Magic Mushrooms

Great example of a great USP and a pretty good target.

This time the ad was for a dentist. He says (basically), “If you’ve been putting off going to the dentist because you’re afraid of needles, can’t get numb, allergic to Novocain, have a bad gag reflex, hate the noises and smells, etc, etc…I can fix all of your dental problems in one appointment with no needles – all you have to do is take a pill.”

Wow! Talk about a big benefit.

Turns out, he’s a sedation dentist. He gives you a magic mushroom pill or something and you zonk out for several hours while he goes to work.

I like this a lot because he carves out a target up front (who this is for) then he makes a huge promise and makes it credible by saying “you just take a pill.” If he had stopped without telling me about the pill, my imagination would have me thinking up all kinds of weird alternatives, none of which would seem appealing. But a pill? No big deal.

He then goes on to offer a video tape with more information. Good again.

So I went to his web site to learn more about it (research for this journal entry). Nice, well designed, elaborate web site. But a marketing blow out, in my opinion.

First of all, the web site is all about actually fixing dental problems. Any dentist can do that. Yellow teeth, bad breath, crowns, gum diseases, etc, etc. The big story is that he can do it all and all you have to do is take a pill. But he doesn’t really explain that on the front page.

I had to dig far in to the site to find out the facts I was looking for. If it were me, I would put the full story on page 1 and answer all the questions right there.

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