Recently I shared some unique ways to apply courtroom cross-examination techniques to radio advertising.
In their book, CROSS-EXAMINATION: SCIENCE AND TECHNIQUES, Larry S. Pozner and Roger J. Dodd describe “the strategy of sequences”:
“It is necessary to perform {the cross-examination} in a persuasive sequence.”
Sequences, they say, should be designed to do three things:
(1) “Heighten Impact.”
Advertising Application
You don’t necessarily open your commercial by announcing your intent. You structure the sequence of the parts of your commercial in a manner intended to maximize its persuasiveness.
Beginning your spot by saying, “XYZ Cleaners is the Tri-Cities’ largest and oldest dry cleaners” might not be the most effective way of building your case.
It’s possible that mentioning how long it’s been serving local customers or how big it is can help build your case…although usually that kind of information is irrelevant to your targeted listener.
But even if it is relevant, beginning your spot with that information probably isn’t the most effective way to deliver your sales message.
(2) “Enlarge the scope of admissibility.”
Advertising Application
“The largest dry cleaner in the Tri-State area” is irrelevant…unless and until you make it relevant:
Having your favorite dress or business suit ruined by an incompetent or inattentive dry cleaner is something most people would like to avoid. That’s probably why more of your neighbors in the Tri-State area trust their good clothes to XYZ Cleaners than to anyone else….
(3) “Control the witness.”
Advertising Application
In a commercial, you want to control the flow of evidence and influence the decision-making process.
Don’t just take the client’s fact sheet or newspaper ad and dump the information into your spot. Structure the sequence of the information to maximize the impact of your sales message.
“Hence, a witness who has already been impeached on an inconsistent answer, the witness who has already been hemmed in by a series of tight, leading questions, and the witness who has tried to evade answering only to be brought up short has learned at every step to be…less willing to challenge the leading question.”
In a commercial, the more you overcome objections convincingly, the less resistance you’ll get to what you say next.
“Cross-examiners strive, above all else, to have an impact in the opening sequence.”
If you start strong, the judge will grant you more leeway as you progress…and the jurors will become conditioned to believe you know what you’re doing.
Advertising Application
If you begin your commercial by intersecting the targeted consumers’ common experiences — by making your very first words relevant to them and to their lives — they become more predisposed to pay attention to the rest of your message.
Occasionally in my seminars I play the opening line of a commercial that was produced by a Los Angeles radio station:
“Mark this date on your calendars!”
How much leeway are you willing to grant that guy? He expects you to take out your calendar and mark a particular date in it…even though you have no idea why he thinks you should do that!
That kind of opening line increases the resistance that listeners already have to the daily bombardment of commercial messages from all media and all directions.
“It is critical that the cross-examiner leave herself with strong material to use to reestablish any control and loss of momentum created by taking on the witness in areas where the witness has a strong chance of prevailing.”
Advertising Application
Think of the commercials you air that require legal disclaimers. Where are they usually placed? At the end of the spot.
But the principles of Primacy and Recency hold that the first and last points made in a commercial are the most likely to be remembered.
Do you really want the legal disclaimer to be the single most likely part of your commercial to be remembered?
How do you avoid this?
1. Minimize making claims that require excessive disclaimers.
2. Weave the disclaimer into the spot itself in a natural manner. If it’s a conversational spot, weave it into the conversation. If it’s comedic, find a way to make it part of the comedy. You bury the disclaimer by breaking it up, rather than putting a spotlight on it.
