COVERT Selling: The Hottest Trend Revealed
and How You Can Play to Win!
by Kevin Hogan
To see the first page of this article, go to Page 1
Remember watching the movie Back to the Future starring Michael J. Fox? For those of you too young to remember, this movie was quite the hit about 20 years ago and had two well-done sequels. The movies cost a fortune to make and as the series continued, one trend was clear. More and more brand name products were featured in the movies.
I remember seeing a USA Today newspaper in one of the movies and I remember people drinking a Pepsi in all three of them. (Now you can check my memory by hitting your video collection and discover ALL of the products that were covertly used by cast members.)
More recently, the hit TV show (I confess that I enjoy it), Survivor is using a number of sometimes subtle, sometimes in-your-face promos for everything from Mountain Dew to cars to candy bars. They could pay for a traditional 30 second spot, but why not link their covert advertising to people we obviously have emotions for?
Another kind of example? Celebrities like Rob Lowe, Kathleen Turner and Lauren Bacall have hit the talk show circuit with what amounts to promos for medications...all paid for by the pharmaceuticals. Sometimes covert, sometimes overt...always effective.
More? Revlon became part of a storyline in the daytime soap opera, All my Children. Austin Powers: Goldmember was a veritable stage for various products and promos...again some covert some overt.
Is all of this ethical? In general yes, and in general it is not only ethical but profitable and something the smaller business owner should be utilizing in their community or profession.
How Does it Work?
How does covert advertising work? As you have learned from reading the last several months of Coffee you know that the human mind is "primed" by viewing this kind of material. It simply makes people watching more likely to purchase when presented with the opportunity.
Why Covert?
One question is why are companies going to covert marketing, such as putting their products in movies and TV shows? Everyone needs your business (especially now when companies have to lay off workers because business is so bad) and covert marketing works well. For some companies, traditional advertising (30 second spots on television) are simply not working as well as they used to. Everything from more entertainment options to smaller audiences have a lot to do with this.
Placing an ad in a newspaper or magazine can be one of the most treacherous methods for small businesses to attempt and they are almost guaranteed to fail today for the business who can't afford daily full page exposure.
What Can You Do?
So what are YOU, the entrepreneur, the small business person, the professional to do to succeed in promoting their business? How can YOU, the individual or small business person accomplish what the big companies are now succeeding at?
You probably don't have the money to pay All My Children or Survivor but you certainly have the ability to utilize Covert Advertising.
Continue this article to learn specific ideas you can implment now.
