Gentlemen Get your Nails Done

I was surprised to find this advertisement for manicures and pedicures in the men’s bathroom. I noticed it on the counter while washing my hands. Naturally, my first reaction was, “OMG, I must be in the wrong bathroom.” Two seconds later I realized that I had just used the urinal so this must be the men’s bathroom.

I finished washing my hands while examining the ad. Then I began to wonder, “Why is it here?” “Did someone place it in the wrong bathroom or is there some new trend happening?”

So let’s examine this advertisement.

I don’t know if $59 is a good price for a combination manicure and pedicure but it was the most prominent bit of information on this ad. Look at this ad and notice your eye movement. Most likely the image of the woman’s face in the top left catches your attention, then your eyes dart to the bottom right yellow seal with $59 in the centre.

What is that selling?

Who is this ad for?

Was it intended to attract men to get a manicure and pedicure? And if so, is it targeted at men who want this service or is it trying to convince men that they should check it out?

Or, was it intended to get men to tell their wife or girl friend about this service?

What was the key benefit offered here?

The photo of the young woman was attention grabbing – especially in a men’s bathroom. You can imagine what images of attractive women are usually used to sell in the men’s room.

The second attention-grabbing piece was the yellow seal surrounding the price of $59.

The third prominent bit on this ad was the word “Express”.

The fourth place that your eyes might jump to is the top right and the words “Black Friars”. And you still wouldn’t know what this ad is about. “Black Friars” sounds like the name of an English pub to me.

If you continued to read under Black Friars, you would discover a detailed address that indicated this service was available at this hotel. That seems a long way to say “Visit the nails spa right here.” My guess is that information was for people who were not in this hotel.

As a marketing specialist I was intrigued, unlike the usual suspects, so I eventually noticed the words about Manicure and Pedicure.

A few marketing lessons from this ad:

Who are you targeting? The men’s bathroom is a different audience than the women’s bathroom. And there is more than one target audience in the men’s bathroom.

Don’t create one ad and then publish it everywhere else. You see this often where the magazine ad gets duplicated on the billboard. It saves on design cost and wastes money on publishing.

Look at the ad and think about what might be going through the mind of the viewer.

By the way, if they wanted to get men to visit the nail spa they might have used the heading, “Gentlemen, Get Your Nails Done – and enjoy the extra attention from the ladies”

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter