The Marketing Power of High Voltage

Persuasion, seduction, negotiation, and fear have lost their effectiveness, to reaffirm the agreement, close the sale, and make cash registers ring. White, brighter, faster and better - while intriguing - not motivate consumers to act. Marketing experts today are shifting strategies for stronger connection with customers that are leveraging the power of the four Ps of high voltage communications (TM) - personality, purpose, person, and presence - to promote its products, services, issues and organizations.

Sick of the impersonal quality of most of their daily lives, Americans are trying to reconnect and build stronger relationships. "In all areas of life, we see a tendency to want to convert impersonal transactions in personal relationships," says the renowned futurist Daniel Yankelovich.

Connection, or the feeling of belonging, is one of the first three human needs, according to psychologist Abraham Maslow, after physical needs. In our society, well-fed, almost all of our physiological and safety needs are met, but for many the need for connection is not, and smart businesses are responding.

The image of business today has changed, says futurist Faith Popcorn in her bestselling book click. "(Business will) no longer seen as a war to win by beating the competition, but viewed as a mosaic complicated to develop a relationship at a time."

Sharp Marketing forge strong connections with their constituents by building deeper relationships that translates into trust and that trust is built on four Ps of high voltage communications (TM).

Personality: The personality requires companies to be self-aware, self-acceptance and self-disclosure. To be aware of self and acceptance, many marketers use a tool called "gap analysis". During a gap analysis, the search is conducted to determine if the reputation of a modern society as desired her: if not, more research is needed to discover why. If it is because of the perceptions of consumers, marketers know they must do a better job of promoting, and if it is a real problem, understand changes must be made.

The person also needs to be authentic and, after the recent corporate scandals, too, being authentic never been more important.

"In the current context, it is time for brands to rethink their basic foundation of the brand and consider adding a column on trust. Should clarify the values ​​of your organization and synchronization with the values ​​of their customers," says Ed Keller, CEO of RoperASW, one the world's most respected market research firms.

Smart marketers gain the confidence of consumers when they are self-disclosure and / or willing to make fun of themselves. A good example is when Jaguar in front of his reputation for mechanical problems and turned around its business to promote, "We kept what he loved. The rest is history."

To put a face on a product problem, or organization, marketing high-voltage (TM) uses personality by customizing their products. But not just a pretty face, but they are also using narrative.
"The power of the story is overshadowing the power of the sound bite in advertising", Melinda Davis writes in his book The New Culture of Desire: Five strategies radically new that will change your business and your life. A good story is more personal and more credible than a contrived advertising slogan, and we remember a long history, after a catchy slogan has disappeared from our memory.

Dave Thomas of Wendy, Scottie Mayfield Mayfield dairies Ioccoa Lee and Chrysler are good examples of how marketers have used personality to promote products. These executives are comfortable talking about themselves and are able to link their stories to the needs of customers. Customization and storytelling work because they help people form emotional bonds with the company and its products.

Purpose: The majority of companies express purpose in the form of a mission statement, and while many companies have written mission statements, just to live. Many mission statements boast noble virtues, principles, and intentions, but it's really useful to steer the ship company, and constituents know it.
Smart companies realize that when they put employees, customers and society first, profits follow. With the creation of great workplaces, attracting the best employees and consumers choose them over competitors if they offer hiqh quality products and excellent service at a good price, and if they are socially responsible.

Recent years have seen an explosion in the field of corporate social responsibility. Today, almost all large companies have specific guidelines on social responsibility and are consciously engaged in efforts to contribute to society.

Po 'marketing call with the aim of "branding cause," and one of the country's leading experts on brand because it is Carol Cone, chairman of Boston-based Cone, Inc.

"As a mark litigation continues to evolve, so that public expectations about the role of businesses in satisfying the needs of society. In the new reality, companies must implement meaningful, substantive programs on social issues to bring their values ​​to life , to articulate their soul ',' and answer the question 'What is? "Cone says.

Those who put their money where their mission is - in the body, Ben and Jerry, and Patogonia - are amply rewarded by consumers.

Person: Person describes the masks we wear, or the image is assumed in order to facilitate communication. In business, we call that person "branding".

"Branding is limited to establishing a relationship," says Charlotte Beers, former head of two of the most prestigious advertising, Ogilvy and Mather and J. Walter Thompson. Much has been written about branding, and for good reason. Without it, a product, service, issue or organization is no different than its competition and will die. But futurist Melinda Davis states that the power of brand is in decline. In its place, says consumers will come to depend on new meta-brands that are idenified with a creed, or manifest the market, and not bound in a product category. Davis sites Oprah Winfrey as an example of this emerging trend. Women interested in improving the look out Oprah for advice on a wide range of issues from what recipe to cook the right books to read. The meta-Oprah brand is also a great example of marketing high-voltage (TM) because it has all four Ps: personality, purpose, person, and presence.

Presence: Presence refers to the way a company operates around the world to the way they communicate with voters. In the past, marketing depended mainly one-way means of communication such as advertising and publicity. No more.

Consumers want their say. "(We) hope to connect, to be heard, you are - at least, to be seen - in a world that feels increasingly invisible," writes Davis.

Experts suggest using vehicles with two-way communication, such as word-of-mouth marketing, Internet and stronger relationships with consumers programs to dialogue with consumers and build critical relationships.

The personality, purpose, person, and there are not linear, but interrelated. Each depends on the other.
The personality, purpose, person, and there can be depicted as the four points of a cross that is contained within a circle. Personality is at the base of the cross where it reasons; purpose is at the top. On the far left, the person resides, and along the opposite is present. If the four points to participate in junior high, high voltage communications (TM) takes place, and here we are at our most powerful marketing....