Dr. Deep delves deeply into the consumer’s brain in search of pleasure.
Marketers need to go there as well, so they can learn how to better engage with their customers on a more emotional level, which will lead to increased purchases and brand loyalty. So says Dr. A.K. Pradeep, or “Dr. Deep,” as I 
call him.
Dr. Deep is founder and CEO of a company called NeuroFocus, which is the self-proclaimed world leader in EEG-based full brain measurement of consumers’ subconscious responses. EEG (electroencephalography) is basically a recording of electronic activity produced by the firing of neurons within the brain based on certain stimuli, or whatever.
Basically what he does is measure, record and analyze brain activities responding to different stimuli like brand messaging, advertising and buying experiences. In doing so he has identified increased activity in the pleasure center of the brain, creating what he describes as “little moments of luxury.” Apparently, this is our subconscious desire to feel better, attempting to escape the stress and anxiety of our lives. The little moments, he contends, are also markers that indicate our precognitive responses to different brands, products, advertising, and customer engagements — how they affect purchase behaviors and emotional connection with the brand. He refers to it as a “Luxury Perception Framework” (LPF).
Filed under: Marketing Theory | Tags: census, government, marketing, new market order
The US Census provides access to valuable geo-demographic data that allows companies to more effectively targ
et narrowly defined customer segments, down to a household level. It allows retailers to better define site locations and product mix, and direct marketers to deliver more relevant messages and offers. The problem is that this data has a relatively short freshness date as the market has become increasingly fluid and dynamic, which is why the 2010 census is so important — a lot has changed over the past ten years.
Demographers are speculating that this census update might be one of the most significant of any in history, in terms of shifting demographics and clustering.
Filed under: Business Models | Tags: customer experience, email, marketing, word of mouth
Here’s a thought: when companies ask if the customer wants to unsubscribe from unwanted email solicitation, they should honor that request, or they shouldn’t ask. Very often they do not but are merely complying with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. In many cases by unsubscribing we are merely validating our email addresses for distribution to more spam lists.
It would seem this should be a matter of proper social etiquette — especially for a company that is in the social etiquette business.
Filed under: Marketing Theory | Tags: direct mail, marketing, new market order
The death of direct mail has been greatly exaggerated. It’s not dead, but like most every other marketing medium, it has been redefined in the digital world as a much smaller yet still integral part of our complex multi-channel 
delivery and communications infrastructure.
Currently, however, it is the delivery utility and not communications that is keeping the USPS alive (though just barely with a reported loss of $3.8 billion this year). Like most organizations the USPS will have to continue to downsize and further reduce its cost structure while redefining service levels in order to survive in the new market order. The core focus going forward will be parcels and packages, competing with Fed Ex — all that stuff sold at Amazon has to get shipped. That could be an opportunity for direct marketers to break through the mailbox clutter, when there isn’t as much clutter.
This blog has extolled often the wisdom and foresight of Peter Drucker, and the lack thereof shown by so many business leaders who have failed to heed his sage advice. Those of us who have followed the long and illustrious career of Drucker — who would have turned a hundred years old this month — have to wonder what the legendary management guru would have to say about the current state of business, on the heels of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. In all probability he would have said, “I told you so.”
Is this a trick? It certainly won’t be construed as a treat. And no amount of marketing spin is going to sell this idea to the kids.
A company called Tetra Pak that produces shelf-stable single serve cartons of milk has launched a social media campaign through Twitter and Facebook urging people to “give something healthy to the little monsters” this Halloween. What they’re suggesting is we hand out little cartons of milk rather than candy. That’ll go over like a lead balloon. Why not just give away raw vegetables?
The posts are intended to lure us to http://www.trickortreatme.com where we are offered a discount coupon good at any participating retailer. Here’s the viral marketing part: we’re also asked to tell our friends about this great idea through a number of social media links provided. There’s also an option to leave a comment, though nobody has. Obviously there are some pretty sharp minds at work in the marketing department out at Tetra Pak USA, who claim to have “the experience and the flow of ideas to help us exploit the magic of milk.”
There’s a lot of talk about word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) as one of the fastest growing marketing disciplines. There are even people marketing WOMM — like the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), which will happily sell you a standard membership for $3,000 a year. I’m not sure what all you get for that.
But I delved a little deeper to WOMMA, the “official trade association for word-of-mouth marketing” and I read a book by its President Emeritus, Andy Sernovitz, entitled Word of Mouth Marketing. The organization offers research, best practices, webinars and the promise of measurable ROI. Whoa. They even have a manifesto: “Happy customers are your best advertising.” It seems I’ve heard that before, like a long time ago.
Anyway, they have these four basic rules of word-of-mouth marketing: 1) be interesting; 2) make people happy; 3) earn trust and respect; 4) make it easy. I’m thinking these aren’t rules for word-of-mouth marketing — these are rules of life!
What goes around comes around I guess. You start segmenting the market and it comes back to segment you. In this case it’s a profile: the Marketing Personality. And it’s not pretty. In fact, it’s just ahead of Neocrophilous Personality on the chart, which is basically a self-destructive death wish.
This is according to Erich Fromm, the famed psychoanalyst who built on and enhanced Sigmund Freud’s defining work on personality types, adding one of his own — the marketing orientation.
How I got there was attempting to better understand the underpinnings of customer decision-making and purchase behavior — by going beyond transactional, demographic and life style orientation, to the deeper, darker regions of personality — which get to the true emotional drivers of who we are and why we buy the things we buy. So I went back to the source.
“Women are the driving force of the global economy. And men make the majority of senior-level business decisions. Men have the final say in designing and approving products aimed at women; developing marketing campaigns that target women, and creating retail environments to attract women.”
Bridget Brennan, “Why She Buys”
It would be interesting and no doubt entertaining to watch the CEO to try to walk a mile in high heels, as the CEO is most often a man. In fact, men occupy 97% of the CEO positions in Fortune 1,000 companies, and 66% of CMO positions. Yet women are responsible for more than 80% of consumer spending.
This is an interesting dichotomy that will be perhaps the most important factor in shaping the competitive landscape in a pull marketplace, where marketing (i.e. customer engagement) — and not executive management – will determine brand advantage and ultimately financial performance. It’s like trying to do business on Mars when the bulk of your customers live on Venus.
Filed under: Marketing Theory | Tags: customer loyalty, marketing, organizational philosophy
When marketers talk about customer value, are we referring to the value the company provides to the customer, or the value the customer provides to the company? Unfortunately, most often it’s the latter. In a customer-controlled marketplace this has to be reversed, but not many companies are able to measure or even understand value from a customer perspective.
And when we talk about customer loyalty, do we understand the link to real value and sustained personal engagement, or is it something we measure in transactional terms? What more CMOs are finding is that traditional loyalty programs are no longer effective in building true value-based loyalty.
