Good marketing is empathetic marketing

How well do you think you know your potential customer?  Do you understand their challenges , their likely mind set and lifestyle?  To be honest if you don’t your marketing is not going to work.

Think about your own reaction to timely marketing literature or ads.  Let’s imagine you are a women - a mailshot comes through the door just as the days are getting chillier, it extols the virtue of a company’s fleeces, their woolly tights and their throws. “How strange” you might think “I was just thinking I need to get something a bit warmer”

Well, of course,  it’s not strange at all – the mailing company knows that it is highly likely that you will be thinking in that way and that’s why the mailer goes out now and not in the summer…

Of course they still have to overcome a likely objection “I wonder what the quality is like? ” you might think – ah – no problem their customer testimonials are brilliant…

Those who market empathetically will always prompt a higher reaction and conversion.  I was in a local garden centre one weekend and as I paid and walked towards the entrance I caught sight of a poster with an appealing  cat’s face looking straight at me – the caption was “Are you going home – can I come too?

(well done www.farnhamcats.co.uk a branch of the Cats Protection organisation)

So let’s process the thinking behind that poster:

• Women are the most likely to initiate getting a pet
• Lots of women like to go to garden centres
• As they leave the till area they are likely to be going home
• They will react to a direct appeal from a cute face

Did it work?

Well guess who then spent the afternoon looking at this cat rescue site and others?

And yes,  I did pick out some lovely little cats but common sense ultimately prevailed since our trio of dogs and cat lead a very happy life of mutual respect and affection and the disruption of a new pet might just cause complete havoc.

So Ok, I didn’t get a cat this time, but I did consider something that hadn’t even been in my mind beforehand and I have made others think about getting a cat themselves by sharing this story.

Also a no is not a no forever… that’s the power of empathetic marketing! I'm sure I will see their poster in the same place again!

Did anything recently move you to do something you hadn’t planned?  I’d love to hear.