Why Doing It in the Dark Is Bad for Business
Women want to feel
If you’re marketing to women and you don’t make a connection with the way they live their lives, it’s like you don’t care.
Yes, I hear you saying, “But Kelly, ‘feel’ has more than one meaning.” True! Studies show that both women and men engage more with a product if you appeal to their sense of touch.
Men want to see
So if you’re marketing to men and you’re only describing emotions, it’s like you’re refusing to let them turn on the light. Why wouldn’t you want to let them see?
Tip: Make your benefits visual as well as emotional, to reach out to both men and women. Better yet, narrow your focus: If you know your Ideal Customer is a man, just turn on the light!
Searching for a sensational bed-headline with long-lasting benefits? Click here. If you just want to see something quick, try this out. Go on. You know you want to.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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19 July 2008, 7:15 am
I’ll take it any way I can get it, baby, lights on, lights off…
-Brett
PS – good article
Brett Legree’s last blog post…viking fridays – a long road.
19 July 2008, 8:14 am
Brett,
^^
. .
^
o
If I can’t do a tip with a little fun thrown in on a Saturday, what good is it?
Regards,
Kelly
19 July 2008, 9:15 am
Kelly: Nicely done! That was certainly a creative analogy!! Yet it got the point across perfectly. The Men would be proud.
steph’s last blog post…And Now for Something Completely Different: Life of Steph
19 July 2008, 9:26 am
Steph,
Thanks. Glad you liked it.
Until later,
Kelly
19 July 2008, 9:31 am
Totally not the direction I thought you were going with this…
But you are right about the visual thing for men, and the touch thing in general. I think of it this way:
Put up a tent at a fairground that says “Beer” and you’ll have good success. Put up a tent at a fairground that says “Cold Beer” and you’re lines will be longer. Put up a tent at a fairground that says “Cold Beer” with bikini-clad hostesses to usher you in, and you’ll be looking for a place to put up another tent…
(The other moral of the story is that even if you have a great marketing idea, try to find a way to make it better.)
~Graham
19 July 2008, 9:46 am
Graham,
Your first sentence made me LOL, and the rest of the comment was even better. Thanks!
I have to put in a link that will show what happens when you get sex and the fairgrounds wrong, though:
http://jonathanfields.com/blog/slogan-train-wrecks-taste-my-nuts/
Do click. The article and the discussion are great, but oh, the photo may put tears in your eyes.
On the last point: yes, absolutely. Never stop with your first idea. Even if the next 12 are awful, at least then you’ve confirmed the brilliance of the first one, but it’s more likely that you’ll improve the idea with tweaking.
Regards,
Kelly
19 July 2008, 9:51 am
That is hilarious!
Reminds me of a hot dog vendor we had in town here. No word of a lie — emblazoned on the side of his cart was his logo and company name: Mr. Tubesteak.
I couldn’t stop laughing, I’ll tell you that (I still kill myself thinking about it). But I never bought a hot dog from him…
~Graham
19 July 2008, 10:25 am
There’s a guy on Highway 11 between North Bay and Toronto (had to give landmarks for those who might go that way) who sells Arctic Cat snowmobiles.
The business is called:
Arnie’s Cat House.
I laugh EVERY time I drive by that place.
http://www.ibegin.com/canada/ontario/novar/arnie39s-cat-house-hwy-11–hwy-592.html
And then there was this place we went to in New Zealand, called Knuckle Sandwich… I always ask my kids if they want a knuckle sandwich for lunch, with mustard.
Then I saw it…
I’ll dig up the photo some time.
Brett Legree’s last blog post…viking fridays – a long road.
19 July 2008, 10:26 am
Graham,
One word: EEEK.
The hot dog vendor falls under the category of What’s Wrong With People. Did he check that business name with anyone at all? Anyone?
I’ve just gotten Jonathan’s nut vendor out of my mind (though not completely!). Now your guy’s going to be stuck in my head all day. Did I say eeek?
Later,
Kelly
19 July 2008, 10:34 am
Hey, Good tips, Kelly.
I don’t run a business where I’m trying to gain customers. But I think this advice can be used to help market myself when attracting the fairer sex.
(Except Claire Chaffington, of course
(She obviously didn’t market her visual appeal too well….) That’s why I’m not interested in her.
Friar’s last blog post…I tried, but couldn’t eat this candy…
19 July 2008, 10:35 am
Brett,
Too funny. I wonder if he might be targeting well with that. Young men are probably more likely snowmobilers? I’d do a little research if I were helping him out (of course), but maybe he did luck into an okay use of humor there.
My image of this sort of naming is a guy and a beer, cracking himself up at his cleverness. No research, no testing, or even just running it by some friends/ family who don’t share the same worldview. You don’t always have to be P.C., but thinking it out is pretty helpful….
Knuckle sandwich, yes. We say that too. So it’s clever and everybody gets it, but do I want to purchase something there? Hmm, hmm.
That’s the rated “G” version of the hot dog vendor. It doesn’t tell me why the guy’s great, it only tells me he thinks he’s funny.
Later,
Kelly
19 July 2008, 10:36 am
You wanna know a stupid business name?
In Ottawa, there’s a Chinese restaurant, called “HUNG FATT”
Nice.
(I can just picture greasy gobs of animal tallow, hanging off meat hooks).
But they must be doing SOMETHING right. They’ve been in business for over 30 years.
Friar’s last blog post…I tried, but couldn’t eat this candy…
19 July 2008, 10:41 am
Friar,
Design, writing, marketing, and dating! True!
You do use it, though. Those papers of yours (being read mainly by gents) have to be very concrete and visual, I’d assume. If you talk too much to the joy to be gained from the new blargy-blargy process or instruments at the Widget Factory, you’ll be on the short road to working for Harvey’s.
“Pickles on your free burger, madam?”
Later,
kelly
19 July 2008, 10:43 am
Here’s one where there’s either a language barrier, or someone being “clever” wanted you to think there was a language barrier.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nimble2/2052724503/
Umm, yeah.
-Brett
Brett Legree’s last blog post…viking fridays – a long road.
19 July 2008, 10:44 am
@Kelly,
Some days, working at Harvey’s would be more interesting…
-Brett
Brett Legree’s last blog post…viking fridays – a long road.
19 July 2008, 10:48 am
Everybody keeps sneaking comments under me.
Friar,
Hung Fatt? Ugh. All I can say to that is I hope it means something pleasant in Chinese.
Whenever I go to a new Chinese place, I always ask what the name means. Quick rapport, often a very interesting answer, and they never forget the lady who asked.
Names English-speakers can’t understand aren’t best practice to me as an Experience Designer, which is why Chinese places are often thought of as dime-a-dozen. But I do enjoy hearing about the names they’ve chosen. Sort of like “why’d you name your kid Olaf?” There’s usually a good story behind it.
Later…
19 July 2008, 10:49 am
Brett,
I *really* don’t want to know how you found that in a search.
19 July 2008, 10:52 am
@Kelly
Yes, more of these TIPS, please. Any “insider information” on to attract women is greatly appreciated!
@Kelly and Brett
The other day at work, I was talking to the Janitor mopping up the floor. I thought, “Hey, that dosen’t actually look so bad”. At least at the end of the day, he gets to physically SEE the results of his labour….a clean floor.
I jokingly asked if he wanted to trade jobs with me for the day (I’ll mop, and HE can edit and re-edit the documents).
He shook his head, smiled and laughed. And said “No”.
He might have a menial job, but he certainly seems happier than some of us professionals.
Friar’s last blog post…I tried, but couldn’t eat this candy…
19 July 2008, 10:57 am
@Kelly,
See, there was a Chinese restaurant in Hamilton that had a similar name, and we thought, “wonder if there’s one called ‘Fu King’?”
Well, now we know…
Brett Legree’s last blog post…viking fridays – a long road.
19 July 2008, 11:01 am
Hey Brett — didn’t know you lived up here — I’m in Thunder Bay myself, home of the famous Mr…. well, you know.
Since we are getting further and further into this, and because of the Ontario landmarks, I’ll add this one with hesitance. I can’t bring myself to tell the whole story in this public forum, but I’ll let you fill in the blanks.
My friend and I happened to be driving through farm country around Cambridge (the city right next to Kitchener-Waterloo, the home of RIM and the Blackberry, for those who don’t know but are really interested to find out…). To set the scene, many farmers have road-side stalls where you can stop to buy their produce. At one of the farms we passed, we saw a couple of 12-year old girls with a handmade sign advertising the fruit their family grew there.
Again, I’m not going to be graphic to avoid offending any delicate sensibilities, so I’ll just tell you the sign read “Fresh ____”. Fill in what you think the worst possible fresh fruit that two pre-pubescent girls should be advertising. (If you can’t figure it out, consider yourself to be a good and wholesome person.)
Back then, just out of my teens, it was extremely funny. But as a Dad today, I’m horrified. I don’t know what their parents were thinking… (Apparently they weren’t.)
~Graham
19 July 2008, 11:25 am
Yes, folks, from janitors to _____, you never know where a wholesome post on sex and Customer Experience will go, which is why Saturday blog posts are a very different animal….
Friar,
He’s happy when he’s at work. When he gets home and has to figure out how to pay the bills, he dreams of the advantages you have and posts about his envy on some other blog.
Insider info. It’s what everybody comes here for. Not usually “inside dating,” but what the heck. You’re here, I’ll do my best.
Brett,
The Internet makes time-wasting SO much fun, doesn’t it. Get an odd idea and run with it for hours if you want. Did I ever tell you about my collection of funny elevator-button photos from Flickr? (Oh, probably.)
Graham,
If you hadn’t been a teen, you might not have thought of it that way. Maybe?
Still, “Farm-Fresh Fruit $1.99″ works a lot better for me.
Later,
Kelly
19 July 2008, 12:03 pm
lol – hey, perhaps. Though I’ve never claimed to ever be “good and wholesome”. But I can’t be the only one who read it the wrong way… could I?
Wow, this conversation really seems to be over-run with guys from Ontario. Wonder what that says about the whole topic? (Or about Ontario for that matter…)
~Graham
19 July 2008, 1:06 pm
@Kelly
My company starts manual laborers (with Grade 10 education) at ~ $32-38K a year, with full medical/dental benefits.
The janitor probably started working when he was 18. No grad school and university debts. His house is probably paid off and he’ll retire with a full pension in his early 50′s. He might actually worry less about paying the bills than someone like me or Brett.
Oh well. The grass is always greener, I suppose.
Friar’s last blog post…I tried, but couldn’t eat this candy…
19 July 2008, 1:25 pm
Friar—as Erma Bombeck says, “… over the septic tank.”
Graham—I attract Canadians. It’s a gift.
19 July 2008, 4:42 pm
@Graham,
Yes, Friar & I live in the same town, in Ontario. And we both lived in Hamilton around the same time, and were at the same university… our paths were destined to intersect again, I guess!
And that sign… hmm, yes, it could definitely be taken the wrong way.
@Friar & Kelly,
I love it when folks say, “the grass is always greener” now. Before we went to New Zealand, my in-laws kept saying to my wife, “the grass is always greener”. Then we showed them pictures of the green, rolling WINTER hills in the Waikato Region.
Sometimes, the grass really is greener
but I suppose it would make visiting the grandparents a bit harder. Pros & cons to everything…
Brett Legree’s last blog post…viking fridays – a long road.
19 July 2008, 11:06 pm
@Brett – Huh, my wife is from Dundas. We actually lived in Hamilton for a time as well — a year on Herkimer and a year on Hess. That was a ways back though, 1989-91 or so. Ah, the salad days…
~Graham
20 July 2008, 7:24 pm
Kelly,
Maybe the guys are trying to learn something here.
Sense of touch? That’s interesting. So we all want to touch something. I suppose everthing has to be tanglible for us.
Turn on the light! hehe
@Graham – You are so nasty. Was it peaches?
Ellen Wilson’s last blog post…Spontaneous Memoir Meme
20 July 2008, 9:35 pm
Ellen,
I believe Graham was discussing cherries. Ahem.
As to sense of touch: two major studies came out in the last year and I was certain there were going to be gender differences, but either they didn’t think to use gender as a variable (doubtful) or my experience that women are more touch-sensitive is wrong. I was really surprised.
What they did find is that you can separate us into serious touchers and kinda meh about touch. We all want to touch, but for some people it’s a lot more important than for others.
This applies to when you’re literally at the car dealer, say, and you’re touching the leather interior, or to when you’re reading an ad or brochure, and they’re describing the soft, warm leather interior (appealing so your sense of touch even though you can’t touch the product right then).
Something to think about the next time you’re reading one of those slick ads—see if you can tell if they were aiming at you or your husband (“feel” or see), and if they were trying to appeal to your sense of touch, as well.
Until later,
Kelly
20 July 2008, 9:43 pm
Here’s one I found tonight – it seems that “we men” are not as picky as we’d let on…
(lusty bunch of animals, we are!)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/20/scilust120.xml
-Brett
Brett Legree’s last blog post…viking fridays – a long road.
21 July 2008, 7:48 am
@Kelly and Ellen – merely reporting the facts… And Kelly, valiant attempt to defend the parents! Those girls have to be almost in their 30s by now — I wonder what they think about the whole thing?
Intersting study about the touchers. I wonder if the serious touchers are less likely to but on the Internet?
~Graham
21 July 2008, 7:49 am
P.S. – of course by “but” I mean “buy” – Freudian slip…
~Graham
21 July 2008, 8:02 am
Ack! My silly (sort of) off topic comment was eaten!
^ ^
. .
^
o
-Brett
21 July 2008, 8:08 am
Graham,
Ding! You win the prize today. One of the studies was examining just that, and they discovered that yes, the serious touchers are less likely to buy if they are not in person, *unless* you make that appeal to their sense of touch.
On the Internet, that can only be done with words, but in direct mail, you can do it through paper choice (touchers like good paper—ever feel a thin, flimsy business card and feel less like making a purchase from the person?), samples, interactive pieces, etc. Even magazine ads sometimes go for interesting paper choice to make the ad more of an Experience.
Words are the key everywhere, though. If I’m the salesperson, hopefully I’ve been trained to reinforce the feel of the car by talking with touch words, instead of just standing there and expecting you to get the point.
Later,
Kelly
21 July 2008, 8:11 am
Brett,
How dare you say “lusty” around here!
As long as you give me the “ack” ccomment to go fish it out, feel free. Must check your link now.
Later…
21 July 2008, 8:20 am
Brett,
That is the coolest study! Bookmarked. Absolutely fascinating, and not just because it means Claire Chaffington has got a chance.
Squared shoulders, more hands, big fish stories—all in the genes! OMG.
Here’s another one that fascinated/ disturbed me this week:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/womens-brains-uareu-different-from-mens-ndash-and-heres-scientific-proof-870849.html
You try so hard to see the world as gender neutral with a few little exceptions, and darn it, it’s not quite.
Thanks!
Later-later…
21 July 2008, 8:29 am
Lusty. Lusty, lusty, lusty.
The one you linked to is pretty good too, and makes sense. I mean, we are basically walking chemistry sets, and men & women have different sets of chemicals (slightly), so of course some of the more important parts would be different. Even stuff that isn’t so obvious, like our brains.
Perhaps we shouldn’t strive to think of the world as gender neutral, rather, ability neutral or something like that. I mean, let us celebrate our differences and at the same time agree that anyone can do just about anything with enough perseverance.
-Brett
21 July 2008, 9:23 am
Brett,
It knows you now!
Nothing like a little geeky news to start off my morning.
“Ability neutral”—I like that. The one thing I took away from the brain study was that even with all this evidence, they don’t know whether men’s/ women’s brains are destined to be that way or whether it’s because we exercise them differently. So they know we process stuff differently, but nature vs. nurture is still a question. In a generation or two, with parents raising their kids in an ability neutral way, maybe they can figure things out more.
The caveman-behavior of the puzzle-solving guys seems hardwired, though. Cool stuff.
Later,
Kelly