At Eye Level

"I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream."

When we're promoting or selling something, we want our audience to see it clearly, to feel the value it provides, to receive the message in a way that resonates, and to immediately understand what's in it for them.

And if your audience isn't reading the copy, or the usual channels aren't cutting through, you've got to at least meet them at eye level. They see it, get it, and want it. Right away.

I remember the ice-cream truck that came down my street. Great selection: bars, sandwiches, cones, all of it. But most kids didn't deliberate. They went straight for the facial popsicles, the ones shaped like pop-culture characters.

Remember those? Spider-Man, Tweety Bird, Slimer from Ghostbusters, Spongebob, Sonic the Hedgehog, Powerpuff Girls, the Baseball Mitt. Endless characters, endless variations, endless flavors, even though they all tasted pretty much the same.

Beyond the character shapes and cultural references, there was something else working: those popsicles were positioned right at children's eye level. In front of everything else. On a truck full of options, right there in front of their faces.

Why would they look anywhere else?

The parents could make the case for the drumstick, the ice-cream sandwich, or the Strawberry Shortcake. It didn't matter. The kids wanted what was directly in front of them.

The ice-cream man didn't need to pitch anyone. He just priced those popsicles accordingly (surprise, surprise) and let the positioning do all the work.

Right product. Right spot. Right audience.