Who Is Talking About It Now?

Every now and then I get a stretch (like 3 days) in the office where I can catch up, get some sitting and staring time and just wonder about “what if” scenarios.

My main thrust is always “What If” I did X for my clients, would it work? Would they have success?  Would it meet the “realistic” goals we set? How could it be most easily implemented? How much training would it take? What would the timing be?  How could we measure it or would it be looked upon as something “they” just didn’t like? 

And if they didn’t like it, how could I communicate the benefits of the program better (again) to them?

The hardest part isn’t coming up with the idea. The hardest part is getting someone to change their mind about some set ideas they may have; ideas that have been shown to be true maybe once or twice, in the customers’ minds are instantly cast in stone as being 100% everlasting. 

Just one bad customer experience at your center is probably enough to convince that family that your center is “always that way” or has “gone downhill.” Changing that mind set becomes a very difficult task, very difficult indeed.

And as a marketer, you have to get people to trust your product as both an economic and emotional value. Maybe, you have to get certain segments of your market to trust your product that it will provide them with new benefits they haven’t even thought of yet so they will use your product even more. 

More importantly, you have to get the people who already believe and trust in your product to tell their friends and family about good your product works or makes them feel.

Some marketers try to change the customer’s mind set by offering the cheapest price for what they believe, and in some cases have convinced themselves of, is a commodity product. Other brands try to offer the highest price, zeroing in on the product’s prestige and luxury attributes.  Others try to offer better service, guarantees, rebates, loyalty rewards, and a host of other tactics to get customers to trust their product’s benefits in order to stimulate a purchase.

Through all of this, it all comes down to trust.

Do you trust the spokesman of the product enough to believe the products attributes? Or even the product’s attributes? (All fully demonstrated and documented of course!) Is there enough inherent proof in the product itself to add to its credibility so the customer will believe it will make her life better, more convenient, less painful or give her more happiness?

Here is something I thought about; kind of a Facebook post, but also a 30 second blurb on your website:

“Hi I’m Fred, owner of Happy Lanes and I would like you to come to Happy Lanes. Sure it’s a bowling alley, but it’s also a place where you and your family can get away from the TV, the X Box, the WIFI, the I-Tunes, the text messages  and cell phone and do something you may not have done as a family in a while…just talk.  So bring the family to Happy Lanes, bowl for two hours, have some fun and just talk with each other; just $25 for up to 5 people for two hours of bowling fun… and those cool shoes.”  C’mon in and be a family again cause the family that plays together stays together.”

Now if you really felt this way; were passionate about it and got behind it, you could be a spokesman to get families to start talking with one another; to talk about what’s happening at school, work, relationships and all kinds of things. Maybe if your local schools or PTA Moms got behind this, it would go viral. And your center, Happy Lanes, would be the star of the show, the first to take a stand about family communications.

What do you think? 

Want to talk about it?