There is a video doing the rounds of a bloke being asked to sell a pen.
He says he is a sales manager. His pitch goes like this. It is dark blue. Comes in fifty colours. Writes smoothly. You can get them in Poundland. Buy twenty and it is a return on investment.
Every line is about the pen.
Not a single word about the person holding it. No question asked. No problem identified. No reason to care.
That is the Value Trap. Talking about what you value instead of what the reader values.
Where it shows up
It creeps into everything. Door drops, direct mail packs, landing pages, ads.
Product before problem.
It sounds like this. Discover our beautiful homes. Discover the life you want to live. Discover your next chapter here.
All perfectly reasonable. All completely useless to someone who has not started making that decision in their own head yet.
Because when your leaflet turns up on the doormat, no one cares about you. They care about themselves. What is changing in their life. The problem they may eventually need to solve.
Same pen, different pitch
Here is how that conversation could have gone.
Do you have a pen on you? No? Sod’s law, isn’t it. You never have one when you need one. You are in a meeting, someone asks you to sign something or jot a number down, and you are sat there patting your pockets like a lemon. Worse, you end up borrowing one off someone else. Bit embarrassing.
Here is the thing though. People are seen as more credible when they come prepared. Especially when the people around them haven’t. Having a pen on you isn’t about the pen. It is about what it says about you.
And this one is the Helix Oxford. Built to last, smooth on paper, a cap that actually stays on. This is the last one in stock at twenty quid. So the question is, is twenty quid worth not looking like a lemon next time?
Same pen. Same features, mostly. Completely different pitch.
The product has not changed. The mindset has.
It is not a design problem
This is the part that catches teams out.
When I see a door drop underperforming, the design is usually fine. Professional, on brand, properly produced. The offer is often decent too.
The argument just starts in the wrong place. And when the argument starts in the wrong place, better design only makes the weakness easier to see.
What about the brand?
The objection I get most often is that this all sounds like it means ignoring brand guidelines.
It doesn’t. Your brand is your brand. It has taken years to build. The tone, the look, the rules. You should protect it and I leave it well alone.
But brand and direct response are built on different things. Brand is built on consistency, distinction and feeling. Direct response is built on proven principles, tested repeatedly, rooted in why people buy.
They are not enemies. They speak different languages. What is usually missing is a translator.
Because creative that is tone-perfect, on grid and internally approved can still be leaving money on the table. Following every brand rule and none of the rules of direct response.
The bit that stings
One of the good things about understanding the Value Trap is that once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
One of the bad things about understanding it is that once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
For some teams it is the first time they realise what their audience is actually hearing. For others it explains the thing they could never quite put their finger on.
Either way, it is painfully obvious once it lands.
If all you talk about is yourself, how good your product is, how long you have been going, how many awards you have won, why would anyone care?
Start talking about them and suddenly your product has a reason to matter.
Send me your creative and I will tell you where it is falling into this.
Send me your creative