Tag: communication

Bridges over gaps

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There’s a gap between you and everyone else.

A gap between what you do and what they do. A gap between what you want and what they want. A gap between how you think things should be run and how they think things should be run. A gap between what you believe is true and what they believe is true. A gap between how you see yourself in ten years and how they see themselves (and yourself) in ten years.

It is quite easy and instinctual, in front of the gap, to either impose our point of view or completely give it up. Both are ways to avoid conflict. “You better do what I say!” or “Ok, let’s do it your way..” are shortcuts for the short terms. They work for a while. Until the other, or we, realise what it’s been renounced. Then we find the gap is still there, only wider.

Another option, more difficult to practice, taking more effort, energy and empathy, is to work to build a bridge over the gap. You build a little bit on your side, the other builds a little bit on their side. Both work to make their sides more solid, and eventually, with time, the two parts will meet.

The meeting point is something completely new, as it is not your side nor it is the other’s side. It is a new perspective, a new idea, a new way of acting, a new vision for your common future. Built on common understanding.

Great thing about bridges, others can walk on them too.

The quit stage

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Content marketing cannot just be an excuse to collect an email address.

I give you my contact because I am interested in one piece of your content. You follow up to ask if I enjoyed it, and then you start sending out regular emails I have not asked for, on topics that barely touch on my initial interest, widening the range as time goes by. And the bottom line of each of these communication is the exhortation: “buy!”.

This is not how it’s supposed to work. This is not how it’s supposed to be effective.

It’s not, because you are breaking an early relationship based on trust. I have trusted you with my contact, and you have trusted me with your piece of content. And then, what? How would you treat a human being in a face-to-face interaction, after the initial exchange of trust?

Perhaps, asking them what their interests are. Sending them something similar to what made them give you trust, and carefully see if it works. Answering their questions if they have any. Politely enquiring on what can be done to improve the relationship.

And at some point, draw the line and quit.

There must be a moment, a time, when you’ve tried enough. A moment when it’s clear it was just a temporary exchange more than a real interest. A time when sending one additional email is more damaging than not sending it.

In a world in which everything is free (only in monetary terms), we are not used to design the “quit” stage. And yet, one of the most remarkable marketing email I remember is the one of a company who did.

 

Right in the moment

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As an Italian abroad, I am a huge importer of pasta from Italy. When I saw this today, I got hopeful.

fabrizio-trotti-pasta-garofalo

The packaging is in Italian, but what got my train of thoughts started was the little branded tape that sealed the thing. It reads “comesifagarofalo.it”. A custom site the producer really wants me to check out as I am opening the package! (“come si fa Garofalo” could be translated into “how Garofalo is made”, yet in Italian the verb “to make” could also be used as “to cook”).

I got interested in the label as I have experienced many people do not know how to cook pasta. I have been asked about that quite a lot since I moved out of Italy, and I have some horror stories about how people actually go about cooking pasta that I will leave for a stormy night in the forest.

I hoped the company did recognize the problem and decided to put up a mini-site to educate people about this. I imagined a very simple site with the 3-4 key instructions (it is really that simple) right on top, perhaps a video, some hilarious “don’ts”, and a bunch of recipes. A company who made its name because of the quality of its pasta (Garofalo definitely has) should also care about how that is cooked and consumed. The possibility got me really excited.

That did not last long, as I unfortuntely found the mini-site was a mere way to showcase the manufacturing process of Garofalo pasta (where the ingredients come from, what is the process that goes into it, and so on).

I find this a missed opportunity to build a meaningful relationship with customers. When people have a package of pasta in their hands, the water boiling in the pot, I doubt they might be interested in where that pasta comes from or whether the ingredients used are genuine. I don’t mean to imply these are not important things in the buying process of a package of pasta (to some people, at least, they are). Yet by the time you have read the information on the website, your guests might have arrived, your water will have evaporated, and pasta will not be served for another half an hour.

When you think about how to promote your brand and its quality, always keep in mind that the customer has different types of interactions with the product. And while consistency is important, that does not mean you have to feed information about manufacturing and quality when they are about to cook their dinner. Think about what their needs might be at every stage, and give them what they might need the most in that moment. It is that simple, and yet definitely not easy.

Positioning

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What does a book from the 80s have to teach to marketers today?

Let’s see.

Advertising is, for the most part, unwanted and unliked. In some cases, advertising is thoroughly detested.

[…]

In general, the mind accepts only that which matches prior knowledge or experience. Millions of dollars have been wasted trying to change minds with advertising. Once a mind is made up, it’s almost impossible to change it. Certainly not with a weak force like advertising.

[…]

as the effectiveness of advertising goes down, the use of it goes up. Not just in volume, but in the number of users.

These are some of the aspects Ries and Trout start from in their book, Positioning: how to be seen and heard in the overcrowded marketplace. And they bear quite incredible similarities to the environment marketers operate in nowadays. Almost 40 years after the book was written.

The solution to this mix of sensory overload and advertising inefficacy is positioning, the process that leads (better, should lead) companies to identify a space in the prospect’s mind and leverage it for growth and success. Contrary to common shared belief, indeed, growth and success are not in the product and its features, they are in how the audience and particularly your prospects remember and talk about you.

Not surprisingly, Ries and Trout share quite many examples of companies who did positioning right and companies who did it wrong (back in the Seventies and Eighties), and perhaps the more interesting examples are the ones the authors dedicate a full chapter each in the second half of the book. Some commonalities.

  • Find a space (“cherchez le creneau”, as they say in French) that is not taken, no matter if it is a small one, and be the first to move there.
  • To find that space, the company needs to know a whole lot of things that have very little to do with the product or service they offer: market, competitors, audience, prospects, and so on.
  • Be mindful of the importance of the name of your product or service, better if it is a name that reminds what the product or service stands for.
  • Avoid name extensions to the best of your abilities (“When a really new product comes along, it’s almost always a mistake to hang a well-known name on it“).
  • Be consistent with your positioning strategy in the long-term, particularly in times of change, when it is more beneficial to change tactics rather than strategy.

Positioning is one of those books that anybody who starts a career in marketing should read and keep close throughout their careers. It really is too easy to forget about the importance of everything that is not the product/service you are offering (competitors, environment, audience, etc.) and fall in love with words and messages that mean literally nothing to the people you seek to serve.

This is the classic mistake made by the leader. The illusion that the power of the product is derived from the power of the organization. It’s just the reverse. The power of the organization is derived from the power of the product, the position that the product owns in the prospect’s mind.

 

 

Metrics that distract

Fabrizio1 Comment

Reading this reminded me of the time I found a job ad for Social Media Manager listing 1,000 (or was it 10,000) friends on Facebook as a requisite to apply.

We are easily mislead by what is not important, and so we believe that doing Marketing on social media is about metrics that are as much visibile as they are insignificant. And of course, managers and executives are then disappointed when they come to this very realization.

Continue focusing on bringing consistent value to your audience where they are, and stay clear of distraction-metrics. Long-term success will be your reward.