Daniel Goleman on marketing

"If your emotional abilities aren't in hand, if you don't have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can't have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far."

My friend Ann Handley blogged a great post over at MarketingProfs about humor and how it "goes a long way to stir interest in an otherwise 'disengaged community.'" (Do check out the insightful comments as well).

Her post helped clarify a feeling I experienced after reading a couple of military-related emails yesterday.  The first email was from a deeply spiritual, long-time friend.  Here it is:

Tom---here is a photo slide show, while we sit in our offices……

mb

I know mb very well and respect his opinions so I clicked the link, tolerated the long download, and started moving through the PowerPoint presentation.  And after about three or four slides, I became disengaged. Read it again: I wasn't simply not engaged.  I wanted to free myself from it. So I did.

There's nothing repulsive about the show: It shows the harsh realities of war and contrasts the lives of our of military men and women, to our blessed American life of freedom and comfort.  Here's just one on the many slides (click to enlarge).

War

.

.

.

Later in the day I received another email from a relative stranger (sorry ecummings), regarding the same subject matter.  Here it is:

Subject: Long deployment video

This squadron had a long, quiet deployment...and a video camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqaWdkdFb3Y&mode=related&search=

Not only was I engaged and compelled to show it to everyone I know, each time I view it tears well up in my eyes.  So I started thinking about it.  Why am I so touched by this silly little video, but not by the cold, harsh realities of the PowerPoint presentation?  And yes, I know that video is much more powerful than static images.  But it was much deeper than that.

Here's what I think is going on in my subconscious mind (I don't have a lot of time to reflect on this right now, so if you want to chime in I'd really appreciate it).  The first piece of attention solicitation distanced me from the troops.  It made me feel different from them and, in fact, bad about myself.  So I did what any self-centered, pressed for time human being would do when his or her esteem is getting dragged down: I tuned it out.

But the second piece had an entirely different affect.  I felt myself deeply empathizing with our military men and women.  I could viscerally connect with their sacrifice.  Why?  I'm not sure.  Perhaps because the video humanizes them.  Perhaps because I have a sense of humor (or at least I believe that I do), and, since they also have a sense of humor, that makes me like them. Or as Virginia Postrel wrote in The Substance of Style (and I'm paraphrasing): "I like them.  I'm like them."

What's this have to do with marketing and branding?  Think about it, because I really don't have time to elaborate. It reminds me of the story about the late, great ad man David Ogilvy (and again, I'm taking liberties here):

During one of his morning walks to work in NYC, Ogilvy encountered a man begging with a sign around his neck.  The sign read: "I am blind," and, as evidenced by his nearly empty cup, the man was not doing very well.  Ogilvy removed the man's sign from around his neck, pulled out a marker and changed the sign to read, "It is spring and I am blind." He hung the sign back around the beggar's neck and went on his way.  The money poured in.

Have a great weekend!

Posted October 5, 2006
Email this post   Bookmark and Share   

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c684b53ef00d8342e3b6f53ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Daniel Goleman on marketing:

» Customer Experience as Key Differentiator from Marketing Interactions
All the talk lately is about customer experience. Rightly so. But B2B companies seem to lag behind this concept. Think about it. When you go to a B2B website, is your experience there geared just for you? Do you think you see anything differently than ... [Read More]

Tracked on Oct 9, 2006 6:27:30 PM

Comments

David Wolfe

Hi Tom,

I enjoyed post, but it was the poignant Ogilvy story at the end that I will never forget.

In my workshops I talk about the power of word pictures: they get processed by the emotional right brain while emotional neutral language is processed in the analytical left brain.

To illustrate, I use a direct marketing letter I drafted for Alexander Hamilton Insurance. The letter opened with a vivid word picture of grandparents and a grandaughter taking in the joys of nature in a forest together. The letter at the same time a more conventional left brain oriented selling letter was sent -- 1/2 of the target list received each letter respectively. The conventional letter drew about a 1.5% response -- about normal. My letter drew nearly a 14% response.

I did foward the Navy piece to my stepdaughter who is married to a Lt. Comdr., kiddindg her about all the fun he has at see while she toils at home with two very active kids. She wrote back, "David, that's the funniest damn thing I've seen in a long time!" So thanks for that story, too.

David

Posted by: David Wolfe | October 07, 2006 at 11:17 AM

The comments to this entry are closed.