If there is one commonly overlooked “truth” in the world of marketing it would have to be the importance perspective plays in creating the marketing messages.
If you’re in charge of creating marketing messages, then it is CRUCIAL that you recognize how your perspective colors your perceptions. In the blog post Business Building Secret: People are actually pretty smart… I wrote about how if you perceive that your potential customers are idiots – then that perception will permeate your business to the core.
Not only will your perspective color the marketing messages that you create but it will permeate and affect every aspect of your business.
There’s a story which illustrates the importance of perspective… I’ll tie in how it relates to marketing perspective after the story…
One day , a wealthy father wanted to show his son how poor people lived so he made arrangements to spend a week living on the farm of an impoverished family.
As they returned to their mansion – the father asked his son , “What did you think of the trip?”
“It was great , Dad.”
“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.
“Oh yes , ” said the son.
“So , tell me , what did you learn?” asked the father.
The son answered:
“I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. We have a small piece of land surrounded by walls and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We buy canned and packaged food, while they eat freshly harvested food they grew themselves. We have walls around our property to protect us , they have friends to protect them.”
As the boy’s father tried to formulate a response, his son continued, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.”
Notice, the father ASSUMED that the son would naturally see the “superiority” of the carefully manicured lawn, the crystal clear waters of the carefully maintained swimming pool and the lavish house which they called “home”.
If instead, the father had taken a moment to see the world through his SON’S eyes – he would have seen what a difference perspective plays in perception.
I vividly remember riding the school bus by one of my classmate’s house and seeing dogs, cats and chickens roaming the yard. I was perhaps six years old and I thought they lived in the most wonderful, magical place on the bus route. Years later, when I drove past the same house – I saw it through different eyes. What looked like untold wealth to my six year old eyes – looked like squalor thanks to the changes in my perspective.
Perspective and the role it plays in your marketing messages.
Most of my book Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results
Maintaining that perspective is an essential ingredient in creating marketing messages that deliver results.
One example I use in the book is to look at creating marketing messages targeted at busy mothers. In the book, I cover how important it is to be able to see the world THROUGH a busy mother’s eyes in order to create marketing messages that “connect” with her.
By trying to see the world through the busy mother’s eyes – you can hopefully gain the perspective you need to “connect” with your customer.
A glaring example of what happens when the marketing message creators perceptions “leak” into the message is the now infamous Motrin Mommy Ad. The backlash was positively EPIC in response to the ad. One of the tweets on the subject hit the nail on the head:
“Obviously they never consulted any REAL mothers before they ran that ad.”
Obviously.
What is also obvious – the contempt the ad’s creators have for new mothers. You can hear the contempt DRIPPING from the voice over on in the ad. To be honest, the delivery of the marketing message is probably the most offensive part of the campaign.
The result of this underlying perspective being exposed via the marketing message – Social Media Armageddon.
It’s impossible to remove your perspective’s stamp upon your marketing messages and I’m not sure you should do it, even if you could. Your perspective is a vital part of creating marketing success. However, it is possible to recognize the effect perspective plays in creating marketing messages.
Recognizing the role your perspective plays in your marketing can help you to avoid creating your own Social Media Armageddon.
Very perceptive of you. 🙂 Very powerful post. It especially helps me to consider where some clients are who don’t have the experience of my years and the accompanying perspective. Sometimes I need to back up a couple of steps and explain more.
Tom Volkar / Delightful Works last blog post..What’s Your Main Thing?
As they say, perception is reality. I, too, have to remember this when it comes to what I offer my clients. I have two distinct groups in my client base: those who are hungry to learn how to do things themselves, and those who are not and would rather have me do whatever it is. I happen to be a member of the former group, so I have to watch it when I create a product or service, because my inclination is to defer to the DIYers and unleash the teacher in me. That makes the former group happy, but to the other half of my tribe, I sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher. LOL
Suzanne @ vAssistant Servicess last blog post..Twitter Mosaic – Pretty!
Tom – one of your most valuable assets is definitely your perspective!!! It’s truly your most precious “gift”!!!
Suzanne, Charlie Brown’s teacher!!! FUNNY!!! Seriously, I’ll bet even the half who are HAPPY to allow you to do it for them still appreciate knowing the “how” and the “why”. (It reassures them that you do indeed know your stuff!)
Hi Kathy. I LOVED this post! You are a wise woman 🙂 I know you have written about the effect your perspective has on your business, but I have to add that it has SUCH an effect on your personal life too. Your perspective determines who you connect with, how, why and where. What is also neat is notice how your perspective changes depending on the people you “hang with”. Great post! Loved it. Okay, I know… I said that already, but it beared repeating.
Davinas last blog post..On the Edge of Being
Hi Kathy – What an awesome post. I loved the story about the wealthy farmer.
I guess that if we choose to sell a product, or service we really love, it will be easier to see things from the perspective of our customers.
Davina, Parables are great teaching tools – and the story of the rich man and his son qualifies. You’re so right – perspective not only affects our business lives – but our personal lives as well. It’s important to recognize it’s role in our relationships.
Cath – It is SO much easier to “sell” a product you already know and love yourself. If you can see it from your customer’s point of view – you’re well on your way to successful selling!
Interesting! The story and the marketing message. I suppose to be really good at marketing you must get rid of your own perspective and be able to see things through the perspective of your target market.
Vered – MomGrinds last blog post..Retouching As An Act Of Kindness
Well – to be really good at writing marketing COPY it helps to either be able to “assume” the audience’s perspective or already be in possession thereof. That’s probably why great marketing people (like Billy Mays) seem to be a bit “off” to people who are otherwise “normal”.
The tricky bit of this is that your customers can have many different perspectives. The company I work for do web design and SEO, and we have a massive customer base from big brands right down to smaller businesses. To speak to them all we can seem a bit vague for all or off base for some, so what do we do about that?
hi again!
it is a nice story the one about the farmer.and we all have to remember that we will always bee customers in a way or other …
emos last blog post..Emo can be short for “emotional.”