Scott Flood - Scott Flood Writing

ADVERTISERS, DON’T GIVE IN TO GUILT

February 11, 2010 by Scott Flood

Nearly every local newspaper publishes special editorial sections and pages like the Spring Sports Review, the Home Improvement Preview, or the Celebrate America’s Freedom tabloid.

I call them “guilt sections” because many sales reps use guilt to sell the space. “You don’t want to support high school basketball? You don’t think Independence Day is important? You know, your competitor down the street is going to be in there.” Have you ever known a point guard to sit depressed on the bench or miss a shot because a particular business didn’t buy an ad?

CHEAP PAINT JOBS

February 9, 2010 by Scott Flood

I suspect that anyone who has ever lived in an apartment or a college dorm knows that toothpaste offers a fast way to hide nail holes and other small injuries to the walls. And anyone who has ever tried to sell a house has probably heard that slapping a quick coat of paint on the walls can make the house look newer and fresher. Nearly everyone who visits a dentist subjects his or her teeth to the most vigorous brushing an hour before the appointment. We also seem to have a growing percentage of the population who thinks a body spray can replace a good-old-fashioned shower.

Those are all quick cover-ups, and we all know that they don’t really fool anyone. Oh, they might divert our attention, but when we look (or sniff) more closely, we see the truth very clearly.

FISH WHERE YOU KNOW THERE’S FISH

February 4, 2010 by Scott Flood

Imagine that your family is starving. You live an equal distance from three lakes, and you have one fishing pole, two hooks, and two worms.

You’ve fished in only one of lakes, and have caught plenty of palm-sized bluegills and decent catfish there. You’ve heard that the second lake contains some big bass, but you’ve never been there. And you think the third lake is really attractive, and you’ve had a nibble or two while fishing there, but you’ve never landed anything. So with your family starving, where should you fish?

ARMATURE NIGHT AND OTHER RANDOM THOUGHTS

February 2, 2010 by Scott Flood

Rather than go to town on a single topic this time, I thought I’d share a handful of items that either amused, bemused or confused me.

A local “gentlemen’s club” (one wonders how many of the patrons actually deserve the sobriquet) advertises upcoming events on one of those changeable type signs. On more than one occasion, they’ve invited viewers to participate in “Armature Night.” Nothing catches my fancy quite like a nude electric motor shaft.

RADIOVERACTIVE

January 28, 2010 by Scott Flood

I’ve long had a particular affection for radio advertising. It goes back to my younger days when I sat in broadcast booths and shared time and temperature before spinning large round pieces of vinyl. Handled correctly, radio spots are almost a mini-version of the programs that captivated audiences in the days before TV. Often, they’re more entertaining than the programming they support.

But a lot of people who create radio advertising don’t seem to grasp the realities of the medium and its listeners. A key example of that is what they expect the listener to take away from the spot. Many expect listeners to remember complicated phone numbers or website addresses. Locally, a law firm and a construction company that run sponsorships on public radio do that even though their names are difficult to understand and even harder to spell. If your CPA firm’s name is Finklestein, Chapeau and Huang, do you think most listeners are going to be able to spell that on the first try?

HOMONYMPHOBIA

January 26, 2010 by Scott Flood

The English language may be complex, but it offers users an expansive vocabulary. The benefit of that isn’t the ability to impress people with five-syllable words; it’s the remarkable precision that all those words make possible.

But English also has convoluted rules of phonetics. And one place people – including professional writers – tend to get tripped up is in the area of homonyms. If your memories of third grade have become a bit hazy, homonyms are words that sound alike, but are spelled differently. More important, they have vastly different meanings – and your trusty spellchecker isn’t smart enough to recognize whether you’ve chosen the right one.

GET FIRED OR FIRED UP?

January 21, 2010 by Scott Flood

One of the most effective business-to-business ad campaigns of a generation ago was built around the concept that nobody ever got fired for recommending IBM. At the time, new computer companies were springing up left and right, offering promising but unproven technology. IBM may not have been exciting, but it was considered to be the safe choice.

What made the campaign effective was not what it said, but what it implied. IT managers and other corporate executives read the ads and thought, “They’re right. If I recommend one of those other companies and the technology doesn’t work, I’m going to get the blame. IBM may cost more, but everybody knows and trusts them.”

CONNECTIONS MATTER MORE THAN COOLNESS

January 19, 2010 by Scott Flood

“The main thing we want is for this new website to have a cool design.” No, you don’t. “Yes, we do!” Maybe you do, but that’s the wrong place to start. “What do you mean?”

Why do you have the website? “Excuse me?” Why are you investing money in having and redesigning a website? “Oh. Well, we want to get business.” I see, and a cool design is what will get business? “Won’t it?” I don’t know, I’m asking you. After all, you know your customers and prospects better than I do. So they normally do business with people because of cool websites? Since your current website isn’t so cool, why are your current customers doing business with you?”

VESTED INTERESTS

January 14, 2010 by Scott Flood

Most business owners and managers are eager to find good advice – and that makes sense. If someone else has expertise, why not borrow it (or at least consider it) when you’re making an important decision?

But when you ask for that advice (or when it’s handed to you without a request), stop to ask yourself whether the source has a stake in the advice.

THE POWERPOINT COMEDIAN

January 12, 2010 by Scott Flood

Most people whose jobs require that they sit through many presentations are well-acquainted with the concept (if not the term) of “death by PowerPoint.” It’s a reference to any number of excruciating presentation types. Perhaps the worst offender is the presenter who subjects you to copy-heavy slide after copy-heavy slide, and makes it worse by assuming that you’re illiterate, so he reads every word to you.