Dear Direct Response Letter Subscriber:

For several years, car manufacturers have been proactively
marketing sales of used vehicles with ads touting "certified
pre-owned vehicles."

These are used cars that have been thoroughly inspected and come
with a warranty equivalent (or close to it) to that of a new car.

A few weeks ago, I heard a radio commercial for Toyota, who has
jumped into this market.

But instead of calling their used car a "pre-owned vehicle" ...
they call it a "used car"!

Now I admire plain-speaking people and honest, forthright
language ... and "used car" fits that bill better than "pre-owned
vehicle."

On the other hand, there's a reason Mont Blanc sells "writing
instruments" - and the reason is that no one wants to pay $100
for a "pen."

So what do you think?

Will Toyota's honesty be rewarded by consumers with more sales?

Or are they shooting themselves in the foot by not advertising
"pre-owned vehicles"?

I don't know the answer ... no one knows the answer to any
marketing question until they test it ... but there's one thing I
do know....

The words you choose for your copy can make a big difference in
how well it performs.

Or to put it another way: semantics sell.

Here's a great example....

A number of years ago, when Clinton was still in office, I was
driving in the DC area, where I almost always get lost.

As I desperately tried to find K Street, I heard a radio
commercial for American Spectator, the conservative magazine.

The commercial said that if you called a toll free number to
subscribe, you would get a free gift -- a "Special Report"
titled "Inside the Clinton White House."

I didn't call, but I am pretty sure that American Spectator, as
is typical of magazines, put together this special report by
assembling reprints of a few articles they'd done on Clinton
into a booklet.

Listen to the words, "Special Report." Sounds important and
exclusive ... like something you'd want to have. And the title -
"Inside the Clinton White House" - sounds juicy.

On the other hand, what if the radio commercial had closed with,
"So call toll-free today to subscribe ... and we'll give you a
bunch of past articles ripped out of old issues of the magazine
and stapled together."

I can't imagine the phone ringing off the hook for that one.

Another example of the power of words in marketing is the old
comic book ad with the headline, "Enter the wonderful world of
amazing live sea monkeys ... open a bowl full of happiness -
instant pets!"

The ad pictured a happy underwater family of cute, friendly
creatures - a mom, dad, and kids - living outside the family
castle ... presumably in a fish bowl ... as the human youngster and
his human parents who purchased the sea monkeys look down in
delight.

Well, if you ever took the bait and mailed the coupon with your
money, what you got was a plastic vial full of dried brine
shrimp eggs ... with instructions to hatch them in warm, salty
water.

When mine hatched, they look nothing like the handsome Sea
Monkey family in the ad ... they were basically little dots moving
around in a bowl of water.

Yes, words have power, and the words you choose decide a lot
about what people think of you, your company, your product, and
your offer ... especially whether they want to buy or try it.

No one wants brine shrimp eggs. But "instant pets" and "amazing
live sea monkeys"? I'm in!

One last example....

My colleague Gary Hennerberg was called on by a company in Texas
that sold mail order fruit cakes.

Fruit cakes weren't selling like hot cakes (big surprise) ... and
they needed to boost orders.

Gary asked the bakery what ingredients were used, and to his
surprise, he found that these fruit cakes contained pecans.

Not only that, but they were grown locally in Texas, on the
banks of a river, where the moisture made them particularly
flavorful.

Gary told the company to test a mailing calling the product
"native Texas pecan cakes" instead of "fruit cakes."

They followed his advice ... and fruit cake sales soared by 60%.

Semantics, I guess. Go figure.

Sincerely,

Bob Bly
Copywriter / Consultant
590 Delcina Drive
River Vale, NJ 07675
Phone 201-505-9451
Fax 201-573-4094
www.bly.com