In this business lesson, we had to go through Joyer’s book, The Irresistible Offer. The assignment was to analyze four commercials and determine which followed Joyer’s techniques most effectively. However, first, I will summarize the book for you.
Joyer starts off the book by establishing what The Irresistible Offer is. The irresistible offer is an offer that’s too good to refuse. It’s an offer so good that it would be foolish to pass. The Irresistible Offer has no downsides for the customer. It sounds self-explanatory, and it is. The offer is simply irresistible.
After addressing what the Irresistible Offer is, Joyer delves into the characteristics of an Irresistible Offer and how to execute one. The first point is a high Return-On-Investment (ROI) for the customer. Your product needs a higher perceived value than the price. In other words, the consumer would rather have your product than their money. It essentially sums up to the customer being satisfied with their purchase. That is the ideal ROI.
The second point is The Touchstone. The Touchstone addresses the following issues:
1) Here’s what we’re selling.
2) Here’s how much it will cost.
3) Here’s what’s in it for you.
4) Here’s why you should trust us.
Thirdly, the entire offer must be believable. Absurd statements made without basis don’t translate into an irresistible offer. To say “this is the best cup of coffee in the world” doesn’t create more clientele without evidence. However, if a coffee shop had advertised ten-thousand five-star reviews, that’s something notable.
Then, an advertiser can take advantage of scarcity and urgency. Retail stores have been using this tactic for Black Friday for decades.
Those are some of the things to account for when creating or analyzing an ad. That’s just a summary of the book and I recommend reading it for a more detailed understanding of Joyer’s points.
The first ad is the M&M Which Hand 1957 ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFDVm92Te_c
I like this ad. It explains why their product is superior to the competition. The buyer knows exactly what they’re buying and why they’d buy it. The offer is believable because the advertiser proves his point. What it lacks is urgency. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the product, but it doesn’t fit into The Irresistible Offer template and therefore falls slightly short in that respect. It also fails to provide a price. Unless the consumer has seen it in public, they’ll have no idea how much it costs.
The second ad is the American Express’s 1960s commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW1ab82biDI
Words cannot convey how much I despise this ad. We only know what they’re selling. How is it any better than any other credit card? They never say. The only argument they make is: “It’s the only card you need to travel.” Where’s the belief? How are consumers supposed to know that American Espress’s credit is better than any other credit card? There are no specific benefits and no believability in their one statement. American Express gets an F.
The third ad is for a Commodore IBM PC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFh1u9t8BT8
It’s solid. You know what you’re getting, how much it costs, and that it’s a good deal. It solves the problem of lugging around a huge computer (ironic because by today’s standards, it’s huge) and it specifies where to purchase one. This is a good ad. It has a high ROI. It touches on every single point that The Irresistible Offer makes.
The M&M ad was good, but not great. The American Express ad was what I like to call a “gold-plated turd,” but the Commodore ad was an irresistible offer.
Asher Sisneros 