AIDA
Interest is about specifications and arguments and D is also about that, but mostly
resistance.
Desire is making a person’s final resistance disappear
‘Interest’ must not be repeated in ‘Desire’
Be able to identify the right point of resistance and nullify it
Come across as sincere and trustworthy from the start so that you don’t become a point of
resistance
‘I’ should be longer than ‘D’ because you shouldn’t have to nullify so many resistances in the
first place
Personal opinion: Interest is about promoting your product and desire is about nullifying any
possible worries and concerns
Make informed guesses or assumptions about what a customer’s ‘desire’ is depending on
your target audience.
Selling product:
Function
Specs
Cost
Aesthetic
Attention paragraph should only be 2-4 lines long. Know whether you have a triumph card.
If you don’t, then attention is not so important. But always assume you don’t have a
triumph card
Give a vision/dream. In order to attain that vision, my company can do ….
Attention – Capture fascination. And you sustain attention in the ‘interest’ portion
An ‘attention grabber’ (eg introducing pass fail modules) shouldn’t tell you everything that
you need to know already. Carve out the niche area for yourself and don’t be too cliché and
make sure it’s not a reprimand
Ethos + Pathos – At the beginning. Don’t put the big stuff at the beginning so as not to
overwhelm
Justify your failure and give an improvement. Address the failure and state how you learnt
from it
Know what you can bring to the table and don’t be afraid to put it out there. Don’t outright
say you’re his equal but build it such that he can think that way
No incentive
Subject title:
Maybank as the agent of change
Do you want to be the next ___
Do you want to have (health problem)
You could be the next ___
Relate it to who youre writing to, make it interesting for them
Elevator Pitch
- Interesting facts, relatively unknown and link this to your elevator pitch
- Context, background, history – Is it relevant in an elevator pitch? Information giving
is usually more laborious, giving too much information and history will make you lose
steam, not exciting. Background tends to deaden that excitability
- One to two sentences of context is enough. Summarise the info, eliminating excess
words and elaboration. Go with short and sharp
- What’s the main essence of the problem
- Three arguments is good in an elevator pitch (good, better, best)
- Three solid ideas and ways to energise them
- Clean, sharp, people can’t accept lengthy sentences
- No media allowed for elevator pitch
- Volume, pitch, pacing
- AIDA can be used
- Don’t always go with the simple logical connection. Smth that is slightly off can be
interesting but must be able to connect
- Juxtaposition is useful
- Choose an example that people can relate to immediately
- Focus. Get rid of distraction. Clarity. The message is not controversial and ambiguous
- Difficult to undo damage. Don’t give smth that has too many interpretations. You will
lose control
- E.g. apple is here to help you
Remove emphasis on gifts
Come up with another point on celebrations (campaign idea)
Advertising campaign
SPECIAL OCCASIONS
Show gratitude to one another, NOT IN FORM OF GIFTS – Maybe in the form of cards,
COMMUNITY AND YOUTH – Make youths more focused on gratitude, not gifts. Community,
so we must teach our youth how to be more grateful to elders
Subject line: Re-inventing the mindset of our youths
Vision of Ministry of culture, link to how it is not focused on materialism
Interest: how small gifts of gratitude (cards, personlised msgs) can go a longer way than
simply buying a good, touches peoples hearts. Stress how we should not be worrying about
finances during special occasions, and we should teach our youths how to be more grateful.
HOLD PROGRAMMES like carnivals in community centres NEARING SPECIAL OCCASIONS
SUCH AS XMAS where people can simply come in to play games, enjoy time spent with each
other. At the end of the day, it is not about the gifts, it is about the company and loved ones
Desire: campaign may be expensive – the pros of the campaign outweigh the cons to build a
more sustainable generation with better thinking
SMU is also willing to help, we have art and culture CCAs
INTEGRATE SMU WITH COMMUNITY CENTRE
that can contribute and set up activities, opportunity for volunteerism, student helpers so
we don’t need to hire staff
Other point of resistance: interest of youths - maybe school platform?
Action: let’s meet to discuss carnivals
action

Gift giving – if you feel the need to buy more gifts than usual – perhaps to compensate for
celebrations being different this year – remember that this is a normal feeling, but not
something you need to do. We’re all in this together and you and your gifts are enough. You
don’t need to compensate for things beyond your control. If money is tight this year,
remember not to stretch beyond your means and consider doing something creative or
thoughtful rather than spending more money.
Media:
Journalists
Bloggers/Vloggers
Reporters
Journalists
Influencers
You can decide who they are (eg influencers but must give a specific name. or you can say
all of them are beauty influencers)
Before your pitch, tell them exactly who they are supposed to be
14 categories – divide it
Find similarities between categories, but find the difference between the groups also
DO NOT OVER PITCH AND OVER EXPLAIN
Civil society – eg groups that are interested in migrant workers, groups that are interested in
environment
Government agency – ministry of ___
(specific group) – but you may be able to decide how much detail you want to go into
Create your own Q&A if no one asks you qns. Facilitate your own discussion
Donut activity:
Be more innovative, create new ideas
Story to make mr donut more receptive to our idea (nearing bankruptcy)
Success story type – choose a number 1 type
Localising food
Niche idea – eg gluten free ice cream
Niche segmentation also works. Latest trends are not a story. But you need to know your
trends and ideas before giving your story
Strategy =/= story
Old chang kee example – diversification
Is this brand a brand that he knows?
Something that can resonate with him?
Building on the idea of trends eg lego
Content of your pitch: Business story, points of resistance, unique selling point (what are
you trying to persuade)
Target audience: modify your language, tailor your pitch to your audience. Address unique
points of resistance. What info would they want from you? How can you engage them
better? What’s the relevance of your product/service to you?
Delivery: Make the best out of the space you have (hand gestures pacing, pauses)
Bottom line: what do you want/need from your audience (must indicate it at the start)
P - point
R - reason
E - elaboration
P – back to your point
Think of all the questions that can be posed to you
Difficult news message
Buffers cannot be fluff and excessively lengthy. 3-5 sentences max.
TEST WILL BE ABOUT INDIRECT APPROACH
Not sugar coating but just taking your time to get to the bad news so that by the time the
bad news hits her, its not such a painful shock. The purpose is important. Cushion the blow
Don’t give so many options that it looks like a goodwill msg
You’re not looking after yourself if you give them something better than what they want. It
becomes good news
Alternatives should not be better than what the intended desire was
Humour is contextual. Doesn’t mean that in tough times you cannot laugh. Humour can be
used but it must be tasteful.
Both can be used sometimes but it’s a case of how we decide to do it. You must be in
control of the dynamic
Alternatives for death:
How they will help honour memory
Provide grief counsellor
Do not apologise for bad news (This is ok: I’m sorry for your loss/I’m sorry that you have to
face this situation)
Goodwill close: Please let me know what else we can help you with
Sometimes bad news needs persuasion during the reason portion. No fixed template but
just put the placements where you think they should go
Only use apology in buffer when it’s your fault. In this case you should probably use the
direct approach
DO NOT EMPHASISE BAD NEWS. Only mention it once. Do not trivialise bad news
Alternatives can just be a one-liner
There can be no alternative as well. Must see the situation eg we do not have a position at
this time round
‘best news’ buffer eg: you have made sri lankan tea famous. Looks like a compliment but its
more than a compliment. Reason: you have the quality, but it’s the back end that we are
upset about
Agree: we acknowledge that this partnership has been long standing and you have been
contributing to the indian community but then…
Thank him for his leadership and efforts, and all the company’s services. Thank you for all
the help and services that the company has provided all this time Transition: and these
services have always been crucial in helping us maintaining trust in our people
How do we create a buffer that is not a waste of time? Do it with a purposeful mind
Empathising: The idea of knowing youre not the culprit, youre not the best in this situation.
If you have to say your buffer then say ‘but’/’however’, then you probably know its not the
best way to write the buffer
An alternative doesn’t equal a solution, but something you can hold on to and after a while
have the strength to move on
・ (jjtan, 2020)
Bibliography
jjtan. (2020). ijij.