In my business class today, I had to watch a few ads from YouTube and select the ad which best conformed to Mark Joyner’s standards of an irresistible offer. Mark Joyner is the author of The Irresistible Offer, which I am reading for my business class. Joyner said an irresistible offer must have a great ROI for the buyer, a touchstone offer, and believability. The ad I thought best conformed to these standards was the M&M’s “Which Hand” ad from 1957.
The ad never specifically states the price of a bag of M&M’s, so we are left in the dark with regards to how much the buyer would have to pay. The ad compares M&M’s to other chocolate candies, so I think customers were to assume that M&M’s would be priced relatively close to other chocolate candies. The ad doesn’t do the best job of displaying the rate of investment for a buyer, but this ad has an amazing touchstone offer.
Before I explain M&M’s specific touchstone offer, I would like to explain Mark Joyner’s conception of the touchstone offer. He said a touchstone offer answers the following questions: “What are you trying to sell me?” “How much does it cost?” “What’s in it for me?” and finally, “Why should I believe you?” I have already covered the price and I will cover the believability of this ad later, but now I would like to analyze how well this ad answered the two other questions. To answer the first question, this ad is clear that it is trying to sell sugarcoated milk chocolate candy. This ad also offered the same sugarcoated milk chocolate candy with peanuts. The true power of this ad kicks in when answering the third question, which this ad answers with “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” This benefit was unique to M&M’s at the time, so this ad really gained sales for Mars chocolate company. The unique benefit provided by the candy was presented in a catchy slogan that was used in the ad. The people understood the unique benefit and recognized what was in it for them, so they bought M&M’s.
This ad was very believable, because the man in the advertisement had part of a regular chocolate bar splattered on one of his hands and the M&M’s were sitting neatly in the palm of his other hand. It was clear in the ad that the M&M’s left almost no mess on your hands. The other chocolate bar looked very messy relative to the M&M’s, which motivated people who don’t like messiness to buy M&M’s instead of other chocolate bars. The ad also displayed how M&M’s are coated with sugar, which adds to the believability that they don’t melt in your hands, because sugar doesn’t melt like chocolate does.
To conclude, the M&M’s ad used Mark Joyner’s principles from the Irresistible Offer much more effectively than the other ads I watched for my business course. The M&M’s ad is closely conformed to Joyner’s standards of the touchstone offer and believability. The unique benefit described in the slogan of the M&M’s ad was very difficult for customers to resist.
Josh Springfield 