In advertising and marketing, we have been told over and over again to have a big promise as our headline and to build up on that throughout the copy. But here is an interesting incident that I hope will help everyone to understand that promises, as big as you want to make them, have to be within your means to deliver.
Over at Lorla’s blog, she had this very interesting post “You Boasted, Now Gimme Your House!” where a 53 year-old potter created what he believed to be a unique creation. That is all fine. Until he got carried away while participating in a television documentary and boasted that no one could duplicate it, AND that he would give away his house and all it contained to whoever could. Well, Murphy is as active in China as anywhere else. Within 6 months, an amateur potter re-created the “unique” five-layered ball and claimed his prize. The court has upheld that his publicly issued television challenge amounted to a contract and since the terms were fullfilled, he was to ante up and hand over his house!
Valuable lesson here for us marketers. While we want to make big promises, be sure that we can deliver on those promises to our customers.
[tags]marketing, headlines, big promise, advertising, beware[/tags]
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