Here’s an excellent example from Steak-n-Shake of turning a negative into a positive. And notice how well they use long copy – the marketing term for “lots of descriptive text.” Every word’s there for a reason…and as you see below, you’ll have plenty of time to read every one of them.
However, this example only works if your negative – in this case, your wait times – are an essential element of your wellness services.
What’s an essential element of your wellness service?
Example 1: You’re donating blood. They take a sample and your iron level is borderline. It takes a few minutes for them to spin it down and decide whether you can give blood today. Meanwhile you, the donor, just sit there with nothing to do.
Example 2: Your service includes a metabolic test where people sit and breathe into a nose/mouthpiece for 5 minutes. Then they have to sit and wait, with nothing to do, while you download and quickly analyze the results before presenting them to the client.
A word to the wise:
DO NOT use this technique if your negatives aren’t essential to your service – for example, clients routinely experience waits and delays due to schedule hiccups, staffing issues, customer cancellations, and so on. You have a different problem and trying to “spin” these issues into a positive will only make your customers mad.
On to the example!
Steak-N-Shake’s drive-through is just plain slow compared to their competitors. You can easily sit and wait ten minutes or longer. Sounds awful, right?
Nope, not really. Look at how they’ve turned that into a selling point.
They’ve got three HUGE boards posted in the drive-through:
Notice that each one positions the wait as a GOOD thing – nothing that requires an apology. In fact, they’re bragging about it.
You can click all of these pix to enlarge the detailed copy.
First, “It’s worth the wait”
Then, it’s “Time Well Spent”
Finally, “Great Expectations”
Does your health and wellness business have negatives that are really positives? Have you got a great example of doing just this? Come on, don’t keep it to yourself! Chime in below (and we always keep your email private).
