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.
