Opposite Marketing, or, Why I Haven't Had a Glass of Water in 20 Years

Today I received a booklet in the mail that fascinated me. It’s a traditional 40-page sales letter in printed and stapled form. That’s the cover of it on the left. Take a look at it.

You’ll note it grabs your attention with a couple of tried and true marketing tricks. To wit:

1. The word “Discover” is a hypnotic word proven to grab attention. It’s used to begin the headline.

2. The essence of the headline is in quotes. As I said in my book fot The American Marketing Association, The AMA Complete Guide to Small Business Advertising, just adding quotation marks to a headline will increase readership by 15%.

3. The headline itself shocks you. How can anyone (let alone an M.D.) not drink water in two decades? You and I both have heard that we must drink water. Well, not so according to this M.D. But how is that possible? It stuns the brain. It makes you curious. You want to know more.

The rest of the booklet follows this same theme. Basically, it is going in the opposite direction of “normal” thinking. Throughout the sales letter you’ll find statements such as “Vegetarians die younger” and “Low cholesterol can be more deadlier than high cholesterol.”

This method works. The truth is, there is no one truth in the world. While someone can “prove” high cholesterol can kill you, someone else can find or create a study that proves high cholesterol won’t kill you. It’s all true. It depends on your perspective, which leads you to find supportive evidence for your perspective.

But that’s me wearing my metaphysical-philosopher hat.

When I wear my marketing hat, I simply smile and realize here’s another person capitalizing on “opposite marketing.”

You might try it. It simply means note what the public is thinking and position yourself opposite from it.

But also note that what this doctor is saying is what people want to hear. At first glance it sounds counter to what people are hearing from their own doctors. It is. But it’s not counter to what people want to hear.

Finally, do long sales letters work?

Does “opposite marketing” work?

You bet. Consistently.

I just signed up for a three year subscription to Dr. William Campbell Douglass’s newsletter and booklets. He sold me.

But I’m still drinking water.

As well as $166 bottles of rare Chartreuse.

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS – I don’t think the non-drinking M.D. has a website (he’s traditional old school direct marketing) but you might try Google on him. He’s Dr. William Campbell Douglass at Real Health Breakthroughs.