2009 January | Wendistry

2009

… or, Wendi going off:

I just can’t stand it when everybody at the company gets involved in marketing strategy. When you have Joe from Sales pointing out things he’d like to change on the web site and the company owner really wants everything to stay the same, you’ve got an issue. On one occasion, in the middle of the development phase, I had the entire staff of a client company meet in a conference room and pull up all their favorite web sites. Good idea… BEFORE the technology team has already scoped out the project, submitted a Statement of Work, and received back a signed contract.

Please turn down the guy who wants you to do a logo, business plan, sales strategy, whatever for $500. This might be all the startup can afford, but I am committed to maintaining the professionalism and integrity of the strategy consulting field. Most of us already work for peanuts… especially when you think about the years of experience and smarts.

Words/Phrases I wish would go away: conference call; pre-conceptual meeting (translation: “we don’t know what the hell we’re doing, but we want your FREE input”); one more revision; waiting on some funding

Things I learned the hard way in business: Have a contract and 50% deposit in hand before starting any new projects with clients you haven’t worked with before. I’ve been burned in the past… had a business plan half-way written and the founders just disappeared. If you have a 50% deposit, at least you’re only out half the cash.

Best advice from my mentor: Hire enough help before you burn out… make sure you always have fun.

Customer’s Heads? Or Hearts??

2009

For quite some time I’ve been growing increasingly uncomfortable about a particular trend in marketing… the “science” of neuromarketing. Neuromarketing entails the use of a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine to scan a consumer’s brain, recording responses to certain stimuli. Based on the results, marketers then draw conclusions about how to sell to customers more effectively.

The recent book, Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom serves as a harsh reminder that this marketing trend is not only NOT fading, it’s accumulating momentum. But, what do these studies say about the way we relate to customers? When we reduce customers to nothing more than a series of stimuli and responses, what does it say about the nature of our relationships?

Doesn’t this approach basically treat the customer as an emotional ATM? As in, “If you want to influence a customer, you just need to know which button to push.” Show the customer a picture of a lush, green field and she will buy product X; expose her to images of nasty gang members and she will buy product Y out of fear. All we need to do is to decipher her emotional passcode and she’s all ours. Isn’t this disgraceful?

Instead of messing with the customer’s brain, focus on her heart: Develop an appealing and financially justifiable experience that she’s willing to stand in line for. Customers are smarter and more empowered than ever before. It’s time to stop insulting them. Treat them as honest partners in a reciprocal relationship. Treat them as individuals, not as machines, and appeal to their ability to make decisions. If you want them to make the right decisions, give them the right reasons.

Taken from “Neuromarketing Isn’t Marketing” in Customer Relationship Management Magazine, January 2009 issue

Advice for Business Owners

Customer’s Heads? Or Hearts??