The car is brand new. You can see the lights of the sound studio reflect off its shiny body. No dings, no scratches, nothing but perfection. But wait. The man standing next to the car is starting to throw gasoline over the hood! Hey, what's he doing with that match?

Welcome once again to the world of late night infomercials. The Turbo Cooker, Vegematic, Egg Wave, Showtime Rotisserie, and every kind of AB, Bun and Thigh Rocker/Roller are just examples of the products pitched on late night TV.

Do they work? Who knows? In any event you learn a lot about an important lesson of marketing by carefully watching how these infomercials work. This lesson can be applied to products, websites, services and anything….just read on.

BUT FIRST, BACK TO OUR CAR

Standing next to the car is a fireman all dressed up and ready to extinguish anything that might get of hand. He's got an ax and a professional extinguisher. He is very confident. The presenter, the man with the match, lights the match. The audience looks on in horror.

You can see that the audience is absorbed in the drama as the camera does a quick pan. The match hits the car and it burst into flames. The audience is crazy now. The trusted fireman sprays the car with fire-repellent, and the flames are gone. The audience sighs in relief.

No problem says the presenter as he shows the audience Glo Shield. Taking a cloth from his pocket he squirts the Glo Shield on the car and begins to buff. What this? The soot and scaring from the flames are disappearing and the original finish and shine reappears. The audience goes wild.

Now comes the pitch. You can buy the Glo Shield for only $29.95 (payable in 2 payments if you want), and if you act now (this is so popular there's only a few left), they'll throw in an extra bottle. The audience claps enthusiastically…they're obviously as impressed with the offer as they were when the polish made the car brand new again.

But wait...there's more! If you buy now, you'll get a special bottle of window cleaner (a $15.99 value) for FREE! That's right, but only if you call now. The audience is almost fainting with delight.

Sounds a little risky? No problem, there's a money back guarantee. Phone numbers are splashed across the screen along with a variety of credit cards that are accepted (virtually every card is accepted here).

The camera pulls back and the audience applauds. All of this took no more than a few minutes.

FORMULA MARKETING

This is formula marketing, and every infomercial works essentially the same way. The products may differ (and even that's debatable), but the way the story develops is something that every marketer can learn from. Here's how it works.

First, show the audience that what their buying is a lot better than the competition and what they're using now. That's called the "relative advantage", or the better mousetrap. Everybody knows about this since this is the most elementary idea is business. You know, my product is better than yours; my service is cheaper, easier to use, etc.

Infomercials also show the viewer that their products are compatible with the way people already do things. No change in behavior here. You know how to use wax on your car? Glo Shield works the same way. You already go to the gym, so our AB-Roller makes that behavior easier.

It's also compatible with a social context because you have an audience, or in the case of the AB-Roller, a well built man or women voicing approval. Compatibility (with the way people do things or their social environment) is a very important aspect to demonstrate with your product/service/website if you want it to be adopted quickly.

Not sure about this? Check out our tutorial that will show you why a lack of compatibility has killed many a good idea.

Infomercials often have an audience who's role is to also show that the product's benefits can be observed. If they didn't have an audience how would you know that the car was really ok? You might assume it, but people who make infomercials know that people adopt ideas faster if the benefits are not only there, but can be observed. You might think about what you sell or your web site and ask "Are the benefits I trying to convey readily observable?" If not, you have some cleaning up to do.

Every infomercial tries to lower customer's risk by giving them a money back guarantee; their products are also easy to use, thereby lowering the complexity of the product and the purchase process.

Seem obvious? Sure, but how many Internet companies have failed by making the purchase process complex and increasing customer's sense of risk?

WHAT YOU CAN LEARN

These central ideas show up in every infomercial: show them a relative advantage, make the benefits observable, make it compatible in all senses, lower their risk and make the whole process of buying it completely uncomplicated. Are these powerful ideas? You bet.

A ton of research has been done that demonstrates that very few business ideas (especially new ideas) survive unless they have these basic elements. Can you still survive without them? Sure it's possible, but why go up against the findings of hard-core academic research and the years of successful selling of worthless products?

So ask yourself this. Look at your website, product, or service and see if what you are doing is consistent with the ideas presented here (e.g., compatible with your customer's way of processing infomation, not complex, etc.). If not, then don't expect your offering to sell as easily as those infomercials that make tons of money.