Why You Should Commit ‘Image Suicide’

‘Image Suicide’ is an expression used by marketing legend, the late Gary Halbert. It is so important. Virtually all small businesses do ‘image advertising’ where the impression of the company is more important than anything else. They hope to portray their company image as “professional”.

Yet prospective customers do not care at all about your image or your logo. They only want to know “what’s in it for them.” And that’s what they respond to.

Marketing is like fishing...and you are really ‘fishing’ for customers. Image advertising is like fishing with a big fancy expensive pole and lure.

But what’s more effective? Having a fancy fishing pole with all the bells and whistles or just a simple rod with fat juicy bait on it? Which one do you think will attract more fish? Surely the bait is the most important thing. It’s what the fish really want. They don’t care about the rod at all.

And at the end of the day, you cannot go to your bank and deposit ‘image’...you can only deposit money!

So just how important is your image...that is, ‘getting your name out there’?

I think that the only time that image is important is if it is incongruent with what you’re trying to say to your market and therefore stops people from doing business with you.

I recently took a friend of mine to an emergency NHS dentist. We all know how to identify a dentist...he wears a blue or white gown and looks like a dentist! But this man had a pair of jeans on under his gown. It certainly made me think twice when I saw him. If he’d been a private dentist (ie ‘one you pay for’), I think I would have suggested going elsewhere as his image was simply incongruent with his message. He did not build trust.

So of course you should have a clean van and equipment and professional looking stationery, but still the most important thing as far as the customers is concerned is...“Can I trust you to give me what I want?”

It’s exactly as a CEO of an American airline once said: “If your toilets are dirty it means you don’t maintain you engines properly”. This is the link that a customer makes in his mind whether it’s rational or not. But it’s a link that affects whether they will use you or not!

So what is far more important than ‘getting your name out there’ with image type advertising?

Well, imagine if you could fly over your town and all the houses of people who were thinking of having their carpets cleaned next month lit up. That would be far more valuable to you.

This can be done with ‘lead-generation’ type advertising rather than ‘image’ advertising where prospective customers identify themselves, perhaps by phoning for some free information. After all, this is the bait that they really want. You could then target them with your message with very little waste as they would all be interested. So rather than thinking of ways to ‘get your name out there’ think of ways to ‘get their name in here,’ that is into your database so you can now target them with an opportunity to use your service.