The Best Marketing Scams I've Ever Seen

[MUSIC PLAYING] The best scams I've ever seen. Welcome to Legal Marketing 101. I'm Toby Rosen. Today, we are talking about two of the best scams I've ever seen and what we can learn from the marketing of these scams. Now, I'm not talking about scams in terms of what you may have seen in sort of the zeitgeist related to stocks and crypto, et cetera, et cetera. Obviously, this kind of financial scam stuff, this is bad, they hurt people, that is not what we're talking about here. In this episode, our spotlights on two products that took the marketing game sort of just to the next level. And these two products, they're not in the legal world, at least not that I know of, but I've had this idea in my mind for a little while because the first of these two products, I just find totally ridiculous. And I do also wanna preface things by saying that if you use either of these products or something similar, or if you enjoy these products, I'm not judging you. I'm judging you a little bit. Really though, I'm probably just jealous that these companies have been able to be so successful with these things that are seemingly just so, so simple. So let's get to the point. The two products we're putting the spotlight on today are Avion's Facial Spray and Dean and DeLuca's, their little can of trail mix. Let's start with the facial spray. If you've seen this Avion facial spray, it's like an aerosol can, maybe you've seen it at Target or wherever, you kind of know what I'm talking about. If you don't know what I'm talking about, picture this. It's a sleek spray bottle of water, almost like a bottle of aerosolized sunscreen, but with water. And it's decked out with that sleek Avion branding. The catch is, depending on where you find it, prices for a full-size bottle of what is essentially just water start for around $10. And no, this isn't a bottle of water in an airport. And I'm supposed $10 might not sound so crazy in that context. But when you break down with the product is that price tag starts to look pretty eye popping. But this is the power of marketing at work. Avion managed to elevate a simple water spray into this coveted skincare essential. The branding prowess is undeniable. The mere sight of that elegant Avion logo is now conjuring images of sophistication and excellence. They've skillfully created an aura of luxury around a pretty seemingly straightforward product. They've turned it into a symbol of indulgence and self-pampering. Emotional marketing plays a really pivotal role in this strategy. Avion appeals to consumers' desire for self-care and for well-being, and associates this with a brand that's really built on being a luxurious It transforms the act of spraying water into a revitalizing ritual, enticing individuals to invest in this upscale skin care treatment. But now let's move on to the Dean and DeLuca trail mix cans from Japan. And this was actually brought to my attention by my parents when they visited me after a recent trip to Tokyo. In typical Dean and DeLuca fashion, this trail mix that I was gifted came in a really nice, very sturdy and robust can, I saved it, but we're still talking about like 100 grams or 3.5 ounces of trail mix. It's like 2 or 3 handfuls really. And sure, it's good trail mix, but at the price of 1,188 yen, which is about a little over $8 for those of you that don't speak yen, I'd probably expect to gain some kind of magical powers from eating this at that price. In reality, they went a little heavy on the sunflower seeds. So I did a little bit of digging though, and it does look like these cans may have only been available in Japan, but it's hard to be 100% sure for me. That said, this does fit very well within Japan's gift-giving culture. It's premium, it's somewhat sophisticated, and it's a healthy option. And Dina De Luca is able to play off of their existing branding to put this at a price point that again, unless it's in an airport, the price just seems incomprehensible for what amounts to roughly three handfuls of trail mix. So are these really scams? I guess not. Personally, I just think the prices for these products are way outside the realm of what I would call normal. Again, this isn't a judgment if you use these, but if you look at the composition of these products, the cost of goods, and what it costs to distribute them, both of these companies These must be walking away with really fat profit margins. And that brings us to what we really want to get into. What can we as legal marketers learn from the tactics Avion and Dean and DeLuca and a lot of brands like this are using to pump up their margins on these products? First, we really have to understand our client story. I've talked about this a lot, but it's so, so critical in these situations. We want to understand the desires and motivations of our potential clients so we can tailor our marketing and tailor our product offering to meet their expectations. In the marketing business, we call this consumer psychology. In both of our examples, we've got brands that have been around a while. In Avion's case, they've been around a little longer than a while. Both of these brands have had decades to build their credibility, but if our law firm hasn't had that kind of time, we kind of have to cheat the system. We need to build up credibility quickly and with a potential client, we have to be fast if we want to make the sale. This can be done with things like badges and superlatives from legal organizations, superliers, that kind of thing, but it's so much more effective when we do it by really understanding the psychology of our potential clients rather than guessing, and then we find a place to jump in and interrupt their thought process. often than not, for law firms at least, being able to resonate with a potential client just means serving them the right content at the right time. And in some practice areas, the badges and awards actually do work really well. I've seen this be incredibly effective for practices like personal injury, for bankruptcy, and even for some family law firms. But the really important thing here is that you're building out your marketing based on how your clients are actually thinking and allowing yourself to quickly build that credibility directly with the client. If you don't have that avian level branding history, we are going to have to create that relationship through some kind of personal communication. And technology is really our trusty sidekick in this adventure. We're not going to dive too deep into it in this episode, but after we've built our client story and after we've really tried to dive deep into the heads of our clients, we can start putting some data to our hypothesis and figure out what works and what doesn't. We can identify some patterns, track trends, and we're going to get a data-based answer to our questions about what really makes our clients tick and how they actually become our clients. Over time, this cycle will repeat itself hundreds or maybe thousands of times, and you'll keep refining who your client is, what they need, and how to sell it to them. Of course, there's a little more to what these companies are doing with these products than just branding and understanding the client, though. In both cases here, they're really looking to provide an experience that's different from what their consumer normally expects. We want to convey that message in the legal world, too. In a lot of practice areas, clients have options when they're choosing an attorney. It's not just you. Sure, there are some kinds of practices where situations can be really dire and clients just Google and call the first number they see. But in a big chunk of the legal world, people are going to pick and choose, and legal services aren't just legal services anymore. Clients are looking for what doctors would call "good bedside manner," and that's becoming more and more critical for law firms in a range of practice areas if they want to be successful. Sure, at the end of the day, we're still selling legal services, but we're really also selling an experience. In family law, it's not just processing documents, but it's helping to unravel and start to rebuild their entire life, whether it's kids, their house, all of that. It can be similar in bankruptcy, and we can also see this type of unease with clients in practice areas like immigration. Not only is what they're about to do likely going to be difficult for them emotionally, maybe physically and expensive, but there's probably some uncertainty about whether they're making the right decision about the attorney they've chosen. And that's you. Avian and Dean and DeLuca are probably in a very different world than we are, and how they're trying to connect with their consumers is definitely pretty different than what I would do with law firms. But very similar to these companies, we also need to focus on the experience we provide our clients. They're trusting our firms with some of the most significant moments in their lives, and understanding who they really are is the most critical step in reaching these clients. That's it for Legal Marketing 101. Check out rosenadvertising.com for more. Thanks.[MUSIC]