MInd Changes

If marketing is about changing people’s attitudes, perceptions and ultimately buying behavior it stands to reason that in order to be effective, the first question, as  marketers, we have to ask is:

Whose Mind Do We Really Want To Change?  

Is it the open play bowler to get him or her to increase frequency of visits?  Is it a 12 year old league bowler that we want to come back next year?  Is it Sylvia Smith who runs the daycare center down the street?

If you can’t be really specific and can only tell me 18 to 34 yr olds, then you have already started the process at a disadvantage. 

Tell me more information like:

is it 18 to 34 yr olds  with a median income of $_______+ who work in gray collar jobs, who are predominantly single, who go out three to four nights a week to drink, meet ,members of the opposite sex and share one trait in common, to have fun, fun, fun every night.”  And finally is there definition of fun about hooking up, getting drunk or just hanging out with their friends?

“Well jeez Fred”, I hear you saying, “How am I supposed to know that?”

My answer to that is, “You Ask Them.”  

You ask different questions, try different offers, measure and categorize who responded.  Find out what they do for a living, find out what other activities they like to do. You can also test different offers and measure results against your existing data base,  but you have to be really understand analysis and measurement techniques here, so you may need some professional help

“Who has the time for that?” I hear you saying.  

And I say…”people who have to learn about the new marketing who want to be successful.”

When mass media was king we could saturate the airwaves and target, you guessed it, “EVERYBODY” which was really no target at all.  But now you have as much power in your 140 character twitter account as IBM or Procter & Gamble or McDonald's to get your message to the specific person you want.

Think about that.  Doesn't that blow your mind?

YOUR 8, 12 or 16 lane center in rural Nebraska has as much power to communicate in 140 characters as any Fortune 100 company but you need information to make valuable decisions, not some BS idea that "sounds good."

OK, if you can get past the “WHO” question, you now have to answer questions like:

1.   What does this person think about bowling now?

2.  What does he think he wants from bowling?  

3.  What do we want him to think about bowling

a.   what action do we want him to take

                               i.   do we  want him to take that action now or to wait

                             ii.   is there a sense of urgency

                            iii.   sometimes its not even to buy something, but rather to become a member of an exclusive club

                            iv.   to get more information

b.  Maybe its nothing, now what?

4.  What does he really want from bowling?

a.   Maybe its nothing, now what?

5.  Are there any stories, programs that have motivated this person in the past?

6.  Who are his heroes? 

a.   Aaron Rodgers, JZ, Willie Nelson, Nelson Mandela, Adele, LeBron James, 

b.  Who does this person look up to and WHY?

7.  What is this person's relationship with money??

a.   Does he have discretionary money that he freely spends every night and is he an ATM junkie

b.  Is he a tightwad that doesn't spend unless he absolutely has to?

Once you get the answers to these questions, you can design a program that matches the information you have and be way more efficient in your conversion process than you ever thought possible.

If you’re serious about wanting to do this, give me a call and I will help get you started, give you some time on the phone and then have at it…no selling here, I'll just give you some friendly helpful hints. 

But if you want me to really help, we will (We're not opposed to being hired :)

Or you can ignore this process and just do what YOU THINK the customer, prospect, former customer wants.

"And you may be right or you may be crazy"  said Billy Joel