It’s more than just a few silly pictures. It’s a big insight that helps you understand why people (and businesses) buy what they buy.
They do it because it validates them.
Corporations prefer to buy from other organizations that make them feel safe and secure and important. That means a big bank has an advantage writing a loan to a company that thinks of itself as big. It means that a fashionable laptop is easier to sell to someone who sees herself as fashionable.
"Duh," you say.
Sure, it’s obvious, but it’s not easy. It’s not easy because more often than not, marketers are busy marketing things that they would want to buy, not that their customers would prefer. Simple dog example: animal shelters are run by volunteers who hate the idea of dog shelters and having to kill strays. So that’s the way they market. "Adopt this dog or it might get killed! It might happen Monday! Hurry!"
But dog buyers aren’t always motivated that way. They like the idea of cute puppies and warm, comforting, fashionable environments. When the North Shore Animal League tells someone that this pupply is a "golden retreiver mix", they are breaking the typical shelter marketing mantra and instead telling that dog buyer exactly what they want to hear. And if it’s true, it works.
October 14, 2006
If I had to pick one piece of marketing advice to give you, that would be it.
Now.
Make something happen today, before you go home, before the end of the week. Launch that idea, post that post, run that ad, call that customer. Go the edge, that edge you’ve been holding back from… and do it today. Without waiting for the committee or your boss or the market. Just go.
October 13, 2006
Nelson Hoyt reports:
16,000 fans attempting to coax Eric Clapton & Band back for an encore. In a darkened arena, perhaps 100 people holding lit cigarette lighters aloft. Several thousand holding backlit cell phones aloft!
"why do they call it dialing a phone, dad?"
I’ll be doing one of my rare all-day seminars in New York City on December 12. Here are the details:
1. You can find the complete write up, directions, fee information and more right here.
2. You can skip that and go straight to registration here.
3. Or you can read this quick summary first:
Two or three times a year, I run a seminar in New York. They always sell out, they’re always filled with amazing people (that would be you) and they create a huge wave of energy for everyone who attends. People have come from as far away as South Africa and Korea, and a few folks have even come twice.
Since I don’t do any consulting, it’s your chance to get some insight on your particular issues. Even better, though, is the insight you get from seeing your peers working their way through their issues. Which is why I’m pretty picky about who comes and why all registrations are subject to approval.
If you can’t come, I hope you’ll forward the link to some people you think might enjoy it.
NB there are a handful or two of free seats for worthy non-profits (see the lens for details) and just one or two cheap seats for nascent entrepreneurs for who can’t scrape up the full fee. I don’t confirm these to the last minute, so please don’t count on one.
I don’t do this often, and I won’t promise miracles, but so far it’s been pretty fun. I hope you can come.
October 12, 2006
Here at the White Plains airport, I’m noticing all these people doing things to me. Enforcing irrational rules. Intentionally putting the seats far from the electrical outlets so people like me won’t steal electricity. Yelling over the PA system. Scolding people for not standing in the right place.
The key difference between marketing for growth and acting like a monopolistic utility is one of posture. Do you spend time doing things to your customers or for your customers? When someone calls tech support, are you viewing it as a chance to do something for them, or to get rid of them to cut costs?
One of the reasons small is so much more important than big is that people who think small have the power and flexibility to do things for their customers.
October 11, 2006
Very. Brian Wansink, a professor at Cornell, has discovered that changing the size of a serving container for food increases consumption as much as 74 percent. A bigger bowl of stale popcorn: 53%. Want to double the number of potato chips someone eats? Make it hard for them to count how many they’ve had.
We still misunderestimate how irrational people are. Even students who had just been taught the facts in the paragraph above ate more than 50% more Chex mix when it was served from a bigger bowl.
I almost always want to link to Scott, but I resist, figuring you must have already read what he’s written. This time, I can’t resist. He fails 9 times out of 10, he says. That’s a great average if your goals are high! The Dilbert Blog: In Over My Head.
October 10, 2006
I wonder whether people realize that they are crossing the line.
I mean, when I’m driving at 72 miles an hour, I don’t feel like a criminal. But what do the spammers feel? When they hit a button and send out 6,000,000 emails to sell a drug that doesn’t work to people who didn’t ask for it… and they’re violating a host of laws. Do they think of themselves as criminals?
What about the accountants at Worldcom or Enron who were ‘just doing their job’ at the same time they knew they were defrauding thousands of investors?
I just got this phishing note from a con artist. It’s a new tactic, a little more sophisticated. Is the person doing this any different from someone robbing a bank? Just wondering.
I just got an angry note from Anna in the Midwest. She read one of my books, got the coupon for unlimited free consulting by email and decided to cash it in. She sent me a note asking me to persuade her bosses that the best way to grow their resort was to lower prices.
When I responded that perhaps she ought to consider raising prices and using the extra money to create a remarkable experience, she got really angry with me. Of course, I refunded her consulting fee. Actually gave her three times back what she paid…
Here’s what I think: Cheaper is the last refuge of the person who’s not a very good marketer. Cheaper is easy and cheaper is fast and cheaper is linear and cheaper is easy to do properly, at least at first. But cheaper doesn’t spread the word (unless you are much cheaper, but to be much cheaper, you need to be organized from the ground up, like Walmart or JetBlue, to be cheaper). They are, you’re not.
Cheaper is a short term hit, not a long term advantage. Cheaper doesn’t create loyalty, because the other guy can always figure out how to be cheaper still, at least in the short run.
Even free isn’t cheap enough to win in the long run. Not if other people can figure out how to match what you’ve got.
So, if you can’t be cheaper, be better.
October 9, 2006
