To Tell the Truth
Surely you're heard these not-so-pleasant descriptions of what marketers do for a living:
And so on. No one likes to think of themselves as a professional liar. But let's be honest - there's a grain of truth in these statements.
Marketers have helped sell soda. Nobody really needs soda (though they might enjoy it a great deal). We've convinced people that various health and beauty products are essential to happy lives, questionable as that is. We've used branding to help our product stand out from the commoditized pack.
None of these things are really lies. Yes, they are a selective way of looking at the world - but then, this is true of all communication that is meant to persuade, whether it's a candidate's stump speech, a college applicant's essay, or a thirty-second radio spot.
There's a campaign going on here in Houston that reminds me of an important thing to remember about succesful marketing: you can't lie. Never mind what the more jaded media consumers think: campaigns that are powerful, interesting, and above all convincing need to be built around the truth: the real benefits of our products or services, the real differences between our product and our competitor's, and sometimes the real downsides.
The product in the truth campaign that I'm talking about is Houston itself. Our city has tried to sell itself to the rest of the world in many ways over the years. It's the home of NASA! It's that land of oil! It's wide open (that is, there are no hills). While these campaigns touched on some truths about Houston, they ignored a certain reality:
Houston is a sprawling, chaotic place with incredibly hot and muggy weather, lots of very large six-legged critters, regular flooding, oil refineries, and terrible traffic. Few people come to visit us by choice. No one's ever chosen Houston over Paris for a romantic vacation. And the rest of the world knows this: when you tell people you live in Houston by choice, they give you a funny look.
Unless, of course, they are Houstonians, and then they nod in understanding. What those us lucky (or smart) enough to call Houston home know is that our city, despite all those real challenges above, is dynamic, multicultural, richly endowed with culture, and full of flat-out nice people. It all moves at a pace that's more pleasant than back east (my home) but not sluggish. And most of all, there's a hard-to-describe spirit of possibility and invention here.
With all of that in mind, David Thompson and Randy Twaddle, two Houston marketers who operate an agency called ttweak - have launched the "Houston. It's Worth It" campaign. It's a great example of telling the truth to get your message out. The HIWI campaign starts with all of those unpleasant Houston realities and then simply says, "It's worth it!" The web site includes comments from actual Houstonians about why they love living in this place.
Unlike other Houston marketing campaigns, it's authentic and honest. The convention and visitors bureau folks are not fans of it, but lots of other people around town are. You can see some of the press that the campaign has gotten through the links below.
There's an important lesson here: tell the truth. If your marketing lies, your customers will see through it - just as anyone coming down the freeway from the airport into downtown Houston will quickly realize that they are most definitely not in Rome, New York, London, or San Francisco. And no Houston boosterism campaign has ever gotten this much buzz going nationwide. (Did your local paper ever write about "Bayou City?")
And if you're in Houston, I'll be one of the people navigating the West Loop traffic with a "Houston. It's Worth It" bumper sticker on his car.
"Houston, It's Worth It" In The News
- We tell lies about products so people will buy them.
- We convince people that they need things that they really don't.
- We create "brands," which are a way to convince people that identical products are different (and ours is better).
And so on. No one likes to think of themselves as a professional liar. But let's be honest - there's a grain of truth in these statements.
Marketers have helped sell soda. Nobody really needs soda (though they might enjoy it a great deal). We've convinced people that various health and beauty products are essential to happy lives, questionable as that is. We've used branding to help our product stand out from the commoditized pack.
None of these things are really lies. Yes, they are a selective way of looking at the world - but then, this is true of all communication that is meant to persuade, whether it's a candidate's stump speech, a college applicant's essay, or a thirty-second radio spot.
There's a campaign going on here in Houston that reminds me of an important thing to remember about succesful marketing: you can't lie. Never mind what the more jaded media consumers think: campaigns that are powerful, interesting, and above all convincing need to be built around the truth: the real benefits of our products or services, the real differences between our product and our competitor's, and sometimes the real downsides.
The product in the truth campaign that I'm talking about is Houston itself. Our city has tried to sell itself to the rest of the world in many ways over the years. It's the home of NASA! It's that land of oil! It's wide open (that is, there are no hills). While these campaigns touched on some truths about Houston, they ignored a certain reality:
Houston is a sprawling, chaotic place with incredibly hot and muggy weather, lots of very large six-legged critters, regular flooding, oil refineries, and terrible traffic. Few people come to visit us by choice. No one's ever chosen Houston over Paris for a romantic vacation. And the rest of the world knows this: when you tell people you live in Houston by choice, they give you a funny look.
Unless, of course, they are Houstonians, and then they nod in understanding. What those us lucky (or smart) enough to call Houston home know is that our city, despite all those real challenges above, is dynamic, multicultural, richly endowed with culture, and full of flat-out nice people. It all moves at a pace that's more pleasant than back east (my home) but not sluggish. And most of all, there's a hard-to-describe spirit of possibility and invention here.
With all of that in mind, David Thompson and Randy Twaddle, two Houston marketers who operate an agency called ttweak - have launched the "Houston. It's Worth It" campaign. It's a great example of telling the truth to get your message out. The HIWI campaign starts with all of those unpleasant Houston realities and then simply says, "It's worth it!" The web site includes comments from actual Houstonians about why they love living in this place.
Unlike other Houston marketing campaigns, it's authentic and honest. The convention and visitors bureau folks are not fans of it, but lots of other people around town are. You can see some of the press that the campaign has gotten through the links below.
There's an important lesson here: tell the truth. If your marketing lies, your customers will see through it - just as anyone coming down the freeway from the airport into downtown Houston will quickly realize that they are most definitely not in Rome, New York, London, or San Francisco. And no Houston boosterism campaign has ever gotten this much buzz going nationwide. (Did your local paper ever write about "Bayou City?")
And if you're in Houston, I'll be one of the people navigating the West Loop traffic with a "Houston. It's Worth It" bumper sticker on his car.
"Houston, It's Worth It" In The News
posted by John Whiteside at 8/27/2004 04:16:00 PM
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