In the marketing, advertising and PR world, we do a lot of difficult things. And before you make a Mad Men joke
about 4 drink lunches and hyper-loaded expense accounts, let me just quash that. It may have happened in the 1950s, but if it exists on a normal basis in 2010, please point me in that direction!
One of the hardest things to do, though, is separate yourself from your audience.
Basically, you are not your audience.
You, Mr./Ms. Communicator, are hyper-sensitive to your brand, your industry and your marketing channels.
You pay more attention to most everything associated with your company that any current or potential customer.
You have access to studies and seminars and surveys on why Ad X or Press Release Y WILL work.
You also tend to base your campaigns on how YOU feel about it or how it makes YOU feel.
You probably live somewhere else, eat different things and have a different overall lifestyle than your consumers.
We all do it…it’s human nature, to wish that everyone viewed the world the same way we do.
That means the secret to an effective campaign is removing yourself from the equation. Think like your audience, think about what motivates them, think about how your brand REALLY fits into their life.
In the new digital age, it is even more important to act this way, because the marketing world can be several months ahead of where people are.
Case in point: Geo-Location. Despite it being a hot marketing vehicle, only 4% of Americans have ever used FourSquare, GoWalla or a similar service. Also, a whopping 84% of Americans had never even HEARD of such a thing. Yes, this will grow, but how much time and effort should marketers be spending on a medium that 4/5 of the country has never even heard of? Each marketer will have to do their own calculus to figure out if it’s worth their time.
I am going to venture to say that the 16% of the people who know of Geo-Location are mostly techies or communicators. In this case, we are WAAAAAY ahead of the curve.
My best advice for you, my marketing friends, is to get to know your customer as much as possible. Know who they are, where they come from, what they respond to, and then build programs and initiatives that impact them. And, as hard as it may be, remove yourself from the equation.
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