A 10-year-old’s view of marketing
December 4, 2010
With all our sophisticated marketing tools and years of experience, sometimes we forget the basics.
My (brilliant and precocious!) 10-year-old niece has been lobbying her (no doubt Neanderthal) parents for a cellphone for quite some time. When whining, pleading and begging failed she decided to take a different approach. A PowerPoint presentation. Filled with structure, logic…and pure emotion.
In addition to using the persuasive power of positioning — she wisely started the presentation with the key to any parent’s heart and fears: “Emergencies,” she also divided her argument into “needs” vs. “wants.”
And, just to be sure she reaches her ultimate goal, she closes the deal by specifying the brand names of acceptable phones.
So, it got me to thinking about the number of meetings in which we all argue about the finer points of positioning, parsing consumer responses to the nth degree and analyzing data to often ridiculous decimal points. While I would never say these things are unnecessary, I do wonder if we wouldn’t be better served as marketers if we remembered to do the “gut” check…what do consumers really want? What do they need? How can our products best serve those needs? And, what’s the extra oomph required to satisfy what they really want?
So easy, even a 10-year-old gets it. Yet, so hard for experienced marketers to recall and put into practice on a daily basis.
As for my niece and her coveted phone, I’m not sure she has won over her parents…yet. But, her example is a great reminder and she’s welcome to work with me anytime!
