Marketing lesson from a homeless man

Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 3:10 pm by Anita Ashland

The homeless man standing at an intersection near the mall today was the sorriest looking man I’ve seen in a while.

He held a cardboard sign that said something like “Homeless and hungry.”

There was no clear call to action on the sign.

He didn’t have a USP – he looked like most every other homeless man I’ve seen.

The copy on his sign didn’t offer any entertainment value.

I’ve heard marketers say that even homeless people get better response rates when they use clever wording on their sign. That way the giver at least gets a laugh in return for giving the homeless person some money.

These thoughts ran through my head in about 15 seconds.

I briefly considered giving him some cash but figured he would just spend it on cigarettes or drink and set about to thinking about the cool tennis racket I had just purchased.

“Mom, why is that man standing there?” my 13-year-old daughter asked.

“He’s homeless and hungry and wants money,” I said, wondering why the red light was lasting so long.

“Awwwwwwwwwwwww,” she said, exactly the way one would say it if doting over a cute baby.

I guiltily rummaged through my purse but all I had was a couple of twenty dollar bills and a few ones.

“Give him one of your twenties!” she said.

“No!” I said too abruptly. “That’s too much!” He could buy way too many cigarettes with that, I figured.

I held up my two one dollar bills but that seemed too measley of an amount and not worth the effort to roll down the window and call the man over. Still the light remained red.

My daughter put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a five dollar bill her grandmother gave her earlier in the day.

I gave the money to the man. His smile revealed that it’s probably been decades since he’s visited a dentist and he said, “God bless you. Thank you for having a giving heart.”

Finally the light turned green and as I drove off I hoped he would buy some food with the money.

Now here’s the part of the blog post where I should transition into a lesson about marketing or a sales pitch of some sort.

I suppose I could say that even crappy copy and a lousy presentation can generate results.

Or that “positioning” is everything. Stand by an intersection with a long red light and you’ll boost your response rate with no extra effort on your part.

But mostly?

I want to think about marketing a little bit less and go “awwwww” a little bit more.

Sounds like a good way to become a better copywriter and marketer.

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