Friday Freakin' -- 12-Bar Edition

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Deep Thought*

If you have young children in your house, your business is in the street.

If you [have] employees in your company, your business is in the street.

Discuss.




*[edited to add that pesky verb]

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Soliciting Commitment - epilogue

It’s one of the reasons if I call you in the middle of the day I’m likely to ask, “Is this a good time?”

Asking, “Is this a bad time?” invites you to object.

YMMV






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And Furthermore, or ...

... Commitment the Third


Lee Iacocca is known today as the chairman who engineered the rescue of Chrysler. Before that he was the number-two man at Ford who championed the game-changing Ford Mustang. But he got into that position as head of sales at Ford in the early sixties.

One of his innovations was the follow-up call. He didn’t invent the follow-up call, of course, just the strategy.

It was – and still is – traditional for a car salesman [yes, in those days a man] to call a buyer at home and ask what they thought about the car. Iacocca’s great innovation was this: He instructed salesmen to ask, “What do your friends think of the new car?”

The beauty of that question is that you’re not asking for complaints. You’re asking for compliments.

You’re asking for commitment.




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Commitment 2

Adding to below:

Human beings are funny creatures. We tend toward consistency. Unless suffering from some sort of sociopathic disorder, once we make a promise it takes a strong reason to change our minds. I learned this early.

One of my first jobs – still in college – was working in electoral politics. The official I worked for told me that the key was to ask: Can we have your vote?

It’s human nature to justify a commitment, which makes it that much harder for competing messages to change your mind.

The Obama campaign goes beyond commitment all the way to involvement.

This is the future, no matter what your politics.







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Deep Thought

All debates concerning the price of petroleum on talk radio ultimately dissolve into a shouting contest between those who do not understand the economic theory of supply and demand and those who don't understand anything else.



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Soliciting Commitment

[The Caller ID said Dayton, Oh]

“This is Kevin,” said the youthful voice on the phone. It was about 7:30. The perfect time for an unsolicited call: not smack in the middle of supper and not in the middle of most people’s favorite shows.

“I’m calling from Barack Obama’s headquarters in Dayton.” [geography
lesson: about 50 miles north of where I work Cincinnati and 25 miles north of
where I live] “On behalf of the campaign, I want to thank you for your help in
March.”

It should be noted that my help in March consisted of voting in the Ohio primary. Although my precinct uses Diebold machines, I’m pretty confident the campaign is not privy to my actual ballot. I try to be conscious of other people’s time and job requirements so, figuring he had dozens of calls to make before the end of his shift, I tried to cut him off.

“Thanks for the call, Kevin,” I said. “I can save you some time. I don’t donate
money over the phone, but if you want to send me something in the mail
…”

“No,” he retook control of the conversation sounding genuinely
embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I should have been more clear. We’re not raising money,
just looking for advice from some of our friends in the community.”

This is key: He didn’t insult me by calling me Senator Obama’s friend. Earlier he thanked me on behalf of the campaign, not the senator. What rational person would believe that in the middle of a presidential campaign, the presumptive nominee had singled me out for special recognition?

Back to the play-by-play:

“… We’re not raising money, just looking for advice from some of our friends in
the community.”

Advice? The Obama campaign wants MY advice? Okay, I’ll listen.

“We’re opening a new office in Butler County [where I live] and were wondering
where you thought we should open first. We were thinking about Hamilton,
Middletown, or West Chester. Not all of use are familiar with the area so we
thought we’d ask some of our friends what they would recommend.”

They actually want my advice! Still, this is where I became a difficult caller.

“Kevin,” I interrupted again [I do that], “I work in the agency business
…”

“Oh, cool,” he responds. [I think he would have said that if I
had told him I bite the heads of live bats for a living. This kid was THAT good.
Still, this is where I became a difficult caller.]

“I have to tell you, this is the best patter I’ve heard in a long time. Is this a script you’ve been using all spring?”

“I actually just got here after finals. They told me to call some of our friends
in your area and ask for their advice since none of us on the staff right now
are very familiar with your neighborhood. Some canvassers gave us your
name.”

This was not a script. This was genuine outreach. And what did it get them for the cost of the call and pittance they must be paying this motivated college student? Well, for starters it got them the next 45 minutes of my time. We talked about retail locations, major employers, cultural issues …

I don’t talk to my only sister for 45 minutes.

What they got was commitment. What are the odds any [even less analytical] voter would change his/her mind after being so flattered?

It’s nice to be asked.

Did they take my advice? Not a clue. But just by asking for that advice they did something more important: they solicited commitment. When I see them taking my advice – whether they heard the same thing from a dozen or a hundred or thousand others – I get credit. I get to TAKE credit.

Kewel.

The Obama campaign excels at soliciting commitment.

So, what are you doing to solicit commitment from your customers/audiences/whatever?

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Defending Your Budget or …

… Marketing in a Depression Recession

I don’t seem to touch on straight marketing much in this space for a few reasons. First, there are several sites in that column to the right of your screen that already do that and, well, they got here first.

Second, the Dominant Narrative Theory is about a broader zeitgeist than just the marketing territory, although that’s probably the most common application.

Finally, marketing is a big part of what most of us do everyday – including me – and it’s hard to talk about specifics without crossing that imaginary line between principles and principal. The more responsibility one has and the larger the organization, the greater the likelihood of client conflicts.

Marketing depends on the dominant narrative. Without some understanding of the audience’s current perception, we’re just rattling the proverbial slop bucket. Which in itself …

The current economic situation is more than a media cliché or neurosis. It’s the environment we work in. This environment doesn’t have time for survival of the fittest; it’s survival of the best, or quickest, adapter.

There is no perfect historical example for any challenge. We look to history not so much for models as for lessons. But we live in a time when a great many marketers, CFOs, CEOs, boards of directors and investors have never seen economic stagnation, let alone contraction. They may not know those lessons.

When demand slows, their dashboard shows a limited number of levers:

• cut (everything)
• change (strategies &c., agencies, marketing personnel)
• redeploy (shift focus to what’s working this quarter whether it’s a category or a segment)

None of these options does much for all that long-term branding and goodwill you talked about in the interview.

What’s a marketer to do?

Make your narrative part of – or aligned with – the Dominant Narrative.

We’re seeing this already. What 18 months ago was a “green” energy-saving product is now an economic imperative. What was a “convenience” extravagance (like meal replacement in supermarkets) now is thrifty family entertainment.

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Issue Management: Timing is Everything

So across the nation now cities and states are wrestling with that most insidious of dominant narratives: DANGER!




Every July 5th the makers of what is a – mostly – legal product are forced to defend their businesses and their livelihoods against more than just safety shrills. They have to take on the Danger Narrative itself.

It begins each June when the duly appointed watchdogs of the public safety release their new video. Seriously, how many brainstorming sessions do they go through to generate just the right horror scenario each spring? Would anybody really notice if they used, say, the video from 2003?

There’s generally the requisite fire or Darwin Award nominee who blows up the neighborhood while trying to combine fireworks charges with a heat gun.

I am not making that up.

The American Pyrotechnics Association does its best to get out in front of the story. Not only do they promote safe-use messaging, they have the numbers to back up the relative safety of consumer fireworks. Alas it’s more than a nasty danger narrative they’re up against.

It’s timing.

The mid-summer news hole not only leaves plenty of room for the danger squad to pour on the scary anecdotes, it’s a time when festivals, parades chili cook-offs and the like put elected officials into close proximity to their only know natural predator: the hacked-off constituent.

So ask yourself: If you pick a person at random on the average suburban sidewalk, is more likely that they shot off some bottle rockets for the kids just after dark on the Fourth? Or is more likely they were irritated this week by the flotsam of a neighbor’s private fireworks display while cutting the grass?

Just sayin' ...



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Friday Freakin' Old School Edition

Hoggify, my brother.






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