the Language of Concept) in each Haiku.
• Each Haiku must be written to one of these prospect/product combos.  You must do three different product/prospect combos, not three Haiku to the same one:
• Safety message – teens texting while driving
• Sweet potatoes (category) – seniors
•  All natural, organic dog food (choose a brand) – dog owners
• Kitty towers (those carpeted climbing perches you see in pet stores) – cat owners
• Go To Meeting.com – meeting site/software to small business owners
• Axe Body Spray – Millennial Males (don’t worry about trying to match their current stuff)
• The Creative Circus – Upcoming college graduates
• This class – prospective Circus students

That should give you a pretty good field to choose from.  Post your Haiku in the comments section to this entry, bring them to Doreen Live!, we'll discuss them in class and I will take them home w/me (bring two hard copies to class, one for me, one for you) Thursday, 1:30 at the Circus.

Questions?  Reread the assignment email I sent earlier today.  Contact me via the Circus student gmail box.

Have fun.  See you there. 

©2013, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative

•  

Don't blame me, Mercury is Retrograde

From the Kamikaze Creative email bag:  Tag lines in the news.  What Doreen's been thinking over break.  The next assignment.

Can it be?  Another class, another new group of writers to torture, vex, bullyrag praise? Is Mercury in Retrograde (can't you tell the answer is Yes!)?  Copy Sins march on.

An email from a good friend, former student, great AD smart CD.  Great for tweaking the noggin, he sent another interesting link.  What do you think? 

Doreen:

Maybe you've seen this already, maybe not.  Maybe it's relevant, maybe not.  Maybe it can find its way into one of your lectures or blog, maybe not.  Maybe it'll spark an epiphany that leads to your next book, maybe not.  Maybe I should stop using the word maybe so much, maybe not :)

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/death-tagline-152255

Thoughts?

Plenty.

Read the article - have always hated tag lines and at times, refused to write them.  Had  to anyway, agency/client insisted or worse - the client tried to write it for me.  I have too much respect for One-Five Perfect Words not to have caved. 

The right tag  can go integrated viral.  Be the brand, the catch phrase.  Today’s issue isn't  to tag or not to tag.  It's Can your line take advantage of all the inventive and traditional media we get to play in.

We have so many options, opportunities.  So many more and varied world markets to target, unique slang, sayings, cultural points of view.  

The article is right, not all tags are suited to all applications.  Characters space words messaging fonts colors.  A tag is not meant to be sacrosanct.  Like English, Russian, French and any other native tongue, tag lines are living, breathing language.  What you want to say is simple.  Say it straight. Then Translate the Thought.  Play in the richness of structure, language, niche terms, trending verbs.  Make it active, visual (in Kamikaze Creativeland, the term visual doesn't mean descriptive - it's writing the Prospect sees themselves in).

If it's not simple enough, drill it down.  Make it easy.  Remember all great Advertising is Singular.  Then translate the thought.

You don’t have to use it the in the same form manner, position, type color paper.  Just Do It lives as #Do, Just This, Just That.  Do This, Do That. Embed it in the video, set tone for the site, packaging, carry the product through ambient, promotions, direct, e- traditional broadcast, apps.  As yet undiscovered media.  It can live long after a new guy decides to change it, in the corporate space, an internal communication to employees.

Tag lines used to be this big important thing – unchanging, protected in use, graphic standards, etc.  I've used Writer by Trade/Problem Solver by Inclination forever.  It expresses what I do better than Kamikaze Creative, more philosophy than function.  I don't always use WBT/PSBI, depends what I need/am trying to do for/to whom.  Writer by Trade/Strategist by Inclination.  Writer/Thinker.  Smarter Writing/Smarter Strategies.  Same tag, simple, flexible in structure, allowing changes Prospects use to connect. 

Our industry is very uncreative about certain things - how we charge, client relations, media, new business.  As we’ve seen in the past two decades, advertising has been way too slow on the what how importance potential, successful use of e- and other emerging media.  How we use creative - to what end, where when. 

With all that Mad Man posturing, why hold the tag sacred? 

Change happens.  You feel it coming, plan ahead.  Play with strong, visual words you can use alone or in phrase.  Use structure to allow the change of a word for global local niche markets, trending slang.  You can reinforce the tag/branding without using all the words/the exact same words.  It's sacrilegious to fool with it is craziness. It's not the tag line that's dated.  It is our use of it. 

I’ve seen tag lines ground wandering creatives and clients - a good thing.  I've also seen "nonsense" tags become ad fashion - the "people helping people people" blind approach.  Hence my anti-tag kick, more about what clients (and agencies) demanded they say or not say - and boy does Company XYZ have a great line.  I want something exactly like that only about us. 

Today's issue isn't to tag or not tag.  It's how to use your line effectively   We have so many more options to reach so many more markets. All those unique customs language quirks points of view to consider.  

If it's structured for an unexpected strong word you can use singly, change words or order to suit global marketing, you're reinforcing the tag/branding without using all the words/the exact same words. 

A killer tag can start as a headline, move to the tag.  Live there for a bit, morph a bit to fit emerging markets, niches, mediums.  That's one of the most fun things about working in today's ad biz - all the options. 

Tag lines have options, too.  The world moves fast, emerging markets change, even mighty America is no longer the world commerce leader we once were.  Doesn't mean we should kill the form - just let it live in expanding opportunities and usefulness.

How can corporations refuse to change tags as they grow larger, expand business offerings, products, prospects, world markets, global applications, etc.  We update logos and still maintain corporate ID – why not tags? 

The real thing I hate about them?  Branding firms get hundreds of thousands of dollars for a clunky one.  Freelance writers are usually paid by a limited number of hours, no matter how great the lines are. 

In response, this what my CD friend wrote back:

Personally, I struggle a bit with the notion of a tag or "positioning" being an organic thing.  Feels to me like, if that copy is doing its job, it should transcend media placement, generational differences, product variations/line extensions and even good English..."Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee" does all those things.

The fact brands are moving away from the tag feels like it has more to do, in my opinion, with this generation's insatiable desire to dictate/influence content and to have an ever changing experience rather than a sound strategic reason to do so.  So brands jump on that bandwagon to appear hip and connected. And that's fine.  But I think brands lose a little something when they can no longer convey what they stand for with the perfect combination of four to six words.

With more brands and touch points than ever before, that seems like the perfect argument to "SAVE THE TAG LINE."  (We'll make t-shirts and start a public service campaign.)  S***, what do I know…I guess my journey toward irrelevance has officially begun.

You’re not irrelevant, toots.  You’re mulling and thinking, discussing, being open to ideas, challenges.  Pushing your own limits so you can push the limits of the solutions you propose.  You're not irrelevant.  You're Kamikaze.

To those in my Circus class this Q:  Your next assignment.  Write a KCWP for a product you are currently working on in another class.  If you are not working on anything for another class use one you know something about. Use it to concept/write/translate the thought behind the product/company mission perception products prospect reality into twenty tag lines.  I want to see your KCWP, including any additional KKFs you try.  

I want to see the simple, plain statement you need to translate.  Then twenty different ways to translate its thought.  For the top three on your list (the ones you think work best), show me at least two additional extensions of the proposed tag, based either on use and/or cultural concerns.  Confused?  Wait for the email.  It'll be in bullets.

HINT:  Tags are like headlines and the last line of a great ad web page broadcast spot.  Memorable, with strong energy and a thought that somehow makes the Prospect participate in it.  Tag lines should be as conceptual as everything else we do.

©2013, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative.

A Kamikaze Apology for Things Beyond My Control

I don't know how it happens, either.  All those extra colons, periods, spaces, ugly glitches in posts I actually edit and proofread at least a half-dozen times.

Pretty sure it has something to do with transition from Word to Blogger.  It's been suggested I try to write in Mac Text and transfer/copy from there.  After grades are out, I'll give it a shot.  Meanwhile, please forgive errors not of my making.  

 

How Kamikaze Creatives make:Best Dressed Copy lists: In which Doreen.pushes style farther and gives one doozie of an assignment.

Before I let you go crazy on this last assignment of the term, a few thoughts inspired by the pages of your last two.  Random thinking of style/language of concept:

If you’re aping a known style of writing/voice/attitude, exaggerate.  Overwrite, then whittle to the point of ridiculousness during the edit(s).  Our prospect may not be as into the small details of writing late night (think Shamwow) styled spots, so we need to exaggerate the form to its highest art (read “clichés”). 

  

Keep it visual.  Example:  this sparse but powerful vision penned by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  “...meat hook realities…”  Can’t you see the poor guy facing that bloody mess of an environment?  That’s him, third hook to the right.

Style needn't be an official Style.  Advertising is fashion.  In all its forms, agencies keep producing – no,  reproducing – work that cycles like a Jennifer Anniston hairstyle.  The first time you see it, it’s brilliant.  Give it a few weeks, watch an entire creative genre start, build and die like lapels and hemlines.  Work growing to fashion will dictate advertising style for the next few years.

When you use a particular style, everything must be in that style.  One slip, you’re toast.  Your features and benefits may not have existed in the Dark Ages, but must be put in Gothish English/mocking modern style.  Your roadster may sport z-rated Pirellis.  In Styleland your wheels were carved and installed by the well-known blacksmith, Enzo Pirelli. 

Don’t worry about toning it down.  Worry about using style as an excuse to ignore content/creative strategy.  The more you edit, the more the closer to what’s right you’ll be.  The chain of approval will let you know what’ll fly politically.  Your Kamikaze Prospect Definition will let you know how far you can go and still stay within the prospect’s comfort, interest/understanding of your stylistic approach.

Language of Concept most easily falls out of your concept (driven by a killer KKF, no doubt).  It must catch your prospect’s mind, ear and imagination in the private language of those who share some common experience/appreciation/sense of humor/sense of adventure/love of Sci-Fi/Damon Runyon street thugs/Justin Bebier. When it’s right, there’s rarely a choice. 

Whatever your muse, LOC forms almost on its own.  Not until the edit edit edit do you nail it – taking out/putting in those semantic, grammarian/non-grammarian details so important to hearing exactly what you say.

ON TO THE CIRCUS ASSIGNMENT:  The Circus students taking my class this term are required to do this.  Anyone else reading is more than welcome to play along.  Consider it as a reminder why we do this.

This is the last new assignment of the term.  Thursday afternoon’s live class is the deadline for this and all your final revisions of copy, lines, KCWPs I have asked you to revise.  Hard copies, all attached to each other somehow, please. I have copies of everything you’ve done, so all I want are the final edits and this assignment.  If I told you something was final, include it, labeled "Final."  Don’t forget to exchange work for classmate edits.

Hopefully, this one will amaze, amuse and frustrate the heck out of you:

One paragraph, written in your choice of three different styles.  Same KCWP, same copy, translated for the same prospect in three distinctly different styles. Each must include at least two features/benefits.  If there are more than two, use two in one style, two different ones in another, up to the six most important aspects in the minds of the prospect.

Here are some styles you might consider:

Murder mysteries – old English, modern, Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys, Dashiell Hammett, Miss Marple, Sherlock (Holmes or current PBS model), Berretta (stupid bumbling mumbling detective solves all), Dick Francis – whatever mystery style you want.

Romance novels.  Contemporary, historical of any period, but must be correct to its events, attitudes, Prospect Definition and importantly, style. 

Humor – all genres, all styles.  Can be of any attitude, semi-rude language, but must be Prospect Centered and conform to realities of product, style.  Sarcasm, overly dry or intellectual, political - which will best translate your message in a language they not only understand – but appreciate, find interesting, enjoy.  Most importantly, read and be motivated by your message and the way it’s presented, remember it.

Parody – be careful.  Do not insult, make fun of, vex or otherwise rise the ire of your Prospect.  Make sure you’re not too dismissive with your product. 

Lawrence Ferhlingetti.  I suggest (and highly recommend) A Coney Island of the Mind.

Anyone famous with a distinctive way of dress, speaking, point of world view.  If they’re famous you can pretty much imitate anyone you want.  What a concept!

I think you get the idea – there are gazillions of styles – recognizable styles – out there.  Pick three.  Your only limitations are always Prospect First.  Not your own ego/ambition.  Beyond Prospect approval there may also be varying tolerances of agency and client agendas to consider on the job.

For those still reeling, try this.

1.  Pick a Prospect
2. Pick a product with at least two strong features/benefits.  A product used/coveted by your Prospect.
3. Write a KCWP.  The only differences a style might command in your KCWP, if you have enough features/benefits to use two different ones in each style.  In this case your Promise/Reasons Why may differ with those using different F&Bs.
4.  Push your KKF.  Make sure it’s something the Prospect(s) all hold in common, some truth you can bend to the will of your Prospect, style, product, etc.
5. Concept, using different KKFs (fully pushed, then pushed some more) until you have a concept you can express in three distinctly different styles.
6. Write your paragraph in plain English first, as simply and ordered as possible.
7. Translate that paragraph into each of your three styles.
8. Almost forgot:  Post your favorite paragraph in this blog's Comments.  Let's share.
9. Oh – and don’t forget all your final revisions are due, too.

Looks like I will be down for a live class this Thursday afternoon.  More details after I speak w/Janie.  Have fun.

©2013, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative.

I found it! More on the Kamikaze Key Fact, a few other things

I finally found the missing note that was to have been the basis of the last post.  While some of it was covered, there are some suggestions on where Kamikaze Key Facts hide I may have overlooked earlier.  Here's the note:

Kamikaze Key Facts can be found in an event, war, royal marriage/birth/death, attitude, philosophy, celebrity gossip, politics, fashion, scandals, conspiracy theories, legislation, election/politicians, whatever.

The one thing you can't forget is that whatever your KKF is based upon, it must exist/have happened at a time/place in the Prospect's life that made them especially aware of the KKF inspiring person/event.  Could be in a good or bad way. It just has to resonate with your Prospect and be big enough to carry your message in a way that engages the Prospect, motivating them to interact with your Concept.

If it can conceptually carry your product and strike an emotional motivation the Prospect (group) shares, it may the key to Concept you've been looking for.  

I'd also like to discuss a problem many beginners seem to have with the Kamikaze Key Fact. It's not part of the Prospect Definition.  Many of you try to use something that really gives insight into the Prospect's life. That's part of how the Prospect defines themselves or can be defined by others.

The Kamikaze Key Fact is never about the client/product.  It's always about the Prospect.  Like everything else in the Kamikaze Creative Work Plan, it must be stated from the Prospect's point of view. Creative from the client's point of view really doesn't concern the Prospect.  Because they don't volunteer to pay attention to advertising communications of any ilk, only by speaking in their language about things that interest/benefit them and inspire Prospect participation in the concept can we motivate the Prospect to fulfill the Advertising Objective.

Professional clients understand this.  Smaller, newer clients may not grok that their concerns are secondary to their Prospect's.  It behooves us to educate them to Prospect Centered thinking.  Especially as they are seldom the Prospect. 

Hope all that helps.  If not, let me know.  I'll try to find another way to explain it for you.

HOLY KAMIKAZE IT MUST BE NEAR MIDTERM: Emotional Threads, more Kamikaze Key Fact Insight, Watch for new student Advertising Haiku, add your own

As too often happens, I woke up in the middle of the night and put some KKF thoughts down on a pad.  I finally found the pad in the dogs’ toy box, partially chewed but no notes.  Here’s as close as I can come to what I wanted to tell you:

By now you know how important the Kamikaze Prospect Definition is.  In Kamikaze Creativeland what goes on inside the Prospect is as important as what you see outside.

The key is to discover what feelings, thoughts, attitudes, emotional highs lows baggage the Prospect Group holds in common.  I say Prospect Group as our Prospect can seem so broad, beyond obvious demographics they seemly hold little innerscape in common.

This is where that “emotional thread” running through all of them, no matter how disparate they may seem, comes in.  

It’s one thing to grok your Prospect based on occupation, education, age, stats, figures and obvious surface, societal commonalities.  But because the most effective advertising speaks directly to our Prospect on an intimate, emotional level (as well as a factual, product/competitive/feature/benefit level), we have to find common human ground.  

No matter how different their politics, spiritual beliefs, social habits/requirements, some common emotional tie holds them together.  What we used to call The Great Cosmic Consciousness.

If we can discern this, we can use it in combination with the KKF, to motivate our Prospect – B2C or B2B - on a personal, almost unconscious level.  Gottcha!

Some examples of common emotional threads:

Fear of death, life, poverty, wealth, anonymity¸ fame

Love/Fear of animals, Love/Worries of/about children

Worries about money/economy, politics/war/peace/environment

Worries about love or hate certain types of music, art, literature, popular science, philosophy, fashion, food

Hobbies, clichés, closeness to family, families of friends, being alone – lonely or not.

Weather Issues (hurricanes, tornados, blizzards, ice/hail storms, flooding, drought)

Medical issues (Cancer, blindness health insurance, plague, Influenza), Anxiety, Loneliness

That Summer Feeling when the air/some event/some person, song, place triggers thoughts of being free/young/unfettered

Distrust of “Foreigners,” Trusting blindly, beyond stupidity

Loyalty to family/friends/political party/sports team/club/school/self/country/church/ city/state

Selflessness, Selfishness, Spirituality/Religion/Disbelief

Sport/Exercise/Sense of physical self, Strong/Weak sense of self/ego/confidence

Hormones/minds/bodies blocking sense they can die.  Bodies programmed for rebelliousness

Looking for old dreams, regrets.  Looking ahead, no regrets.

The list is endless.  Truly grok your Prospect, find the right one.  Live inside your Prospect.  Go where they go, read their magazines, special interest pubs and sites, listen to their music, watch their movies, TV,  shop in their stores (food, clothing, music, toys¸ flea markets, whatever).  Take public transportation, go sit in a Rolls Royce, visit the farm, factory, lunch counters.

Millions of people lumped together as one market.  Different jobs, different families, geographies, life stories.  As valuable as demographers’ externals are – income, age, sex, marital status, sexual identity, education, addictions, diseases, number of bathrooms.  It’s the internal, universal, cosmic consciousness commonalities – human emotions, attitudes, hopes fears dreams and dreams deferred – that bond them all in a way we can touch, motivate.

 

When you see “What’s the emotional thread that ties them together?” on your KCWP, that’s what I’m looking for.

It’s integral to the Kamikaze Prospect Definition.  No matter what you learn about a Prospect’s tastes, habits, daily grind, family status, financial security – it’s how they feel about those things – or how they wish they feel about those things – that feeds  our motivational thrust, language, design, colors, imaging.  It touches everything we discuss with our Prospect, every aspect of how we say it.

  

Without it we can make an argument, hope they buy in.  With it they identify, feel, skew the decisions – emotional and intellectual - in our direction.  Combined with the Kamikaze Key Fact, it’s the most powerful road to true Participatory Concepts we can take.

What, then of the Kamikaze Key Fact? 

The KKF is bigger picture.  Something going on in the Prospect’s World/Memory felt strongly enough to motivate the Prospect, make them part of the conversation.  For some reason, many students find the concept of the KKF difficult to grasp.  I think it's largely due to how little about the Prospect’s world they truly understand.  Unless they’re advertising/concepting to/for themselves, they lack historical, philosophical, literary societal and practical experience to find KKFs that truly resonate w/their Prospect.

 

If this is the case, where do you look?  For common experiences that affect/affected their lives in ways we can relate to the client’s product.  Here are some KKF hiding places:

History – events that somehow changed the way the Prospect perceives the world.  Vietnam, Duck and Cover, 9/11, The Peace Movement, Hippies, Iraq, Chicago, car culture, assassinations, politicians,The Korean War, super heroes, super nerds, popular literature, cowboys in white hats, magazines, entertainment (movie & TV, as children and adults), Super Mario, Dynasty, Ozzie Osborne, fraternities/sororities, Ricky Nelson, D&D, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Match Box 20, Hank 3, Waylon and Willie, Rap, Ska, Beyoncé, bikinis, Liberace, yoyos music proms athletes high school football Halloween I think you get the picture.

Fashion – colors, design, interior and popular, personal, societal, industrial, architectural, advertising.

Formative economy – national, international, local, familial.  In childhood, teen, young adulthood.  The past, present, future.

Hobbies and Sports – Hula Hoops, Wind boarding, Sailing, Olympics, Football, Yoga, X-Games, Baseball, Basketball, Pool, Poker Psychics Reality TV are you starting to get the idea?

Kamikaze Key Facts lurk in every aspect of the Prospect’s total life experience.  The ones (and there are always more than one KKF) that align most with that Common Emotional Thread are what you’re looking for.  Try one.  Try a dozen.  See where they take you, what kind of conceptual context, language of concept - visual and verbal – this powerful combination (Emotional Thread + KKF) offers.  

Which do you use to insinuate your client’s product into their lives, connect with that special place, event, emotion?

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It’s a powerful combination of Prospect and Product knowledge.  It’s the jumping off point for truly conceptual thinking.  Sure, some people can get there without the KCWP, Kamikaze Prospect Definition, Emotional Thread, Kamikaze Key Fact.  Some people have instinctual creative magic.  Still, they all had to start somewhere.  The Kamikaze Creative Work Plan teaches you how to think, organize ideas, thoughts input in a way that mimics the Creative Process.  With it, you’ll go farther, get there faster.

For my Circus class it’s time to share the results of your Advertising Haiku assignment.  For those playing at home, go to my blog post of 1/13/13, “What Japanese Poets know about Kamikaze Copywriting” and come up with some of your own. 

My students are required to post all their final approved and newly revised Haiku (three/student, as usual) in this post’s “Comments."  Everyone else is invited to do the same.  Let us know which you like best.  Since the class is mostly skyped one-on-one, it’ll give us a chance to see what/how the rest of the class is doing.

 

It’s also a great warm-up for jumping to our topic for the next live Circus class Thursday afternoon, August 15^th:  Style/Copywriting in the Language of Concept. 

©2113, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative