December 6, 2011

Just Say Thank You

A little appreciation goes a long way

You probably thank your clients in some way as a matter of course. It’s definitely the polite thing to do (my Mom told me that). But it’s more than that. Studies show that a simple thank-you has a significant impact in both social and business settings. In short, gratitude is a big motivator of behavior (wait, Mom told me that, too).

A few examples:

  • A study in the Journal of Personal and Social Psychology looked at the effect of a job applicant’s gratitude. Sixty-nine people were asked to help a fictional applicant with his cover letter. He thanked just half of them. Only 32 percent of those he didn’t thank helped him a second time, while 66 percent of those he did thank helped again.
  • Restaurant customers who get a handwritten thank-you on their receipt leave bigger tips.
  • The owner of a small jewelry store ran an experiment in which some customers got a phone call just to thank them. Another group got a call in which they were thanked and alerted to a sale, while a third group got no call. Business increased that year—with the thanks-only group accounting for 70 percent of the increase, and the second group accounting for 30 percent.

What might some extra thank-yous do in health care, for example? We’re not talking about a great deal of time or money here. How about a thank-you card in the mail after a new patient’s first visit? Or a postcard or email after that annual checkup: “Thanks for coming in!” Be sure to make the thank-you the sole purpose. Patients may well be more inclined to come back—which is good for the practice and for them.

By the way, true feelings of appreciation (and other positive emotions) can actually boost the immune system and increase heart-rhythm coherence, according to research at the Institute for Heart Math. Other benefits include fewer health complaints overall and protection against heart attacks. So when you do a little more to say thanks, you just might get healthier too.

Posted in Branding, Marketing, social networking | Leave a comment
November 29, 2011

Patients are Increasingly Online

The Case for Engaging Patients on Their Turf

by Bonnie Freitas, Marketing Assistant

The return of flu season reminds us that there is something new in the air: more doctors and patients are engaging outside the exam room, online.

It’s already commonplace for patients to research their symptoms online and even to self-diagnose. They might put themselves at ease, or they might gravitate towards worst-case scenarios (I don’t just have a stiff neck, I have meningitis!). Either way, doctors have less control of the conversation—which is often their worst-case scenario.

Many physicians are responding by stepping up their end of the conversation via social media. And it’s not just to assert control. They see it as an opportunity to make more meaningful connections. According to a study done by YouGov, “twenty-five percent of consumers said that they are likely to connect with hospitals via social media in the future.” And that number is only growing.

Physicians need to be accessible on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Whether it’s tweeting on ways to prevent the flu this season or encouraging their patients to come in for their annual checkup, doctors’ activity on social media is becoming more important in making or breaking their patient-doctor relationships.

The problem for physicians is that opting out is not neutral. It can hurt a practice. That’s because as more and more patients engage online more often, they will gravitate towards physicians who choose to engage online, whoever they are—including quacks.

Engaging online is not just a preference. It is, arguably, a responsibility.

Posted in Marketing, social networking | 1 Comment
October 6, 2011

Ask Your Customers for a Favor

Ben Franklin’s Marketing Tip

When you like someone, you do nice things for them, right? Not necessarily. Psychologists tell us that it can work the other way around: we like people more when we’re nice to them. (The reverse is also true: we come to hate those we treat badly.)

This doesn’t seem to make sense until you look at it through the lens of cognitive dissonance, which is the mental discomfort that comes from holding conflicting thoughts. Your subconscious thought process goes something like this: I just did something nice for someone I don’t like. What?! Why would I do that? I guess I do like him.

The phenomenon is called the Ben Franklin Effect. Franklin was a keen observer of human nature (and “master marketer”). The story goes that he once turned a detractor into an ally—“without paying any servile respect to him”—just by writing to the man to ask whether he could borrow a particularly unusual book from his library. Franklin was known to be a book collector, so the rival was flattered. He sent the book, and Franklin returned it a week later with a thank-you note. Subsequently, the two became good friends.

Can we apply the Ben Franklin Effect to marketing? We should of course keep striving to serve our customers and clients, but maybe we should also consider what we can ask them to do for us. I don’t see this magically converting people who just don’t like or want what you have to offer. But I do see it as a way to strengthen engagement with, and positive feelings for, your brand.

How to go about doing this? Typically, we ask customers to do something for us in return for something. But it may be better if you don’t return the favor immediately. That leaves some space for the effect to kick in.

For example, a bread bakery in my town closed for a number of weeks to renovate and expand. The owners made a special appeal to their customers to help them through the income gap by purchasing “bread futures”—to pay them now for bread they would get later, when the bakery reopened. I’m sure this was a purely practical request on the part of the bakers. But it was also good marketing. Anyone who bought bread futures was probably already a regular, but I suspect that they felt even more devoted to the bakery after extending themselves in this way.

What can your customers do for you?

Posted in Branding, Management, Marketing | Leave a comment
September 15, 2011

Animals on the Brain

In marketing, critters can be an asset or a liability

Animals loom large in human culture and consciousness. That’s not news. At my house, Dudley practically runs the place (poodles are that smart). What is news is that our brains are very specifically wired to pay attention to animals of all kinds.

Recent research has revealed that some cells in the amygdala, a deep part of the brain known to process emotions, are specialized to detect animals. (The research appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience; read an NPR story here.) Scientists studied several parts of the brain, but only in the amygdala did they find cells that responded just to animals, not to people or objects. This makes evolutionary sense: animals can mean food or danger, both extremely important. (though Dudley is neither…go figure)

Earlier work hinted at this. For example, behavioral studies showed that we keep track of people and animals better than things. In one study, people shown a farm scene noticed when a tiny image of person or animal changed, but not when an entire grain silo disappeared.

It’s no wonder that marketers have instinctively turned to animals again and again. Take the MGM lion, which goes all the way back to 1916. Or the Firefox logo, or the Taco Bell Chihuahua. At Bidwell ID, we created a hummingbird logo for Glenmeadow, a retirement-living community. And think of all the sports teams that identify themselves with strong, threatening animals: eagles, hawks, tigers, lions, panthers, bulldogs, bulls, bears.

Still, be careful about associating an animal with your brand. Remember that disappearing grain silo? Just like sex and cuteness, animals are great attention-getters, but they don’t like to share the stage.

Consider these two dog-ad campaigns:

Traveler’s Insurance. Dogs and insurance are not a natural match, so I have to wonder whether the audience remembered what was being sold, never mind the specific brand.

Subaru. I’ll bet that their 2010 “dog-tested” ads were more successful, and not just because US News and World Report named one of them “Best Car Commercial of Superbowl XLIV Sunday.” We strongly associate dogs with cars. And Subaru knew that 7 out of 10 Subaru owners have pets. In contrast, check out their 2007 shark ad. Cool, but how many viewers remembered the brand?

Whether an animal serves as your logo or merely makes an appearance in an ad, it has to support the brand, not steal the show.

Posted in Branding, Marketing | 1 Comment
July 29, 2011

A More Agile Market Communications Plan

Stickiness Means Analytics Plus Planning

I’m all for throwing spaghetti on the walls. It’s fun! I learned that from my sons years ago. But I also learned that actually, it rarely sticks.

If you are not careful, you may find the same thing to be true of online analytics.

Google Analytics is more powerful than you can even imagine. Testing and tweaking is a breeze—well, provided you have some training. Still, continuous feedback has never been so easy, data and refinement never so accessible. Geeky, yes, but I love it.

However, analytics are not a panacea for market research and marketing communications (marcom) planning, which is actually great news. You need to be sure what you are testing in analytics is viable. Here is my conversation with a Google Analytics manager last week:

“How do you determine what to test online?” I asked.

“The client tells us.”

“How do they know what to test?”

He shrugged. He wasn’t sure.

“Couldn’t that lead to bad conclusions?”

Shrug.

I’m not relaying this conversation to sound like a smarty pants; I’m saying that relying solely on analytics is just throwing more spaghetti on the wall, more frequently. You look busier, but you may still end up with spaghetti piled on the floor instead of stuck to the wall.

Back to planning. For those who don’t know, your marcom plan is the matrix that outlines your communications over the next year. It details—by audience—what you are doing, the frequency, the budget, etc. It is static, but that is one of its blessings. It makes sense of your communications for a whole year. No shooting from the hip.

With Google Analytics, though, marcom plans are becoming less static, in good ways. You don’t have to wait a year to evaluate and change your marketing efforts. Google Analytics and marcom planning can be merged this way:

1. Define your audiences

2. Define what online efforts make the most sense to your audience(s)

3. Budget into your marcom plan monthly Google monitoring

4. Make changes! Remember that some online changes can impact those offline, too. For example, an online test might show that a certain headline works better, and that can be carried over to print.

Lastly—and this goes out to all my CEO friends, who, I might add, you should always keep happy—I’m not talking about a budget in flux. I’m talking about planned agility in terms of messaging and channels. Oh look, noodles on the wall!

Posted in Marketing | 2 Comments