MOTIVATIONAL MARKETING SPEAKS OF TRUTHS
YOUR PROSPECTS ALREADY PERCEIVE AS TRUTH
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of marketing your company is the determination of what notions are substantive and motivational among your constituents. Without a doubt, it is difficult to close the sale if you cannot convince your prospect of the uniquely meritorious nature of your offering.
Perhaps like other companies in your industry, you may have implemented your present course of marketing activities with some form of demographics analysis. That analysis might have been quite formal, involving a research firm and focus groups, or for smaller companies, the effort could have been as informal as extrapolating inferences from past successes among your present customers. In either case, from a gathering of metrics – age, gender, education, interests, household income, lifestyle, occupation and the like – a profile, ostensibly representing your target audience, resulted.
Armed with this description, one could conclude that the only other ingredient needed for success in the marketplace is the knowledge of where your profiled target congregates, figuratively and otherwise. According to this formula, one needs only to show up among these constituents – goods and services in-hand – and ba-da-bing ba-da-boom, sales are made.
Obviously, this oversimplification leaves a lot to be desired, but its mention does serve a purpose: A metrics-based approach to marketing strategy ignores often subtle behavioral influences, substituting instead the concept that purchasing decisions can be defined neatly and statistically.
Beliefs Equal Behavior
Okay, in some instances the Buy Decision can be inferred given the knowledge of pertinent audience demographics. But among today’s ever more savvy marketers – whether B-to-B or B-to-C – you can be sure that your competitors have also gathered the equivalent intelligence and have likewise positioned themselves among your prospects similarly armed. Now what do you do?
A much more difficult quality to quantify is beliefs. We all have them, and where behavior is concerned, beliefs can be quite predictive as part of a well developed marketing strategy.
Unlike basic demographics that are more easily subject to numeric distillation, however, your audience’s opinions, convictions, confidence and faith are significantly more challenging to statistically ascertain. Nevertheless, the most successful marketers do it everyday. The good news is, you can too.
There’s an old adage that says, you are what you eat. Perhaps our purchasing decisions can be summed up similarly: You buy what you believe.
Let me explain.
Purchasing just about anything is – at its core – a process of elimination. The Buy Decision derives from the singling out of the most appropriate basket of perceived benefits from a larger field of possible purchase choices. This applies as much to a home purchase as it applies to your selection of toothpaste. The operative action-word here is perceived.
Successfully marketing your products and services, therefore, demands the inclusion of significant perceptions about whatever you bring to market. Folding these perceptions into your deliverable does not happen by accident.
For example, consider the following Old Spice spot:
Notice the monologue. Early in the script, a pivotal question is asked: Should your man smell like an Old Spice man? The answer is inconclusive: I don’t know.
Then, the following significant associations are made with the Old Spice smell: Do you like the smell of adventure? Do you want a man that smells like he can bake you a gourmet cake in the dream kitchen he built you with his own hands? Of course, our suave, dark-and-handsome is not done quite yet. If the preceding presumably desirable associations are not enough, ladies, Old Spice also promises a swan dive into the best night of your life. Okay ladies, if your man smelled as good as the Old Spice Man looks, could it get any better?
Tongue-in-cheek or not, the idea that all of these fabulously sought after attributes can be bundled into the Old Spice smell is influential, if not memorable and motivational.
Then, the question is encored: So ladies, should your man smell like an Old Spice man? Again he answers with ostensible indecision, You tell me.
Despite the overt absence of an answer, there is nothing indecisive about the spot’s clever use of exaggeration to build larger-than-life perceptions. The sense of smell in general and the Old Spice smell specifically, opens of a world of new romantic possibilities: Possibilities that extend far beyond the content found inside the Old Spice bottle. Don’t you believe that a man that smells like Old Spice, and of course, looks like the Old Spice Man, might well deliver adventure?
Serendipity played no role in the creation of this Old Spice spot. The newly packaged Old Spice perceptions wrapped around this 30-second vignette are thoughtfully calculated and masterfully represented. Indeed, a dozen or more variations of this spot can be found all over YouTube and have received millions of impressions. Oh, what our beliefs will deliver! Not bad for a 71-year old brand that smells just like, well... the Old Spice.
PC or MAC?
The battle rages: Windows® users discount the Mac. Mac users take it in stride with a roll of their eyes and a certain, cult-like sense of awareness that suggests they know better.
Whether the Mac is a better computer than a PC has always been a matter of debate among zealots. But Apple® certainly has exploited the comparison to its advantage.
From 2006 to 2009, 66 commercial spots were produced featuring two guys, politely facing off, extolling the benefits of their competitive computer platforms.
What could warrant such an extended run of apparently similar video vignettes? Success for one thing. In 2010, Adweek described the Get a Mac ad campaign as the very best advertising to date of the 21st Century.
Why? Consumer beliefs!
Ponder the following:
Now, if you are a PC user, you may on occasion experience a system freeze. Well...reboot! That’s what you and I, and everyone like us does. Does Apple® speak to beliefs in this spot? As a PC user, and to quote the Old Spice Man, you tell me.
Do Macs crash? Sometimes, but not so much.
As a user of both platforms, my personal experience easily identifies with the thrust of Apple’s campaign. With a 6-to-1 ratio of Macs to PCs in our offices, we still experience far more PC crashes than Mac Bombs. In fact, all of our Macs combined crash less frequently than just a single PC. I know... not scientific. However, ask other PC-turned-Mac users about their experience. With little dissent, they too will tell you that they believe Macs are more stable than PCs. This belief, may in part, explain Apple’s ever increasing share of the PC market, despite Apple’s transformation into a consumer products company. Yes, I know its share remains small by comparison – Windows® is still King of the Desktop. Nevertheless, Apple’s 2011 total US Market Share was 6.46%, nearly double its 2006 share.
PC defections? Probably so. And as marketers seeking to similarly motivate our audiences, we can learn a lot from Apple®.
Do you buy what you believe? Your customers do. Doesn’t it make sense to thoughtfully bundle beliefs around and inside your every deliverable? No rhetorical answer here... yes it does.
