When does marketing interaction begin?
My wife and I take turns picking out which DVDs we are going to rent each weekend. Usually watching two movies a weekend, she picks one, and I pick one. However, when she is leery about my choice of movie, her comments always seem to amuse me.
Prior to the movie starting, she instinctively starts throwing out comments about how this movie "can't possibly be any good." Sometimes it takes little more than watching which previews precede the movie. If the previews are no good, then she immediately concludes that the movie itself "can't possibly be any good." If she hasn't heard of any of the actors in the movie, then she concludes the movie "can't possibly be any good." If she hasn't heard of the movie, or seen a preview of the movie before, then the movie "can't possibly be any good."
This leaves me in a pre-movie position of typically trying to defend a movie that I haven't even seen. My coaxing usually includes phrases and statements designed to get her to let down her guard and simply give the movie a chance. My logical point of argument always is based on the fact that if she is thinking that the movie is going to be horrible before it even starts, then of course she is not going to like the movie.
However, despite my best efforts, she has trouble not judging a book by its cover, so to speak. There is just something that she has a hard time getting over before she can relax and enjoy the movie. The funny thing is that the opposite is also true, when one of her favorite actors is starring in the movie; she immediately bestows wonderful qualities and undeserving praise for the yet-to-be-viewed flick.
Even though these preconceived judgments are foreign to me, my wife is with the majority of most Americans when it comes to pretty much everything they interact with.
Regardless of whether you are talking about the preconceived ideas a person has about a movie they are about to watch, or about how they think and feel about you and your company, it is important to understand how people are interacting with you, and how you are interacting with them.
Understanding the breadth of a customer's interaction
Nothing is random in an effective marketing environment. Much like any trip to Disneyworld, you must have every little detail planned out if you are going to create an effective interactive experience for the recipients of your marketing campaigns.
When does interaction begin? Now, it begins now. Interaction with your prospective customers begins the exact moment you touch any one of their six senses: sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, or emotion. Yes, I included emotion because not only is this one of the six senses, it just so happens to be the most powerful and important of the accepted senses.
Think of your marketing campaign as a movie production, only this particular chore requires effective use of much less fluid mediums to create the experience you are looking for. In the same way my wife begins thinking about whether or not she is going to like a movie, even before the thing begins playing, your marketing recipients are going to begin to start thinking before they even get anywhere near the message you are trying to send.
What are they thinking? When does the thinking begin? If you are using the mail as your primary means of communicating a message and creating an experience, then your movie production begins when they check their mail.
Understanding where this experience begins, allows you to literally visualize the experience through the eyes of your recipient.
Where are your people starting their experience? Where are they when they check their mail? Well, that depends obviously on the person; therefore you are going to need to consider multiple options here. For some, the experience begins on the street in front of the mailbox. Others may not look at their mail until it is flopped on the kitchen counter next to the bowl where they keep their wallet, their keys, and their loose change.
If you are marketing to businesses, then the experience may never even get off the ground at all if you aren't able to successfully navigate your way out of the mailroom, or off the secretary's desk. Even if you are successful in getting to the correct person's mailbox, are they checking their box while standing between the trash can and the copier, or do the have their mail placed neatly on their desk?
The answers to these questions will allow you to properly evaluate your different options and present you with a new set of questions.
What strategy have you put into place that will allow your experience to make it to the next stage? What have you put into place that is going to create the right thoughts in the mind of the person who is touching your piece in the first place? Are there going to be preconceived, unhelpful opinions about your piece before the thing is even opened?
While we will be exploring the answers to these questions throughout later articles, it is first important for you to begin to understand where and when the interaction with your customer begins. It begins immediately, oftentimes before you were ever prepared for it to begin.
To be continued…
