During my freshman year in college, one of my friends wrote a letter home to his parents and addressed it to “Occupants.” In my immature 18-year old brain, I thought that was a cool idea, so I addressed my next letter to my family to “Occupants.”

Bad idea.

My parents didn’t get mad, they just told me it wasn’t a smart thing to do. As a result, that was the first and only time I sent snail mail to an unnamed recipient. Later on, in one of my advertising courses, I learned about direct mail, as well as the other forms of advertising. Of course, we all know the importance of making advertising messages as personal as possible. In direct mail, a name in the address and even in the copy can make a difference. A person’s name is considered the most personal identifier of all.

Dale Carnegie, in his iconic book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” wrote, “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

Our names are near and dear to us. We don’t like it when someone calls us by the wrong name, shortens our name or gives us a nickname without our consent. I used to know someone who called everybody “Bud.” Maybe he felt like it relieved the pressure of remembering names. But in reality, it was lazy and disrespectful.

Although advertisers can’t know the names of everyone in their target audiences, they can know the next best thing: their common values.

I remember a TV commercial from 2012 that featured a young kid looking at a bicycle in a showroom. “Is it fast” he asks. In the next scene, a teenage version of the same kid is looking at a sleek used bike. Again he asks, “Is it fast?” In the third scene, the kid is now a young adult looking at a sporty car on a used car lot. “Is it fast?” he asks. In the  final scene, the same guy, now grown up, is looking through the window of a Volkswagen Jetta. He asks, “Is it safe?” as he stands up to reveal a baby in a carrier on his chest. The salesperson smiles and says, “Oh yeah, it’s a Volkswagen.”

This commercial is personal. Volkswagen had studied the characteristics of its target audience and said, “We don’t know your name, but we know what’s important to you. We know what you value.”

Personal values go beyond benefits. “Saves time” is a benefit. It’s relatively easy to look at a list of product features and come up with “saves time.” What you do with that time suggests a value, something more meaningful – for example, “Spend more time with your family.” See the difference? Values have depth. Values can relate to health, fitness, security, education, family, spiritual growth, professional growth and service to others.

The point is simple: Look beyond benefits to put your ad messages on a fast track.

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(c) Copyright 2025 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

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John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training DVDs to save time and get quick results from in-house training. Email for information: john@johnfoust.com