Drive Your Message Home

As depicted in this graphic, you can use the four vehicles of influence to drive your message home. By "home", I mean to your target audience. If you have a business, this might be a market segment or set of potential customers. It could be a community or organization if you are an advocate for a cause. It could be the whole country if you are running for president. Or it could be your spouse or a friend if you just want to change their mind about something. In other words, this is about influencing the world.

The previous two posts (here and here) described the four vehicles of influence: (1) experiences, (2) relationships, (3) stories and art and (4) facts and reason. All of them affect people's perceptions and behavior. When used effectively together, they are a powerful force indeed:

1. Fire on all cylinders - Engage all four vehicles in communicating your message. For instance, if you have the exclusive authorized Volkswagen auto repair shop for a city, you might include pictures of happy Jettas and Beetles in your ads (3), say how your services are trustworthy because of your authorized status (4), provide great services (1) and spend a few minutes getting to know your clients and talking "shop" when they visit (2). Now that is firing on all four cylinders!
   
   
2. Align message with vehicles - All four vehicles of influence should communicate the same message consistently. For instance, if a bakery advertises that it sells only moist, chewy bread baked fresh daily, but some loaves on the shelf are obviously old and stale, then the facts claimed (4) do not match the customer's experience (1). It would be better not to make the "baked-fresh" claim or not to sell day-old bread.
   
   
3. Take a balanced approach - If you are strong with some vehicles but less so with others, try to build up the weaker link. In looking at my own business, I think there are good marketing and educational materials (3 & 4), but I need to spend more time networking and getting to know people in the community (2). So I am focusing there.
   
   
4. Repeat - Communication is not a one-time event but a continuous process. It takes a steady flow of communication for people to "get" your message, accept it and remember it. So continue to engage all four vehicles. This is like an engine that fires on all four cylinders - again and again and again - propelling a car forward.
   

With these tactics in hand, you are ready to influence people and drive your message home!

EXPERIENCES Also Influence People

In the previous post, I discussed three modes and means of influencing people. The idea was to pinpoint the basic vehicles of influence. Well, I missed one: EXPERIENCE. Life experiences, especially very positive or negative ones, influence our perceptions and behavior greatly.

When I was about 8 years old, a sample bottle of Pert shampoo appeared in the mailbox. It was green and gooey and claimed to have shampoo and conditioner in one. I tried it (why not?) and liked it. It was better than whatever I was using at the time. So I continued to use Pert shampoo for the next 10 or 15 years - not because of what I read or heard about it, but because of the experience of the free sample. It left an impression and influenced my behavior.

So now we have a total of four modes and means of influencing people:

1) Experience
2) Relationships
3) Stories and art
4) Facts and reason

In the next post, I'll make practical suggestions about applying the four modes and means.

Three Modes and Means of Influencing People

What are the fundamental modes or means of influencing people? This question was on my mind this week, not only as a marketing question, but also as a life question. We all want to influence people - family, friends, co-workers, partners, customers, markets, the masses - to do something, to go somewhere, to not do something. How do we do it? What is the best way?

I came up with three basic vehicles of influence and ranked them in order of influence:

1) Relationships
2) Stories and art
3) Facts and reason

People we know have the most influence on us: father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter, friend, colleague. If one of these people asked you do to something or gave a recommendation (assuming the relationship is generally good), you would seriously consider it, if only because of your relationship with that person. Relationships exert the most influence.

Stories and art move people, sometimes in profound ways. This is something I have come to appreciate much more in recent years, perhaps because of my handicap as an analytical/engineer type. Think of a great book, movie, song, speech, painting or vista that stirred emotions inside you and caused you to see something more clearly. Have you ever been to a concert where the music and showmanship swept the crowd into a frenzy, such as U2 or the Red Hot Chili Peppers? People talk about it for days and weeks afterward. Why? Because art moves people. Political and religious leaders understand this, and they tend to be some of the best storytellers around. The Bible itself is a collection of mostly stories, parables and poems. Some of the best pop art is found in advertising, because marketers know that art excites, engages and helps convince people to buy.

Facts and reason also influence people. Like Sergeant Friday doing a criminal investigation, we want "just the facts, ma'am." Our modern Western society likes to think of itself as purely rational and fact-driven, but I ranked facts and reason last among the three because I think relationships, stories and art carry more influence at the end of the day. We are, after all, still human.

Would you agree? Did I miss any modes and means of influence?

Look to the Large!

In a past job, I worked with a gentleman named Hans-Juergen who managed the company's sales and distribution office in Germany. He had a reputation for being strong-willed and getting into tussles with headquarters, but he was also a shrewd businessman, even inspiring at times. "Look to the large!" he once exclaimed in rough English at a meeting. I think he meant "see the big picture" or "don't miss the forest for the trees". This is good advice in marketing.

We tend to think a product is the widget that the customer takes off the shelf and buys, but it is much more. The "whole product" is everything a customer experiences when interacting with your business and owning a product. This includes the:

• Look, layout and cleanliness of the store
• Smile and pleasant demeanor of the sales person, or lack thereof
• Packaging
• Quality and reliability
  
• Price and terms
  
• Warranty policy and follow-on services
• Brand image as projected into the marketplace
• What other people say about your business (word of mouth)

These factors and more are part of the total customer experience. They affect how customers perceive your products and, ultimately, the sales and success of the business.

So if you want to offer a great whole product, take it from Hans-Juergen and look to the large!

Green Is Good

I attended an IBM conference and was amazed by how much they promoted the power efficiency of their computer systems. Yes, IBM has thoroughly embraced green computing. This is not a fad either – their enterprise customers are demanding it. Electricity costs for data centers have become so high that enterprises are actively looking for relief. Moreover, some data centers in metro areas are not able draw any more power from the grid because electric utilities have run out of capacity. To add new equipment they have to remove something else, lest they exceed their limit. So energy efficiency is now a practical necessity for computing.

The fact is we now live in the Green Era. Society, business and government are focusing more and more on reducing energy consumption and impact on the environment. And it does not matter if you are a skeptic about global warming or recycling. This mega-trend is well underway, and many factors drive it: rising oil prices, a desire to be energy-independent of dubious foreign regimes, alternative energy technologies, population growth, concern for global warming, appreciation for nature and a desire for cleaner air, water and land.

What does the Green Era have to do with marketing? Starting now, you have a window of opportunity to differentiate your products by going green. If you are a builder, you might get certified to build energy-efficient homes and tout it. If you drive a taxi, you could get a hybrid vehicle and paint an ad that asks, “Why ride yellow when you could go green?” And so on. Given the choice between two relatively equivalent products, consumers will increasingly pick the green one.

So remember that green is not just the color of the verdant earth – it is also the color of money. Green products save money by using less energy and resources. They also make money because people want them and will pay a premium. And they are good for the environment.

But the window of opportunity is not forever. Someday green will be normal and expected. It will be table stakes for having a decent, quality product. So do it while it is advantageous. Design for green, market green and live green!