"Listen" to this radio ad, written by The Wizard of Advertising, Roy H. Williams. It's for a realtor, but it could be for a used car dealer ... or for you:
ANNOUNCER: Did you ever see Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's? Distinctive. Avant-garde. Sophisticated. Straight out of The New Yorker magazine. This is the house of Holly Golightly. Ridiculously retro. Definitely not for everyone. But absolutely adorable. And it has a driveway built for a sports car. There's only one and this is it. Two hundred and twenty-nine thousand. And the shrubbery! I'm not even going to try to describe it. Listed by Harvey Rich Realtors, of course. Harvey Rich has all the interesting houses.
REALTOR: Boring houses are for boring people. Harvey Rich has interesting houses. And I'd love to show you this one. 555-5555 Harvey Rich.
The ad follows these rules:
Ponder the distinctive element in a sample of the product until it triggers the memory of a cultural icon.
Pull the icon into your ad copy.
Always mention the price. But never mention the square footage, the number of bedrooms, or the address - the other factors that buyers may be interested in but, if given, might keep them from calling you, and having you find out what they want, and then building a relationship.
Harvey Schachter