You can improve the credibility of your marketing communication text by being specific about the benefit. For instance, instead of saying an item will stay fresh ‘up to a week’, or your company will report to shareholders in ‘a year’s time’ etc, you will be more credible by being more specific.
According to recent research, consumers are more likely to believe your company or product will deliver on its promise when the promise is stated in fine-grained rather than larger units. For instance, say ‘7 days’ instead of a week, and ‘12 months’ instead of a year. (Just as well the guarantee I give on my e-books is stated as a ‘12-month’ guarantee and not a year’s guarantee. Maybe I should offer the guarantee for 365 days instead…) You can review the way you refer to marketing promises and see if you can become more specific as the research suggests.
Source: ‘How and why 1 year differs from 365 days: a conversational logic analysis of inferences from the granularity of quantitative expressions’. Authors: Y. Charles Zhang and Norbert Schwarz, University of Michigan. Published electronically in the Journal of Consumer Research, October 2011.
Printed circulars still used most
When I was advising a homewares retailer last month on the most effective ways to reach potential customers, he challenged my recommendation of traditional methods like ‘letterbox drops’ because many people now put a ‘No junk mail’ notice on their letterbox. In view of the retailer’s doubts, I was keen to find hard facts about the subject. Was pleased to receive the latest Nielsen research email newsletter a few days later, which resolved the question. If you write retail marketing material, you might be interested in this also.
The Nielsen research found that printed circulars and flyers are still the most used form of marketing to retail consumers. A survey of 11,000 US shoppers in the December quarter of 2011 indicated printed material (mailbox circulars, newspaper inserts and in-store flyers) were read weekly by most shoppers.
Social and mobile media results were well behind, but to maximize results, retailers are starting to integrate their use more with traditional methods. The survey found the proportion of shoppers who accessed various information sources weekly were:
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69% Newspaper inserts
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67% Material mailed to home
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67% Emails from retailers
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38% Printed material in-store
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37% Store website using computer
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24% In-store kiosk
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21% In-store television
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45% Social media
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35% Store website using tablet PC
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9% Smart or mobile phone
Source :The Nielsen Company. ‘The Evolution of Circulars: from print to digital Q4, 2011’.
Stepping back gives you more perspective
My dad used to hang onto old National Geographic magazines from the 1930s. Reading them when I was young gave me fascinating insights into that past era. The big heading in the prominent Coca-Cola advertisements in the magazines was ‘The pause that refreshes’. I was reminded of Coke’s theme when I read the findings of several recent research projects reported in the Harvard Business Review Daily Stat. They all point to the value in pausing or stepping back to gain more perspective or a fresh viewpoint in difficult situations.
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In a tough project or meeting, it pays to give yourself a moment to regain your composure. In a meeting that’s going nowhere, call a break or pretend you have to leave the meeting to get something or see someone urgently. Then take a walk. During the break don’t agitate over the problem, just allow your brain to take a rest. Often, the pause will allow you to return with a fresh perspective, a calmer mind and a new solution. It’s much like the creativity process: work hard at the matter and then give your mind a break, which leads to more creative solutions.
(Harvard Business Review Daily Stat, 14 February 2012)
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To make a task seem easier, literally lean back a little. If you are busy focusing on a complex task at your computer, pause and increase your physical distance from the screen. This will also increase your psychological distance, which reduces your sense of the task’s difficulty. The mind perceives that a task perceived from a greater distance is easier.
(Harvard Business Review Daily Stat, 17 February 2012)
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Extra thinking time leads to more ethical decisions. When people are under time pressure, they are less likely to tell lies for self-gain if they give themselves a little thinking time. Researchers believe that in companies with a ‘fast pulse’ and a tendency to reward quick decision-making, employees may make ethical lapses because they lack adequate time to reflect on an issue.
(Harvard Business Review Daily Stat, 31 January 2012)
Stepping back gives me an enforced break
Speaking of stepping back, I had some bad news a couple of weeks ago. I suddenly started eliminating a big quantity of dark blood one day, and so went for tests. All this was very new to me as I have never had an internal problem before. A colonoscopy found an inch-long ulcerated, cancerous growth in my bowel. Reflecting the fantastic advances in medical technology, the doctor’s report even contained a color photo of the pesky critter. Fortunately, the growth is relatively new and the tests found no related lymph complications. Fingers crossed!
I’m scheduled for surgery next week and will be in hospital for 4-5 days and off work for a few weeks. I really enjoy writing this newsletter and so the enforced rest might give me more time to prepare future newsletters, update e-books and write new e-books, which I don’t normally have much time to do.
The moral: every cloud can have something positive about it.
Until next time
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