Evolution of The Inspiration Series
To better understand how The Inspiration Series came to be it’s best to really understand what advertising is and why most people consider advertising does not work.
The Theory of Advertising
Advertising is basically the delivery of a communication to someone who neither asked for it nor is interested in receiving it. More importantly, the recipient is usually annoyed by the existence of that communication line.
Some common examples:
A television commercial – Commercials are viewed as the price we are paying to watch a program we did not pay for. Businesses pay a lot of money to show their commercials to viewers who would do their best to avoid seeing those commercials. Recording programs and fast- forwarding commercials is one way to avoid the receiving of those communications we did not ask for.
Banners on websites – Banners are also viewed as the price we pay to browse the net. You tube would show you a small 15 second video once in a while before letting the viewer just watch the videos they are requesting to see. Some websites charge a subscription fee so they do not have to sell advertising to monetize their sites. In fact, it is considered that the price of subscription entitles the subscriber to not be bothered with the banners.
Spam emails or even opted-in emails – Google, Yahoo and the like go through a lot of expense to prevent spam emails delivered to their users. Today they are even going further to separate out social or promotional emails from other more important emails we receive. Google has placed a promotional tab that has resulted in the users not even be able to see the promotional emails.
Postcards – Junk mail consists of a real item such as a postcard or even a magazine that the advertisers send with regular mail. There is no way to opt out of junk mail other than throwing it into the trash before sorting out the mail which is what most people do.
Door to door salesmen - This is probably one of the earlier methods of advertising and it really goes without saying that nobody likes to open their home door to someone who wants to sell them something.
Telemarketing calls – Most people either hang up as soon as they receive a telemarketing call or try to be polite and suffer through the call until they finally hang up. Caller ID is one resource people have to not engage in conversation with people they do not recognize their phone numbers.
That people screen their calls and not answer many calls is further proof of the bigger situation that people are unwilling to accept and engage in a communication they did not ask for even though it may not be an ad or even a sales call. It may even be a friend one does not feel to speak with at the time a call is received.
As you can see in these examples that in all different ways that a business can advertise to an audience there exist ways for the recipient to avoid those ads.
The Reason Why – It is not difficult to understanding the reason why people do not wish to receive communication they did not ask for. They consider the ads to be worthless, hence “junk” mail. Same goes with banners, TV and radio commercials, emails and the such.
This opens the door then to how do we make advertising work!
Advertising can be made to work if the message or the communication were somehow made valuable to the recipient.
This is done in different ways today, not many of which with long term workability. For instance, an advertising message can be “hidden” in a “valuable” email such as a newsletter with data the advertiser considers the recipient would be interested in receiving, hence a higher open rate, readership and therefore the potential that the reader would not object to receiving their message.
A sales seminar can be made “valuable” to a dentist if the dentist gets CE units.
Any seminar is made more “valuable” if it is done in a vacation type setting such as Hawaii, Cancun or Las Vegas.
The Viva Solution
Viva has attempted to make advertising work by elevating significantly the quality of real products that could be handed out or mailed while keeping the cost of those products at almost the levels of their low quality counterparts.
As all the products that Viva uses in its advertising are real products and not digital media, in order to keep the costs of those products low while significantly improving their quality it was forced into manufacturing of those products.
And we could say with confidence that Viva has been able to achieve the above in manufacturing.
The Viva breakthrough
The Inspiration Series is really the second breakthrough Viva has made in elevating the value of an advertising message.
By adding an inspirational quote from a well known person to the superior quality of the Viva products Viva has been able to so elevate its hand-outs and mailers from the category of junk or worthlessness to not just a gorgeous piece the recipient would be willing to open or read or interact with but something that they would want to keep or even better yet “collect”.
With the Inspirational Series, Viva has entered the realm of Collectibles! This is the other end of the spectrum or scale. If “junk” mail were at the bottom of the scale as being worthless, we would have a “collectible” at the top of that scale.
The Inspiration Series has other additional values –
They have a viral effect. The recipient would want to share it with friends or family. This is the ultimate word of mouth program!
They have a “reviews” value. The recipient’s high level of interest in receiving The Inspiration Series free of charge will produce a positive review whether or not posted on Yelp. The positive “review” will circulate in words and communications.
The Inspiration Series being a set, i.e. 6 or 8 different pieces, when they are sent one at a time will have the recipient waiting for the next one. This is significant as it strengthens the communication line and puts in place a sort of loyalty program.
The Inspiration Series was created to Dentists to capture their community by Inspiring patients to inspire friends. An accomplishment achieved through inspirational quotes from iconic leaders such as Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Rosevelt to the greats such as Babe Ruth, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and many other iconic leaders who have encouraged millions to improve and achieve a better life.
Viva's Vision & Core Values
" We believe to 'Inspire' builds character, hope, and brings conviction to improve oneself.
" We believe marketing materials that 'Inspire' represent what you are and aesthetics elevates the value of who you are.
"Most of all, we believe in you—as you are the greatest resource you will ever have and the greatest hope to 'Inspire' your community."
