One of the most important things you can do is decide what your value statement is to your market.  Once you have a value statement, you have an idea of what you want to communicate to your customer.  Each message should support that statement.

Apparently, these people didn’t get it:

1.   “They’re more than lawyers. They’re people!”

You’ve got to be kidding me!  You just told everyone that your industry is a bunch lower life forms that will slime you if they get the chance.  Now, why would I believe one of these slimy lower life forms that says its not really a slimy lower life form!  These people did such a good job that they took their industry down a few notches with them.

What they wanted to say is that these attorneys looked beyond the legal resolution to a personal tailored solution for the client.

2.  Diorshow Iconic Mascara – The patented angled brush is replicating emblematic couture techniques: oblique lines and the bias cut, an art of fabric cutting that magnifies curves and amplifies spread.  In one quick stroke, with no special application method necessary, the brush acts like a brushing on lashes.  Enriched with a unique lifting formula, Diorshow Iconic sculpts, stretched and curves the lashes with extreme hold and high definition.

What in the world is “emblematic couture techniques: oblique lines and the bias cut, an art of fabric cutting?”  Oh, this is mascara, not a pair of scissors with a side of BS?  If the consumer cannot understand it, the consumer is going to have the red flag of BS rise up the mental flagpole.

Seriously, they just wanted to say that it gives a beautiful curve to your otherwise pitiful lashes, just like every other mascara.  However, they just said so much junk that the BS association has stuck.

 Seriously people.  Consider your message.  Ask yourself if your message talks about your basic value to your customer.  Ask yourself if it is consistent with your prior messages.  Branding is about building an all-around image.  Anything that cuts against that by denigrating yourself, your industry or is inconsistent with your prior message is likely a problem.  The rare exception is humor – and that can even backfire.  I’ll follow-up with that in a future post.