A Wall Street analyst recently lamented that “flat” is the new normal. And it’s not just analysts who note it will take a minimum of three years of growth in GDP like that of Q4 ‘09 to even get us back to where we were in production and employment years ago. Consumers know it too. As a result, they’ve adopted a set of new behaviors of which spending is not one of them.

But since growth is the objective of every CEO and shareholder, finding a way to grow is critical for every marketer who wants to hold on to their job. That’s why so many are searching for new insights and methods on how to persuade consumers to open their wallets.  It’s not easy in an economy where consumers are less interested in acquiring things for money than acquiring, for free, a social network full of friends who can provide interesting conversation and life rich with ideas.

Ahhh, ideas. As David Brooks wisely noted in a December 2009 column: “When the economy was about stuff, economics resembled physics. Now that it is about ideas, economics resembles psychology.”  That is why brands like Coke, McDonald’s, Apple, Amazon, Benjamin Moore and Kayak, are growing their top lines by tapping into the persuasion psychology that’s evolved for our more digital, social and mobile world.

This brand of psychology leverages both explicit and implicit consumer data and analyzes it through the frameworks of predictive modeling, behavioral economics, and social science. By revealing the motivations, products, incentives, words, design, and touchpoints that jumpstart the behaviors a marketer wants, it hints at ideas that increase engagement, response rates and click throughs, sales, repeat sales, retention, the acquisition of customers with greater value, a higher NetPromoter score, and growth in the top and bottom line.

But this brand of persuasion psychology is only for marketers ready to give up most of what they thought they knew. For as Richard Thaler, professor of behavioral sciences and economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business says: (Wall Street Journal Sept. 14, 2009) “Taking a behavioral approach completely changes the way you view the consumer.” And as Dan Ariely, behavioral economist with joint appointments at Duke and MIT explains, that’s because it moves you from chronicling  consumer intent and rational alibis to uncovering the often irrational and subconscious but very real drivers of buying behavior.

The prediction and testing of behavioral insights, then psychologically inspiring and tracking the resulting behaviors is the key to growth for a marketer. And it comes none too soon, as marketers now face a threat as big if not bigger than a lagging economy: Irrelevance.  Today’s marketer faces a world where consumer to consumer marketing is real, real time and more trusted; where consumers willingly share data on their own behaviors with friends, family, strangers. Where members of a social network can know more than marketers about each others’ behaviors and desires.

And we’re only in the early stages of understanding the psychological impact of consumer to consumer sharing of brand preferences, product performance rankings, geo-locational data. What kind of behavioral change will come when peers share data on energy usage, weight loss, health data, athletic performance, test scores and more? With Internet usage in many parts of the world still in its infancy, and with technology improving its reach and speed, there is dramatically more data sharing to come, and come more quickly.

With so much behavioral data about to be shared, some see a potential for powerful behavioral insights. Others predict (with no small amount of concern) a cultural revolution. Others argue that the abundance of behavioral data, shared, will force the ultimate in consumer centric marketing, spawning a renaissance for any marketer who knows the latest in persuasion psychology, and uses it responsibly.

What do you think?
ML

The United Nation’s International Labor Board calculates that workers in the United States put in more working hours than any industrialized country. Bully for us. We also watch the most television per week. Is there a correlation?

Just for a second imagine that you’re a welder, or a waitress, or the guy who runs the whey machine at the cheese factory and you just got off work and walked in the door of your house. You grab a beer, sit down on the sofa and do what? Grab your computer and check  your mutual fund? Check Wikipedia for an obscure fact that you heard earlier in the day? Check on the price of Kruggerands? Nope. Chances are you turn on the tube. Why? Because it’s what I’ll call passive entertainment. Meaning the most arduous thing you have to do is pick up the remote, surf the channels and let the entertainment hit your eyeballs.

Maybe this is why Nielsen statistics indicate that television viewership has increased to an average of 151 hours a month or about five hours a day. Folks out there are busier, more stressed and more tired at the end of the day and mostly just ready to not have to work at anything too hard.

This doesn’t mean they aren’t also checking their email, logging onto “I can Has Cheezburger” or checking out the latest YouTube video that Aunt Nellie sent them. In fact, they spend 2.5 hours a month surfing the Internet and watching television simultaneously.

The Internet, however, is active entertainment. In other words, you have to do something to get it. You have to search for it. You have to move your mouse. You have to think just a little, tiny bit. This is where television has an advantage. No thinking involved. It may not be exactly what you want to watch, but it flows to you and the only muscle you have to move is the little one that connects your thumb to the remote and the occasional blink of the eyelid.

Like I said, passive.

As the pace of life and the intensity of our worklife accelerates, it becomes more and more important to have times when we do nothing.

Of course, the Internet will catch up at some point and deliver the option of entertainment that is customized to our tastes and then collected, collated and streamed to us. Five and half hours of bloopers on metacafe.com? If that’s what turns your crank, bring it on. But it will be passive. People just don’t have anything left at the end of a long day.
 

Okay, I’m done for the day. Think I’ll watch a little South Park, then maybe some football and oh yeah, around halftime I can switch to Modern Family, then back to the game then maybe a little of that Chef Ramsay guy. He’s crazy.  It’s going to be a relaxing night.


BW

The following article was originally published on AdAge.com on October 27, 2009.
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MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY FOR A CONVERSATION ECONOMY
By Marsha Lindsay, CEO, Lindsay, Stone & Briggs

What does the worldwide, technologically enabled drive for conversations mean for marketers? It means you’re no longer marketing products or services; you’re marketing conversations. It means marketing communication planning should be driven by a conversation strategy.

The right conversation strategy answers two big questions: What meaningful content will attract sufficient conversations with the right people? And, how will you jumpstart conversations and keep them alive?

When people are starved for time and already engaged in many conversations, jumpstarting new and meaningful conversations is THE big challenge of marketing today. Just building a website, writing a blog or posting videos on YouTube doesn’t mean sufficient numbers to impact ROI will find them organically, much less take the time and energy to converse with you. By definition a conversation requires others to be present and participate. Otherwise you’re talking to yourself. Perhaps therapeutic, but no way to make a living.

Even if people know there’s an opportunity to have a conversation with you – on Twitter or your blog, for instance - you can’t expect them to engage given all the other demands on their time. You’ll need a strategy that both gets them to know you exist and care so much that you exist, they’ll become intrigued about conversing with you. This requires a strategy that integrates search optimization, media, message and contributions of content from consumers.


STRATEGY FOR SCALEABLE, PLATFORMABLE MULTI-MEDIA CONVERSATIONS

The right strategy begins with the end in mind: What message can work across multiple platforms and be scaled so quickly and broadly it can drive sufficient revenues to support a business model?

Very few companies have the luxury to let conversations build slowly over time. And no business can afford to risk a high-waste and low-impact effort. More often than not, high impact campaigns with reasonable returns don’t materialize solely from online ads and social media. Traditional media must be a major component of the mix.

Stefan Olander, Nike’s Global Director of Brand Connections, noted at Lindsay, Stone & Briggs’ Brandworks University 2009 that many of Nike’s online campaigns received overwhelming response at launch. Colleagues at Nike were excited about the prospect of dropping expensive traditional media campaigns in favor of these successful digital campaigns. Olander reminded them that, despite how well known the Nike brand is, to optimize online conversations they still must jumpstart initiatives with traditional media.

That’s because traditional media can do what social media cannot: Aggressively interject messages into people’s lives in a socially acceptable way. Research conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation indicates that messages delivered by TV may, in fact, be the fastest and most cost efficient means to jumpstart productive conversations in the digital and real worlds.

Experts at the World Advertising Research Center have also studied what it takes to optimize engagement in a conversation economy. They recommend (online Feb. 2009) this media priority:

1. Mainstream media.
2. Open networks such as blogs and websites.
3. Closed networks such as Facebook and MySpace.

A multimedia mix framed to spark conversations requires a compelling message concept that can work across a multimedia platform. Its foundation has to be far more than a one-time promotion or product attribute; it must be a message strategy that connects brand meaning with search habits, and accommodates ongoing contributions that can range from casual conversations to consumer-generated content.

This is a tall order, but not impossible. That’s because the solution can be found in the motivations of the conversationalists themselves. Some psychologists say that people subconsciously come to a conversation with a desire to be changed by them. This makes sense. Conversation is mankind’s natural search engine.

What are we searching for?  Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, identified 12 universal human motivations, called archetypes. Messages that speak to one of these discrete motivations naturally engage consumers and fuel conversations for many reasons:

1. Associating with any one of these motivations gives a brand relevance and innate appeal.
2. These motivations are behind our search for change and meaning, and words related to them will find their way into consumers’ natural online search habits.
3. They are timeless and universal. Messages based on them will be relevant across cultures and age groups.

HOW TO KEEP THE CONVERSATION ONGOING

You’ll constantly be competing with other conversations for your target’s time and attention. So, spark and fuel conversations with surveys, forums, contests and invitations for contributions that pertain to the change your brand’s products and services can help people achieve. Keeping ongoing conversations fresh is where contextual ads, blogs, websites, videos and social media shine.

Content themed to your target’s daily passions, routines or rituals are great for habituating conversations. And, habituated conversations have the greatest opportunity to generate ongoing revenue and almost unbreakable customer loyalty.

For marketers who get their brand’s meaning and conversation strategy right, consumers will take over the conversation for you, making your marketing more proficient, and making you a genius in your new role of Chief Conversation Officer.

# # #

Marsha Lindsay is CEO of advertising agency Lindsay, Stone & Briggs, whose leading edge practice of marketing strategy and communications includes Brandworks University®, the MBA-level conference that is a Mecca for the nation's leading marketers. LSB specializes in jumpstarting brands by uncovering deep-seated motivations and leveraging them in traditional and digital media. Marketers from the Fortune 100 to strong regional brands hire LSB to tackle their toughest challenges because of the agency’s cutting-edge approach and effective solutions.

LSB is a member of the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the CBX Worldwide Partnership.

Hey, check out LSB's new work for Monroe Clinic, a healthcare provider just south of us.  Using our archetypal approach, we discovered that Monroe Clinic was a "sage" brand and that what really set them apart was that they really understood the unique health needs of their rural population as opposed to providers in nearby metro areas.  In short, "They know the territory."

During LSB’s 2009 Brandworks University®, we asked attendees how they would jumpstart conversations despite a world of conversational clutter.  Below are some of the most broadly applicable answers that attendees shared.  Enjoy and be sure to add your own tips for jumpstarting conversations in the comments section.

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“Conversations can be jumpstarted by empowering people to help make our good products great…asking for help along the good-to-great theme,” Sargento Foods.

“Be humble. It’s not about you [the marketer], it’s about them [consumers],” Neutrogena.

“Timing is everything—deliver the message during a relevant occasion that ties to your brand experience,” Brown-Forman.

“Give a face to your brand or company that represents your values and allow them to converse in the digital space in a way people can respond and relate,” Sunny Delight Beverages Company.

“Be human. Engage existing participants of a conversation and ask permission to feature that conversation on a brand site. Value conversation and elevate it with permission,” Clif Bar & Company.

“Be simple and direct; make it about something else that reframes your brand or category in consumers’ minds to make an emotional connection. Create the love,” Kimberly-Clark.

“Be transparent: Represent your brand in the community as the Brand. Motivate the Community: Incentivize and reward “brand ambassadors” for passing along brand communications and offers. Be relevant to the community,” Rayovac.

“Focus on the key words or attributes that consumers use in association with your brand and drive your activity around them,” Culligan International.

“All relationships are built one by one. In a world of conversational clutter—slow down. Invest in a relationship to have it be real,” Chazen Museum of Art.

“Be active and persistent and join the conversation every day. Aristotle said excellence is a habit,” Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce.

“Develop a multi-faceted communication program utilizing both traditional media and truly interactive social media channels, where listening and acting upon your human being’s wants is KING,” Marshfield Clinic.

“Start from within—have employees or current customers start communicating and expressing your brand experience,” Wisconsin School of Business.

“Regardless of media you must be authentic and relevant and have fun!” Rayovac.

“Reach out, amplify and go to where consumers are—don’t depend on them to come to us,” Sargento.


“Focus on a niche topic or conversation and provide focused, relevant insight, tips and information,” Drs. Foster & Smith.

“Give your customers a reason to engage with you, commit to frequent communication and don’t be afraid to let go, experiment and be nimble in your acts,” Advanstar Communications.

“Have a product or offer a product that is so good and so unique and so “in-demand” that it is worth talking about,” Gilda’s Club.

“Be honest and accountable—you can be a brand advocate and still acknowledge other points of view,” Compass Point.

“It’s like an online dinner party. You share, listen and interact. Some leave happy, some complain about the chicken. Most importantly, you were there. Be a good host and a good guest,” Secura Insurance.