People are People
We make rational decisions, we make emotional ones – probably mostly emotional and then we post-rationalise. We even make no decisions and dither hoping that the problem will go away. Sometimes we make wrong decisions, sometimes the right ones. We use lots of short cuts to get through the day and generally want an easy life.
But whatever we do we remain people.
However, in our embracing of the latest flashy internet app, trigger based dynamic CRM or real-time voice recognition call handling telephone solution, we as marketers often forget the simple fact that people are people. It is as if when we are at work drowning in corporate jargon we cease to think like real people and often forget to remember that we should treat people as we ourselves would like to be treated.
And I know you may find this hard to believe but people don’t really care about your carefully prepared integrated media laydown, strategic audience analysis, proposition development or brand identity guidelines. They care about what you, your product or service can do for them now (or possibly in the future). And, they mostly don’t care if they saw or heard your offer in a piece of direct mail, some PR generated editorial or on TV. If it was timely relevant and motivating then they’ll be interested and may buy. If it isn’t they won’t no matter how great the creative is and how much segmentation you carried out.
Perhaps part of the problem is in the somewhat military language we employ. We call people target audiences – I would love to ban that phrase – dividing them into territories, where we employ strategies in our campaigns. It is as if people were the foe to be battled, subdued and vanquished rather than, as one concise definition of marketing would have it ‘meeting their needs profitably’. By speaking like we’re at war, we are in effect de-personalising the people we need to talk to, in order to make a living.
I was once told by a representative of an organisation who will remain unnamed that their communication messages just weren’t getting through. But there was nothing they could do about the ‘systems generated notifications’.
Do you mean ‘letters’? I asked politely. You can change what they say, you know. The system didn’t create them, a person did. Though given how everyone referred to them perhaps he had forgotten he was actually writing to people? And they were truly awful – robotic and officious.
Good marketing is applied psychology. Psychology understands what makes people tick. So if you feel that this basic idea is being lost when you’re reading through the incomprehensible press release, insert copy, customer journey mapping or website FAQs, you can change that for the better. Just take a breath and remember that people are people and read it again but this time as a human being would.
Marc Michaels has been in the Direct industry for 25 years and is writing in a personal capacity. He is currently Director of Direct and Relationship Marketing and Evaluation at Central Office of Information (COI).
Comments
carol alexander
June 28, 2011 @ 11:22 am
Marc, what a breath of fresh air, I agree, and throughout my career have tried hard not to use jargon and to deliver communication plans and briefs to clients and media owners that reflect this style. Having completed my coaching qualification and understand more about physcology and what motivates change in people . Coaching people in varied professions the breakthrough comes when the coaching conversation is void of ‘professional language’ and people understand themselves first (emotional intelligence) without that they can never understand how others tick. I look forward to reading more from you.
Carol
Marc Michaels
September 13, 2011 @ 11:32 am
Carol, thanks for your kind words. Marketing is indeed applied psychology and it is all about understanding what makes people tick and the insight that can then convince and persuade or perhaps merely inform and present choices (another article I’m working on). Congratulations on your coaching qualification and I hope all goes well for you.
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