In this industry of Marketing - in all of it’s forms - we talk a lot about Influence and Persuasion. But what do we really mean? What does it mean to Influence someone or to Persuade them? What are we trying to get them to do and why? At any given Social Media, PR or Marketing conference we throw around these words a lot, and no one bats an eye.
If you were to ask your average consumer if they want to be influenced or persuaded by a company, what do you think the answer would be?
@anthromeg on her blog - Applying Anthropology: Why P&G’s Global Strategy “Persuasion” Strategy is Flawed points to a recent article about P&G and some questionable wording on the part of their CMO.
In a recent Businessweek article Bob McDonald, the current CEO of P&G outlined his strategy. Alarmingly, he talks about “persuading” customers in various markets to use their products. I think this quote sums it up nicely:
“That means persuading men in India to shave with disposable razors, convincing African women of the benefits of Western feminine hygiene products, and selling more teeth whiteners to Americans.”
Without even going into the ethics of this strategy which could be its own blog post, I’d like to discuss why this strategy will fail in the long run.
One word: culture. The products in our lives are cultural manifestations. They are artifacts that play specific roles in our norms, traditions, rituals, customs, rites, etc., etc., etc. As such, they are imbedded into our lives for specific reasons.
If one stops top think about it wording like this is a little unsettling but many of us use this type of wording everyday at work. Before we go on let’s stop and look at the actual definitions of these words to see why it is that we’re so uncomfortable with them. According to Dictionary.com:
Persuade –verb
- to prevail on (a person) to do something, as by advising or urging.
- to induce to believe by appealing to reason or understanding; convince.
Influence –noun
- the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.
- the action or process of producing effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of another or others.
- a person or thing that exerts influence.
Influence -verb
- to exercise influence on; affect; sway.
- to move or impel (a person) to some action.
Again, there isn’t anything ovetly bad about these definitions. What these definitions and our own use of the words fail to get at are the two most important factors: Intent and Will.
Intent: In communications and marketing, intent, for me, is everything. What is the intent of this interaction? Is it to really get to know me or is it to feign interest in order to sell me something? Do you really care how I’m doing or what I’m interested in or are you just looking to fill a KPI? Are you just looking for clicks, likes and RT’s or do you want to know more about me so that you can better serve my needs.
This is the same point that Megan makes in her post about P&G. Are you just looking to sell the developing World existing products developed for the Western World or do you want to learn what their needs are and then figure out how to best suit their needs - which *might* just be accomplished with existing products.
Will: The reason Marketing is often seen as sleezy isn’t because of the above problem if intent. Everyone tries to get their way, not just Marketing, but when we seek to persuade or influence people against their will, or trick them into something, this is where the hairs on our necks start to stand on end. Manipulation of human will is one of those base human triggers that go against the very nature of humanity.
Every Most marketers I know are really good people and never *set out* to manipulate people. But sometimes we find outselves so wrapped up in delivering a particular outcome that we find ourselves using tactics that go against our own human nature. And once we go down that road, it’s hard to go back.
My ask is that as you find yourself in meetings or at conferences talking about ways to Influence and Persuade customers, stop a minute and think about why you are doing this. Are you genuinely trying to help the customer or just meet some arbitrary numbers?
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