| Your Customers Beg To Differ | | | | them" and subconsciously ignores those |
| The promise of the information age has fallen on | | | | messages... pushing them into their very own junk |
| deaf ears. Futurists have been touting our epoch | | | | mail filter. |
| as the age of information but your customers | | | | Sometimes, these "rules" don't work well and |
| have other ideas and these ideas have spawned | | | | need updating. For those of us who have ever |
| an entire new set of tools specifically designed to | | | | bought a home we have seen this filtering first |
| ignore you. | | | | hand. Suddenly, while in the house hunting mode, |
| Let's use the metaphor of email to make this | | | | we "notice" every FOR SALE sign within view as |
| point. On average, you probably receive upwards | | | | we move about. Then, once we have purchased |
| of 100 emails or more a day -- more if you are a | | | | a house ..."PUFF" all the FOR SALE signs suddenly |
| member of an email centric company like Stealing | | | | disappear. This is an example of selective |
| Share®. There was a time when email was a | | | | attention. Automotive brands rely heavily on this |
| powerful way to communicate because it was | | | | form of marketing. They realize that consumers |
| almost immediate and took place right on the | | | | will filter out the ads when they are not in the |
| desktop. It required the use of a technology that | | | | market and will focus in when they are. It is a |
| was already integrated into the workflow of most | | | | terribly inefficient model that requires great reach |
| white-collar employees. It was intrusive and left a | | | | and frequency (read CASH) because no one can |
| fine paper trail. It was a perfect microcosm of | | | | pinpoint where and when the motivated buyers |
| "the information age". | | | | will appear. |
| It is All SPAM | | | | Getting Around The Filters |
| Today, with the constant bombardment of emails, | | | | There is a way around these filters. At Stealing |
| just to make the technology useful we need to | | | | Share we call it a Brandface - an active definition |
| install SPAM filters whose sole job it is to remove | | | | of the customer when they use the brand. It is a |
| at best, or highlight, at worse unsolicited emails. If | | | | powerful tool of self-description that defines your |
| these filters "believe" that the email is "junk" it | | | | brand by the self-definition of the target audience |
| either deletes it immediately or places it into a | | | | and therefore exceeds the category definition of |
| junk mail folder. | | | | product of service. It is as if, in the SPAM filter of |
| As an email end-user, at the end of everyday we | | | | life, they have added your domain to their |
| need to sort through the emails chocked full of | | | | address book because your messages are |
| pornography, Viagra ads, penile dysfunction | | | | addressed directly to them. |
| enhancement and the latest stock tips to make | | | | The idea is simple enough but the execution is the |
| sure that nothing of REAL importance was | | | | art. It requires collaboration with a marketing |
| inadvertently deleted. | | | | department that realizes that brand promise is |
| A close look at these SPAM filters is worthwhile | | | | every bit as important as product promise and |
| because they work very much like that natural | | | | that understanding the emotional self-description |
| filters that your most coveted target audience | | | | of your target market is even more important |
| uses everyday to make heads or tails out of the | | | | than the full understanding of your product, |
| din of marketing noise around them. The average | | | | service or category benefits. |
| consumer today receives over 1,800 marketing | | | | Research Won't Help You |
| messages each and every day and this does not | | | | These emotional tenets will not be found in your |
| include all of the messages they are subjected to | | | | market research, although they may very well be |
| on the web. It is easily twice that number of | | | | christened in it. To identify these tenets, we |
| messages if you include all the banner ads, | | | | employ a preceptive behavioral model that |
| pop-ups and solicitations that come our way at | | | | provides us with the insights that we then test in |
| every site we visit. This is not "information," it is | | | | the research. Ask your potential customer why |
| noise. Your potential customer is spending the | | | | they drink the brand of beer they drink and they |
| vast majority of its day, not digesting all the | | | | will tell you that they like the taste (as if anyone |
| information they receive but in filtering out all of | | | | drinks a brand of beer that they hate). Ask them |
| the noise that comes to it unbidden. We are more | | | | why they shop where they do and they will tell |
| aptly in the age of knowledge -- a filtered subset | | | | you price, selection and convenience. You don't |
| of the age of information. | | | | need market research to tell you this, any eight |
| Customers Develop Filters | | | | year old could do the same. The value of your |
| Back to our email SPAM filter illustration. The filter | | | | market research is found in the research and |
| on our computers looks for certain pre-defined | | | | modeling you do BEFORE you ever go into the |
| attributes that might indicate SPAM. These can be | | | | field. Focus groups won't help you and one-on-one |
| a specific type of layout, image or domain. It can | | | | interviews will only hint at it. To find the |
| be set to search for particular words or phrases | | | | self-description that propels your message past all |
| and content and exclude and and all of those. | | | | of the filters and directly into the hearts of your |
| Living in the consumer-oriented society that | | | | most coveted consumer, you need the tools of |
| surrounds us all requires the same set of filters. | | | | customer anthropology. |
| You customer scans for content that "is not for | | | | |