Don’t Take That Tone With Me!

If the 3 rules in real estate are location, location, location then the 3 rules of marketing are audience, audience, audience. ProBlogger Kelly Diels recently posted “Do you hate your customer?” and examined what can happen when contempt replaces a deeper understanding of your audience. Kelly reminds us that no one does business with companies “that don’t even like them.” Take a look at your own blogs and marketing messages. Do they express a thinly veiled disdain for the values of your audience? If so, you may be ostracizing the very people you hope to attract.

Leadership Lessons from a Shirtless Dancing Guy: What Marketers Could Learn

1. Find a way for your brand to define its category, not just compete in an existing one.
2. The first to define a category risks ridicule.  Individuals will never use a computer.  Who would put wheels on a board and try to skate on it?
3. Be visible and remarkable; nobody cares if you’re simply different.
4. Seed the market; reward your first customers disproportionately.
5. Turn customers into evangelists for your brand.
6. Authenticity trumps creativity — every time (but it helps if it’s also creative!)

InVision Optical Selects Breeze Integrated Marketing

“Our selection process involved a number of strong agency contenders”, said InVision owner Andy Klein.  “We knew we needed a group with a diverse skill set, strong market knowledge and experience.  We found all three in Breeze.”

Read the complete press release here.

What’s driving you? What’s driving your customers?

Imagine telling your employees “You can work on anything you want, any way you want, with whomever you want.”

There’s an Australian software company called Atlassian that’s doing just that, once a quarter with their software engineers. They just have to show the results to the rest of the company at the end of 24 hours. That one day of intense autonomy has produced a whole array of software fixes, a whole array of ideas for new products and a whole array of upgrades for existing products.

According to author Daniel Pink, there is scientific evidence that demonstrates that humans have a natural desire to be autonomous — empowered, if you will — and that this is often a much stronger motivator than any external reward.  In a recent interview on NPR, Mr. Pink cited the case of a famous study involving a group of kids who liked to draw.  They were told that if they drew, they would receive a shiny certificate.  Two weeks after this reward system was introduced, they were no longer interested in drawing.

In his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the author posits that the intrinsic human motivation toward autonomy is both strong and at the same time very fragile.  And often external motivators — including money — can dampen it.

Another employer that understands this principle is Zappos.  Eschewing the regimented, mind-numbing protocol of the typical call center, where operators key in the complaint and read from a script, Zappos gives their call center operators a single directive: solve the customer’s problem any way you want. They don’t time the calls. They don’t monitor the calls. The representatives don’t have scripts. Insane?  You’d be forgiven for thinking so.  It turns out that Zappos is one of the country’s top rated customer service firms.

As marketers, we need look no further than the Internet to see the increasingly strong role that autonomy plays in consumer behavior.  Consumers now have the autonomy — and the tools that empower it — to select which messages they receive, which brands they relate with, even what information the consume — and when they choose to consume it.  Marketers can no longer rely on reaching prospective customers by interrupting their viewing, listening or reading.  Turns out they don’t much care for that interruption (surprise!), but up until recently there wasn’t a lot they could do about it.  That’s most certainly not the case now.

So how can we apply this knowledge as marketers?

For a start, let’s not presume that but for a carrot, human beings would just sit there inertly and not do anything.  And since we are apparently wired to be active and engaged, let’s also acknowledge that people’s attention will shortly no longer be available for sale or rent; brands will need to offer them compelling reasons to spend time with them.  That means meeting the consumer on their terms, offering them information and entertainment that is relevant to them, that they want to share with their friends, family and neighbors.  And when they are gracious enough to spend time with your message let’s understand how much they value authenticity and transparency.  It’s simple, but not necessarily easy: Be who you are.  And tell the truth.

Clarity, Transparency & Simplicity

I hate being deceived. I think we all do.  Yet, we tolerate intentionally deceptive, misleading, and inaccurate language in  documents ranging from legislation to loan agreements.  This is often also true of marketing communications and advertising, where cleverness substitutes for imparting useful information, and entertainment directs our attention away from troublesome shortcomings of the product or service.  That’s not to say that you can’t be clever and communicate real, differentiating value at the same time — just look at the oft-cited Mac vs. PC ads.  The growth of online social networks, and the enhanced power of consumer-to-consumer, one-to-many communication may yet lead us toward more responsible, clear, useful and simple advertising.  Those companies that realize this and respond first may have an advantage.

Thanks to Valeria Maltoni for bringing this item to my attention via her site, Conversation Agent.