A Day in the Life of a Persuasion Architect

The Cat Whisperers

You've seen Cesar Millan, the infamous 'dog psychology' dude.  Cesar works miracles with unruly canines in 24 short minutes on the National Geographic Channel show "The Dog Whisperer". 

Now meet Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg, the Cat Whisperers.

The authors of "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing" have set forth an intriguing set of principles which they call Persuasion Architecture. The formula is not for the faint-hearted -- it involves hard work to navigate a complicated matrix of psychological, technical and demographic approaches in order to develop a customer-centric marketing focus. In the process, it requires a business to be willing to relinquish control of information about its product or service; indeed, transparency is key to the entire process. But the authors guarantee results, whether your target clients are individuals or other businesses. Read the entire review over at Wharton School Knowledge @ W.P. Carey.

Have an unruly marketing situation? Will travel.

Utterings of the Truly Desperate

From USA Today "Product Placement - You Can't Escape It"....

"Marketers are saying, 'We must be more innovative — to zig when others zag,' " says Richard Notarianni, executive creative director of media at ad firm Euro RSCG.

"The industry is desperate to find clever ways to reach people, whether or not it has any legitimate value. ... When someone says, 'Let's put advertising in bathroom stalls,' another says 'That's great. It's a captive audience.' "

More...

No space is too odd. US Airways (LCC) is in talks to sell ads on airsickness bags, spokeswoman Valerie Wunder says. It already makes about $10 million a year from ads on tray tables and napkins, she says.

"The game has become one of finding the next blank space that hasn't been covered," says Yankelovich's Smith.

And more...

"I've never seen things changing as much as they are now," says Rance Crain, editor-in-chief of trade magazine Advertising Age and a 40-plus-year observer of marketing. "Advertisers will not be satisfied until they put their mark on every blade of grass."

And finally...

The more consumers ignore ads, the more ads marketers spew back at them, says Max Kalehoff of marketing research firm Nielsen BuzzMetrics. "It's like a drug addiction. Advertisers just keep buying more and more just to try to achieve prior levels of impact. In other words, they're hooked."

This year, marketers will spend a record $175 billion on ads in major media, such as TV, radio, print, outdoor, movie theaters and the Internet, says ad-buying firm ZenithOptimedia. That's up 5% over 2005. Add direct mail and other direct-response ads, and the total will hit $269 billion.

Advertisers are becoming that loud mouth annoying guy at the bar who's flashing his expensive watch, bragging about his job, and buying every prospective girl a drink.  Sorry bud, buying even more drinks, or putting your picture up in a lady's stall isn't gonna increase your chances, you are probably going home alone...again.

$269 billion can buy you alot of stuff, but it can no longer buy you a desirable magnetic personality that people want to buy.  It won't buy you a barking cat.  If you think it will, then I have a 41,723 blades of grass in my front lawn that I will be happy to whore out to a desperate advertiser. 

Buy one blade get one free, captive audience for canines and occasional jack rabbits, 25% more traffic in growing subdivision,  this offer won't last long, call now.

 

The Future of Consumer Research

No sooner than Jeffrey Eisenberg posts his rant about the state of consumer surveys do we get another authorative glimpse into the future of research from our brilliant strategic partner Michele Miller.  Check out what she writes over at Inc.

Companies like Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), Pepsi (NYSE:PBG), and Best Buy (NYSE:BBY)  now realize the methods they used to mine  for information in the past were often unproductive and inefficient. The pressure-cooker atmosphere of a group of strangers in an unfamiliar setting, combined with questions skewed to obtain answers favorable toward a product, is often a dangerous (if not deadly) concoction. Over the years, countless products that should never have been introduced made it to market, and vice-versa.

Today, major advancements in science, technology, and human-behavior studies offer new tools for studying consumers that are more natural and provide greater insight into what a customer wants. What techniques should you consider?  Read the entire article.

Internet Killed the Radio Star?

Contrary to popular belief radio is not dying.  It is, however, changing drastically.  What we are witnessing is the medium of 'audio broadcasting' being molded and morphed at the hands of a populice in more control of their choices.

Radio isn't radio anymore, it is now 'terrestrial' radio and it sharing more of it's audience (and revenue) with it's offsping; internet radio, podcasting, and satellite radio. 

Even as the populice is having influence on the radio universe many broadcasting sites remain irrelevant and downright yucky.  And of course 'terrestrial' radio is struggling to remain viable.  The answer to this? 

From Audiographics.com

Today, consider a few terms that will help; radio personas, predictive modeling, and persuasion architecture. Combining the three allow stations to build an online presence that delivers better results.

Building a radio persona will let you create predictive marketing that gives clues to how you should build your web site with persuasion architecture. Read the entire article.

  Interestingly enough, this conclusion came as a result of Bryan Eisenberg's 2 part rant over at ClickZ about the state of satellite radio's online efforts.  Read part one, then part two.

Creating A Customer Experience - The Online Advantage

I just ran across this article at USA Today.

Retailers know how you'll approach a store, where you'll hesitate, how to affect your mood, how to pique your desires, how to play to your aspirations. Everything in a store, from lighting to floor color to music to how goods are displayed, is meant in some way to get you to not just shop, but spend.

"It's like a Broadway musical," says Deborah Mitchell, a marketing expert at the University of Wisconsin. "Nothing was put into that musical that wasn't thought through. It's the same in a highly orchestrated retail environment." Read the entire article.

Here is a cold harsh reality: The most beautifully designed website, the most stunning 2D visual product photos or otherwise simply look weak compared to to a well orchestrated onslaught of your 5 senses at a brick and mortar retail outlet.  Online your visitors can't experience depth, texture, lighting, smells, noise ambience, and the list goes on.

Now don't take this as me telling you not to use images and pretty graphics, I am simply stating that focusing heavily on design may not deliver the conversions you hope for.

JPEGs, GIFs, PNGs, even flash presentations are still only 2d, flat, and when compared with a broadway musical, they are boring.

So why do so many spend so much time debating, and hand wringing about their site's visuals and graphics?  Maybe they haven't heard.

Your biggest advantage online is your ability to create atom-splitting mental images.

How?  With WORDS.

How much time are you spending with design vs. relevant copy?

What mental images are you building about your products/services in the mind of your visitors?  Are you using a series of planned mental images to create an online customer experience not bound by a physical reality? 

Novelists do it everyday,and the methodology exsists to plan this online.

What are you waiting for?

Customer Retention Strategy

Everyone knows it's cheaper to keep a customer you already have than it is to earn a new one.

For many businesses customer retention is key to profitability.

So when I ran across this potent customer retention tactic the other day, I had to share it with you.

;-)

Persuasion Architecture in a Job Interview

Sometimes it takes a good example from out of left field to show what Persuasion Architecture is attempting to accomplish. There's a good article at Open Loops with advice on doing your homework before a job interview.

Stray cats barking throughout the office!

Well forgive the shameless plug, but we're finally 100% publicly shipping our latest book Waiting for Your Cat to Bark: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing.  Amazon, BN and Sam's Club jumped the gun a bit, but we forgive their exhuberance.  After all, there's probably no better time to start shipping than when a book is recommended in the Sunday edition of the New York Times.  We couldn't be more proud of it, and the reception we've received thus far.  There's been far too much feedback to share here, but a random sampling shows podcasts, newspapers, tv & radio stations, and online reviews getting into the mix.  Here's a few of our personal fav's: (feel free to add your own ;)

• Craig Danuloff from Commerce360, leads an insightful chapter by chapter discussion of the book.
• Mike Grehan recently podcasted his fireside chat with Jeffrey & Bryan, and wrote about it on ClickZ
• The good folks behind 800-CEO-READ offer their thoughts (and free books)
• WonderBranding's own Michele Miller donating her own charitable dollars to inspire future readers
• Chuck McKay, of Advertising Made Simple, offers the Small Biz take on the value of Cat

There's been plenty of pub for the release, I gave you five, and in a variety of formats.  I hope there's something in there for everyone.  Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who's enjoyed the Waiting for Your Cat to Bark experience, and to those of you who haven't... what are you waiting for?!

Filming the DVD at the back of "Waiting For Your Cat To Bark?"

Dave Young took some pictures of us, at Tuscan Hall in Austin, filming the two hour question and answer session that will appear at the back of our book. For those of you who don't know Dave Young, he is one of the  Wizard of Ads partners trained to do Persuasion Architecture; check out his Branding Blog.

Waiting For Your Cat To Bark?

That's the cover of our new book being published by Thomas Nelson. This week it's being sent to the printer. They will print the galleys and have them back to us in two weeks. Then the book will be in bookstores on June 13th. It sounds a whole lot easier than it is.

Does your product solve my problem?

Reading last week on Working Knowledge @ Harvard I came across a gem of an article from quite a collection of minds- the uber-smart author of the Innovator's Dilemma, the co-founder of Intuit, and the Chief Strategy Officer of the Advertising Research Federation.  What drew me in was this editor's note:

Marketers have lost the forest for the trees, focusing too much on creating products for narrow demographic segments rather than satisfying needs.

Naturally, this being a Harvard pub, the editor referenced the legendary HBS marketing mind credited with popularizing the notion that people don't want to buy drills, they want to make holes.  Anyone who's heard us speak can attest to how much we agree, and how often we've used his metaphor.  But I was still stuck on the note, and as I continued the article, my disagreement with their collective contention grew.  While I would never question their academic (and corporate) intellect, I have to challenge a few assumptions.

Are marketers responsible for creating products?

Is polling demographic subsets of a customer base the same as understanding one's customers?

The article ultimately leads to a conclusion I'd agree with emphatically (although I find the metaphor of problem/solution more effective than their choice of job/employee)- to sell more products, marketers must better understand the needs of their customers, and how their products resolve these needs. 

But the notion that understanding the customer is secondary to understanding the product is fallible- understanding the product is understanding the customer.  Putting together groups of "target demographics" has no value toward understanding the customer.  Considering the "typical customer" provides no insights into who the real customers are.

A marketer's job is not to re-create and re-design the product; that's Product Development and Engineering's responsibility.  A marketer's first job is to:

• understand the customers whose problems are solved by their product, not those whose could be 
• to consider all the various angles of approach these potential customers can take toward the product, and all the various handles of information they can use to consider their purchase 
• to allow the potential customer to control the experience, and plan the communication that answers their questions, empathizes with their situation (their context), and demonstrates how their needs are met

To understand the product is to understand the needs of the customer.

Forbes.com - Do You Market To Women?

If you want women to buy from you then you should be reading Michelle Miller's WonderBranding: Marketing to Women blog. I say that beacuse she's awesome smart, a friend, a partner (through the Wizard of Ads group) and because Forbes thinks so too.

Take a look at what Forbes.com has to say about the WonderBranding: Marketing to Women blog.

Leave No Brain Unturned

While many of those in the persuasion business are hunting and scammin' for the next big trick or technique to help increase sales, at Future Now we rely on one big trick ourselves...

Curiosity

We are constantly researching and gaining a deeper understanding of the reasons why people do the things that they do. And while conversing with our clients it is not uncommon for us to toss around terms as "Dorsolateral Prefrontal Association Area", "Jungian Archetypes", "Progressive Disclosure", etc. It's not that we like to drop 50 cent words (well ok...some of us do like to drop 50 cent words) it's just that we take the study of human behavior very seriously.

It's just not enough to know what works, we commit to understanding why it works. To accomplish this our staff is constantly sticking our noses into and learning a spread of topics. Everything from sociology to psychiatry to history to cognitive neuroscience to current news and events. If there is a hope that it will give us insight to human behavior it's likely that one of us is learning, or has learned something about it.

Persuasion is not a static collection of finite steps and procedures, it is an artform, a science, and a craft. Persuasion is hard work and it involves the practical application of knowledge from a variety of fields.

I was reminded of this by our friend and Wizard of Ad's partner Craig Arthur, he just posted his case for studying the human brain. I'm sure you can guess, we certainly agree.

Marketing in 2005 and Beyond

Our Strategic Partner Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads gives us his insight and suggestions on the cultural shifts taking place all around us.

Marketing in 2005 and Beyond

The Age of the Baby Boomer ended in 2003. The torch has been handed to a new generation with new ideas and values. Sure, we Boomers still hold the power at the top, but the prevailing worldview that drives our nation is completely other than the one we grew up with. Businesses that don’t get in step with the new world order are going to find it increasingly difficult to succeed. Being a Baby Boomer isn’t about when you were born.

It’s about how you see the world.

Baby Boomers were idealists who worshipped heroes, perfect icons of beauty and success. Today these icons are seen as phony, posed and laughable. Our cool as ice, suave lady’s man James Bond has become the comic poser Austin Powers or the tragically flawed and vulnerable Jason Bourne of The Bourne Identity. That’s the essence of the new worldview; the rejection of delusion, a quiet demand for gritty truth. We’re seeing it reflected in our movies, our television shows and our music.

Baby Boomers swayed back and forth to the lyrics of a 1971 Coke commercial featuring teenagers from around the world singing, “I'd like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love, grow apple trees and honeybees and snow white turtle doves. I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company...” The idea was pure and wholesome, but it required no action other than belief. Today’s generation would retch if that ad were aired, saying, “What has Coke actually done to promote world peace? Nothing. They’re a bunch of phony posers.” Consider the lyrics to the Grammy-winning, Record of the Year for 2004 by Coldplay: “Come out upon my seas, cursed missed opportunities. Am I a part of the cure? Or am I part of the disease?”

Baby Boomers believed in big dreams, reaching for the stars, personal freedom, “be all that you can be.” Today’s generation believes in small actions, getting your head out of the clouds, social obligation, “do your part.”

A Baby Boomer anchored his or her identity in their career. The emerging generation sees his or her job only as a job.

Baby Boomers were diplomatic and sought the approval of others. The emerging generation feels it’s more honest to be blunt, and they really don’t care if you approve or not.

Boomers were driven, self-reliant and impressed by authority. Emergents are laid back, believe in working as a team, and have less confidence in “the boss.”

Idealistic Boomers had an abundance mentality, believed in a better world, and were opulent in their spending. Emergents see scarcity, believe in doing what it takes to survive, and are more fiscally conservative.

Based solely on the core values of the emerging generation, here’s what I believe we can expect to see beginning to happen during the next 3 to 4 years:

1. A decline among prestige brands such as Rolex, Harley-Davidson and Gucci.
2. The end of “upwardly mobile” as a slang expression.
3. A decline in the effectiveness of traditional advertising.
4. Comparison-shopping to be done increasingly online, though purchasing will remain in brick-and-mortar stores in many product categories.
5. An increase in volunteerism and donor support to socially responsible organizations.
6. A slow increase in the popularity of labor unions.
7. A slight decrease in the divorce rate as couples become increasingly committed to family unity and fall less under the spell of idealistic “true love.”

Read the whole article (PDF Download)

When Conversion Happens Offline

Just ran across this on Internet Retailer...

Web research leads to 70% more spending offline than online, new study says

A survey of 3,000 adults found that online research led to $180.7 billion in offline retail sales, 70% more than the $106.5 billion in direct online consumer spending, The Dieringer Group said today in its latest American Interactive Consumer Survey. "The data confirm that the Internet`s role as a consumer product information utility is much larger than its role as a direct selling medium," says senior consultant Thomas E. Miller. Read More.

I have a confession to make.

I really hate buying online.

But I will tell you what I do love. I love shopping online.

I'm one of those that use the internet as a 'consumer product information utility'. In the last week alone the internet has influenced my buying decisions on no fewer than 4 significant purchases. I've selected a vacuum cleaner online, picked out a waffle iron, bought a broadband phone subscription, and decided on a new external hard drive to backup my 12' Powerbook.

My kids were online recently picking out halloween costumes that will be purchased at a brick and mortar sometime this weekend.

My wife just decided upon an optometrist online, made her grocery list, and even surfed the website of a gym that she is going to start working out in.

All within the scope of a week, and all without ever dishing out our credit card number online.

During that process we discounted several services and products simply because their websites did not 'persuade' us that their products and services were worthwhile.

It makes me wonder how many business are losing selling opps because they aren't awake to the power of the internet to sell offline as a lead generation tool, or because they don't take it seriously enough and have built inadequate product centric websites. And according to our Conversion Assessment Director Jenn Weeks, of all the Conversion Assessments we do, only about 20% of them are for lead-generation sites.

How well does your site do in equipping visitors to leave the site and purchase your product or service offline? Have you been one of those that has mis-prioritized the importance of your site because you 'don't sell online'? If you are, I can only hope that we aren't buying from your competitor offline because they made a more persuasive case onine

Seems to me in light of this article , lead generation sites have the most to lose( and to gain )from maximizing conversion.

When Your Customers Speak English and You Don't , Website Conversion Will Suffer

As a persuasion architect it is my job to 'translate' industry and insider terms used by our clients and help them communicate the benefits of those terms and features in a way that will best appeal to a persona's motives.

It is now my mission in life to sign this company (wmv download) up as a Future Now client and charge them by the word. Then our team can start looking for places to retire.

Power Of Suggestion

Do Dumb Blonde Jokes Slow Mental Activity??

BERLIN (Reuters) - Blondes perform intelligence tests more slowly after reading jokes playing on their supposed stupidity, said psychologists in a newly published German study.

Some 80 women of various hair colors were tested on their mental capacity to work quickly and precisely in a series of psychometric tests. Before sitting the tests, half the participants had to read "dumb blonde" jokes, such as:

"Why do blondes open yogurt pots while still at the supermarket? -- Because it says 'Open Here' on the lid." Read more.

Isn't that amazing? Just the suggestion of a common (and ridiculously untrue) stereotype can rock a mega-smart blonde's confidence.

As human beings with or without hair, we are all vulnerable to such illogical and emotionally charged suggestions as this. The good news is that the power of suggestion can work in the opposite direction. It really is effortless for us to believe someone who is telling us that we possess all the traits we have been aspiring posess and embody our entire life.

Great persuasion occurs when someone whipsers in your ear that which you believe most about yourself, your values, and desires. Harley Davidson does a nice job doing this , and of course J. Peterman does too. Notice how each of these pages lead with copy about the reader, not the product or even benefits of the product. Great persuasion is the opposite of a dumb blonde joke, it empowers us and reinforces our loftiest of dreams.

Only crooks and grave-robbers play on our unfounded insecurities and use those to manipulate and control us . I'm glad we don't have any of those reading this blog.

Short Copy Vs. Long Copy SMACKDOWN!

***tap-tap-tap microphone feedback***

Ring Announcer: Laaaadeeeeess aand Gentuuuullllmen, welcome to this week's persuasive copy Smaaaackdoooown!

***Crowd roars!!!!!***

Ring Announcer: Let's meet today's fighters...in the blue corner, he's a lean mean fighting machine, weighing in at under 150 words, it's SHOOOOOOOOORTTTT COPEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

***Cheers & Jeers***

In the red corner, he's the giant master of disaster, weighing in at over 200 words, it's
LOOOOOOOOONG COPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

***Jeers***

Booth Announcer #1: Whoa! The people do not seem to like Long Copy, Short Copy is clearly the crowd favorite...
Booth Announcer #2: Well, we live in a busy world, who has time for Long Copy
Booth Announcer #1: Good Point, let's take it back to the ring, the fight is about to get underway

Referee: OK Boys, watch your grammar and punctuation. Misspellings will not be allowed. Shake keyboards, go to your corners and wait for the bell.

***DING DING***

Booth Announcer #1: Short Copy goes for the quick knockdown, but Long Copy is too big to be taken down. Short Copy is landing jab after jab after jab

****smack! smack! smack! smack! smack! smack! smack! smack! smack! ****

Booth Announcer #2: Ouch! That's gotta hurt

***Cheers***

Booth Announcer #1: Long Copy has had enough of little henpecks from Short Copy and is climbing the ropes, hoping to smother Short Copy once and for all....

***FWAAAAAP!!!!!!!***

Booth Announcer #1: He misses!!! Short Copy is just too fast, was able to just side step the slower albeit more powerful Long Copy
Booth Announcer #2: Wait a minute! Who is that entering the ring?

***Crowd Erupts in CHEERS***

Booth Announcer #1: I can't believe it, it's Relevant Copy!!!!
Booth Announcer #2: It's not even a fair fight, he's kickin' both of their a%^%#
Booth Announcer #1: The Crowd is going NUTS, they can't get enough of Relevant Copy!!!
Booth Announcer #2: Well..He IS the CHAMP!

Senior Persuasion Architect: Trying to judge the persuasiveness of copy by it's length is like trying to tell how fast a car is by looking at the color of its paint. We've seen some very persuasive short copy, as well as some awfully persuasive and interesting loooooong copy.

Church of Closing The Sale

If just 'closing the sale' is the alpha and the omega of your business model, you could be needing a drug prescription really soon.

In our world of rampant connectivity, we each possess instant access to a spread of information about almost any product or service we are in the market for today. It is inevitable, the word about your company will get out..... good or bad.

This makes spending too much time worshipping at the Church of Closing the Sale a teensy bit short-minded and flaccid. Businesses can no longer afford to worry exclusively about closing sales, they must begin to focus on the entirety of the customer's experience before and especially after the sale.

Now, I'm not advocating abandoning current sales efforts, just the opposite. What I suggest is that you find ways to drive sales by enhancing customer experience with your company both pre and post sale.

What could happen when a customer touches your company is likely your greatest un-leveraged asset.

I'm not talking about customer service, which typically describes a companies defensive posture to unhappy customers. It also goes way beyond treating customers well, this is what is expected of all businesses, and making this the target is reaching for the average denominator,. What I'm talking about is maximizing the relationship your company enjoys when a customer decides to spend some of their invaluable time with your company.

I suggest we begin attending the Church of the Customer's Experience FIRST, and closing sales will naturally and abundantly follow.

Customer retention and customer experience are not areas of business that should be delegated to fast and shallow talkers. One should find a great prospecter like Future Now's own Jim Novo as you begin drilling down into this underground ocean of income potential.

Also scope out my buddy Steve Rae's blog Touch Points for his take on customer experiences.