CREATE YOUR POWERLINE

We have a food proof system that helps businesses get on the right path for their marketing — called Powerline.

You’ve heard of elevator pitches and Unique Selling Propositions, but “a Powerline is a USP on steroids.”  Perhaps the best way to explain it, is to document the most famous ad campaign of the last 50 years…

“Got Milk?” is arguably, the world’s most memorable marketing campaign.  Fashioned in 1993 by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Producers, they created a whole new way to think about brand marketing and coined a new term… deprivation marketing.

In essence, what would the world do without your product?

It was a novel concept and one that could have backfired quite easily, but there’s more to milk than meets the eye.*  You see, there’s an interesting process we use, called a Powerline, that helps brands determine who they are, who they target and most importantly, why their prospects should even pay attention.

In the case of milk, a commodity that had been sold for decades on “milk is good for you”, started losing marketshare with the introduction of more beverage choices in the 90’s AND confusion in the market place on whether milk was actually good for you.  An axiom that was, and continues to be under fire.

The Original Milk Powerline:

CONVINCE moms
THAT they should buy more milk for their families,
BECAUSE it builds strong bones for healthier bodies.

But mom was beginning to question this (from lactose intolerance to anti-milk messaging).  So GS&P crafted a very different rationale for California Milk Board consumers…

Here’s the Got Milk? Powerline:

CONVINCE grocery shoppers
THAT they have to put milk in their cart,
BECAUSE without milk, you can’t eat your favorite foods.

Read that again.

It doesn’t say “moms with 2.4 children” or “purchase 6.4 additional quarts of milk”, it just says, someone in the store ready to buy… but might have no interest in putting milk (even a little pint of milk) in their cart or basket.  And why would they?  Because if you put Oreos or Fruit Loops into that same cart, you can ONLY eat them WITH milk.  Milk’s no longer a commodity, but THE brand that makes certain foods taste better!  So much better that you can’t even picture having these foods with ANYTHING else.  Gatorade on your Frosted Flakes?  Orange juice with your Toll House cookies?  No way!  This single sentence helped marketers of milk focus their attention on who they were attracting and why they would comply. 

So what can you do?
Now the trick is to apply this kind of thinking to your own business or brand.  Who do you specifically need to reach out to?  What should they do?  And then, the kicker… why should they believe you?

The CONVINCE line is the hardest to come by.  Frankly, it’s why JSH&P gets hired to take on brands.  We’re pretty good at deciphering a universal truth about the companies we work with and framing a sentence that gives new life to start-ups and stagnated businesses.

Give it a try, write your own Powerline.  You may just have solved the 800-lb. marketing problem that’s been plaguing your team.  Want a good place to start?  Try your hand at writing your own Powerline and find a universal truth about YOU.  

Here’s the very first ad created under this tagline…

*The director of this original commercial was none other than Michael Bay of Transformers fame.

NOTE: The milk mustache campaign was developed by another agency (Bozell) for a slightly different purpose, but recognized the brilliance of the tagline and made it a part of their memorable creative (with the help of Annie Leibovitz photography).

Read more of a “how to” on creating your own Powerline here — an article on LinkedIn.