Well, we don’t really know if Mr. Rogers ever spent time in the hood with Zig Ziglar or Tom Hopkins back in the day but the man could close. Now some folks might take exception to any connotation that Mr. Rogers was some kinda snake-oil salesman.

That’s not what we said – pay attention! This has more to do with the copy writing principle expressed in our last two Copy That posts. Hope you haven’t forgotten the foundation to a great marketing message already – but just in case, here it is again:

“A great offer with poor copy will always perform better than a poor offer with great copy.”

The following video clip is an excellent demonstration of the Reverend Fred Rogers delivering an irresistible offer with sublime eloquence and intelligence. We’re pretty certain that his address was not a methodical, structured sales presentation designed to lead his prospect to an automatic close but nonetheless, his presentation was persuasive and successful.

We think that Mr. Rogers was just keeping it real - delivering a sincere, principle centered message without any tactics or strategy in mind at all. He is effective because his value proposition is in essence, a great offer - “a neighbourhood expression of care everyday to each child”.

To quote Zig Ziglar from his Secrets of Closing the Sale: “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

Frederick McFeely Rogers was the host of Mister Rogers’ Neighbourhood which was in production for roughly 33 years. He was an iconic presence to millions of television viewers and was known as a tireless advocate for the education and welfare of children.

This is worth watching – even has a Hollywood ending!

See - if you viewed the Mr. Rogers parity video in our Who’s Calling post, we promised that we would be bringing you some excellent Mr. Rogers footage.

One can only imagine what Mr. Rogers could have done if he had known about Real Marketing Muscle! Stay tuned – Caffeine Marketing wants to help you get buff!