See What People Do, Not What They Say They Do

In doing audience analysis, it is important to study what target audiences do – not what they say they do. 

Now, how does one conduct behavioral research that is both cost-effective as well as time-effective (I mean, if you didn't rely on the dubious second-hand research freely available on the Internet)? 

Pursue Excellence

It was ingrained to me by my mom when I was growing up. And now, Seth Godin has an excellent post (as always) on it. So why is it so difficult for so many of us in the rat race to see it? 

Say no to being average.

This morning, Bradley was explaining to me that it couldn't work in his profession as a freelance writer. It seems that almost all the clients want average stuff. Which no surprise, since average is, by definition, the stuff most people want. I asked, "Are there any writers in your field who you hate because they get paid way too much compared to your perception of the effort they put in and the talent they have?"

"Sure," he said, feeling a little sheepish about being annoyed by their success.

"And how do they get those gigs?"

It's because they stand for something. Because they are at the edges. Because if an editor wants a 'Bob-Jones-type' article, she has to call Bob Jones for it… and pay Bob's fees. Bob would fail if he did average work for average editors just to make a living. But by turning down the average stuff and insisting on standing for something on the edge, he profits. By challenging his clients to run stuff that makes them nervous (and then having them discover that it's great), he profits.

This is scary. It's really scary to turn down most (the average) of what comes your way and hold out for the remarkable opportunities. Scary to quit your job at an average company doing average work just because you know that if you stay, you'll end up just like them. Scary to go way out on an edge and intentionally make what you do unattractive to some.

Which is why it's such a great opportunity.

The Landing Page

Seth Godin has some really good, common sense (yet not so common!) thoughts on website landing pages: 

Landing pages are even more important today because they are the page that someone clicking on a Google Adwords ad sees.

A landing page (in fact, every page) can only cause one of five actions:

• Get a visitor to click (to go to another page, on your site or someone else's)
• Get a visitor to buy
• Get a visitor to give permission for you to follow up (by email, phone, etc.). This includes registration of course.
• Get a visitor to tell a friend
• (and the more subtle) Get a visitor to learn something, which could even include posting a comment or giving you some sort of feedback

So, if you build a landing age, and you're going to invest time and money to get people to visit it, it makes sense to optimize that page to accomplish just one of the things above. Perhaps two, but no more.

Landing pages are not wandering generalities. They are specific, measurable offers. You can tell if they're working or not. You can improve the metrics and make them work better. Landing pages are the new direct marketing, and everyone with a website is a direct marketer.

How Can PR Capitalize On New Technology?

Very interesting questions on how PR can fully capitalize on new technology (in the very market-disruptive ways advertising has done) in this blog post: PR should take a leaf out of the advertising book at Technology PR. A few choice quotes:

What struck me… was that I don't hear much about how people are embracing technology to the same degree [as advertising] in the PR world.

["New" PR technologies] don't enable you to do something you couldn't have done before.

What if we took a leaf out of the advertising world's book and used the very same technology they are thinking about to get PR generated content into the hands of customers instead of advertisers?

So instead of a billboard sending a car a coupon, how about as you arrive at Best Buy you get sent (to either your phone or blackberry) an abstract or a podcast of a product review comparing your client's products with that of its competitors?

How about when you register your new product instead of receiving annoying offers online, you get news or feature articles relating to the product you bought? [Me: I really, really like this idea!]

How To Wow ‘Em Like Steve Jobs

Quick pointers on how to wow audiences during presentations… just like Steve Jobs! 

How To Wow 'Em Like Steve Jobs from BusinessWeek Online 

1. Sell the Benefit – it's about being relevant: Not the technology, but what it can do for you!
2. Practice, Practice and Practice Some More – Not unusual for Jobs to prepare for four hours. How about you?
3. Keep It Visual – Simple and visual… "visualize" the message
4. Exude Passion, Energy and Enthusiasm – it's infectious!
5. "And One more Thing" – "Whole package" event

Minds Have Filters

I've been recently having a few conversations on advertising messages and strategy – those that get through and those that don't – regarding a potential client. That has lead me to think about the following (Not rocket science, really – but why is it so hard to get this to work when you're IN the industry?):

MINDS HAVE FILTERS

Every sales and marketing messages that come screaming at consumers in the course of their day is filtered. Some messages don't even get through (they are ignored completely). For those that do, many do not stay in the mind of the consumer (there is no recall).

So what kinds of messages get through the filters to stay in the mind of consumers? I can think of three:

• Relevant - Is your message timely or responds to your audience's needs? (I'm thinking: "Markets are conversations" – Cluetrain)
• Remarkable - Does your message "wow" your audience – whether as a Big Idea/Story/Narrative or in its execution? (I'm thinking Seth Godin's "Purple Cow")
• Relational - Does your message induce, entice or elicit a response from your audience?

Bring her out and let her holler!

This reminds me of a Mark Twain quote my Writing professor shared in class one day: "Don't say, 'The old lady yelled.' Bring her out and let her holler!"

From Kim Klaver Blogs: A Blind Man's New Words Gets New Results

One day, there was a blind man sitting on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet and a sign that read:

"I am blind, please help."

A creative publicist was walking by and stopped to observe. He saw that the blind man had only a few coins in his hat. He dropped in more coins and, without asking for permission, took the sign and rewrote it. He returned the sign to the blind man and left.

That afternoon the publicist returned to the blind man and noticed that his hat was full of bills and coins. The blind man recognized his footsteps and asked if it was he who had rewritten his sign and wanted to know what he had written on it.

The publicist responded: "Nothing that was not true. I just wrote the message a little differently." He smiled and went on his way.

The new sign read: "Today is Spring and I cannot see it."

Learning what to say changes everything.

Two Things Marketers Do

By Seth Godin – so trite yet so deep: 

Two things marketers do:
1. Do the work necessary to be sure that your perception of the world is similar to the world as it is.
2. Create the stories (and the experiences to back them up) that change the world as it is.

Most marketers fail at #1. By focusing on what they want, or by having a selfish view of things, they miss the reality of what the world believes.

And that can cause us to miss #2. Your story has to be grounded in the worldview of your intended audience.

The Long Tail Is Chunky

Very insightful look into The Long Tail (Wiki here).

The Long Tail Is Chunky – by HorsePigCow.com

GenerAsian Next

Another article I had clipped and tucked into my file somewhere: A Sneakpeek at Asians Tomorrow – by the DDB Signbank project. It was a "sociological projection of Asia Tomorrow. By focusing on thousands of tiny behavioural signs (what people do instead of what they say they do), a picture begins to form of where Asian society is headed" – what they call, GenerAsian Next (Read more about DDB's Signbank Project as a sociological approach to audience research here).

In this clipping, specifically, they identified 10 emerging trends for Asia Tomorrow that brands need to be mindful of:

1. Asia Slowing
   Asia's constant need for speed will end. We will soon enter an age of gardening, DIY and even career down-trading. We will revive rituals for slowing down – tea over coffee, manual devices over automatic ones, "slow food" over convenience.
2. Asia Simplifying
   All over Asia, no-frills services and products that perform one or two functions exceptionally well will overtake heavy-on-features and heavy-on-choice incumbents. It is already happening in handhelds with some brands thinking up ways to add value by what they take away instead of what they put in.
3. Asia Unplugging
   High tech will become passé (you read it here first. In Asia's most teched-up cities, people will hunger for all taht is raw, natural and unplugged – from office cubicle aquariums to wet markets, to folk music lessons. And yes, lives offline.
4. Asia Nesting
   More working adults – women in particular – will choose family over career. The trend of marrying later is now starting to reverse, with the new generation looking at those who decided to put off marriage and children with an air of curiosity. This will fuel demand for more home décor, communal-serving food and even family-friendly karaokes like Indonesia's Happy Puppy chain.
5. Asia Clanning
   While today we pursue Western-style individualism, GenerAsian Next will increasingly yearn for the stability and clarity of belonging to a group. They will find new wasy to "clan" – acquiring self-fashioned families through work, hobbies, sporting affiliations and charities, even preferring the reductionism of adopting "labels" to the ambiguity of perpetual displacement.
6. Emotionalising
   Technology has helped Asia communicate instantly but not really connect emotionally. Asians will increasingly seek the earthly warmth of human touch – or failing which, even simulating it (tip: Try googling "lap pillows")!
7. Truth and Authenticity
   Unlike their predecessors, GenerAsian Next will start to shun modern designer artifice for genuine craftsmanship, realism and truth. They will collect old furniture, computer-free graphic design and lo-fi music – and learn to celebrate wabi-sabi or "beauty in imperfection."
8. Opening Up
   GenerAsian Next will shed their self-imposed cocoons of privacy by embracing blogging, on-air confessions and new forms of relationships wiht names like "MU" (short for mutual understanding) that favour emotional honesty, even if at the expense of physical fidelity.
9. Asia Rising
   As globalization imports more violence, killer viruses and petrol-inflation to Asia, we see GenerAsian Next seeking comfort in hyper-localness. They will increasingly be more cynical of the slickness of Western imports and turn increasingly to homespun furnishings, ancient medicines and other havens of tradition like Thailand's patriotic coffee chain Banrie.
10. Asia Flattening
    Finally, we see the emergence of a freer, fairer and flatter Asia. One where ordinary citizens demand influence over the goods they consume as well as society-at-large – albeit in typically structured Asian fashion. This has implications in how brands develop new products and services, opening up possibilites of more "prototyping" research that involves customers in the building, testing or voting for their desired products and services.

"In short, we see a new kind of Asian Dream. One where Asians no longer aspire to have it all or try it all or seek the world's approval. What truly characterises this new emerging Asia is their (our) quest to establish a personal center of gravity; and most of all, to belong – in someplace, to something, for someone."