What does the customer want really?

In many cases, a customer's desire for a particular product is actually a metaphor to an underlying deeper desire. And in most cases, the customer is not consciously aware of this deeper desire that they are expressing thru their interest in a product. To be a great marketer, you need to understand what the customer really actually wants. This is what will separate you from the riff-raff.

People buying condos are looking to buy into a lifestyle. Similarly, as Rashmi Bansal puts it so well in this awesome rip-roaring post, people looking to buy clothes are actually looking for wardrobe advice. And active users of social networks in most cases really actually want to get laid.

Check out this excerpt from Rashmi Bansal's post...
"There are two kinds of salesmen in the world - sorry salesmen and sari salesmen. The sorry variety diffidently walk upto a customer and enquire - just for the sake of enquiring - "Madam, can I help you?" Madam glares at the salesperson and he/ she beats a hasty retreat.

The second kind of salesman sizes up his prey and then moves in for the kill. "Aaiye na sister, baithiye na... " He then proceeds to pull out some 'latest stuffs' and even as 'sister' protests "mat kholiye" he grins and declares,"Dekhne ka koi daam nahi lagta." Or so you think.

The fact is once this sales fellow has dug his claws into sister's skin she will never leave the shop without buying something. "Kya mangaoon, chai, thanda..." And he proceeds to open a few hundred saris more without a care in the world about who will fold them.
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The irony is that a lot of the people who enter designer stores might not be as well turned out as you'd expect. Maybe that's why they are at a designer store - in need of urgent wardrobe advice. Deciding who are the freeloaders and who the potential big bucks but you-would-not-know-it-if-you-looked-at-me is where a true salesman's instincts kick in."

You won't throw away these business cards

Jeff Nolan has a photo of Steve Wozniak's incredible precision machined biz cards. Check them out on Jeff's blog.

If you want to order similar cards for yourself, go to PlasmaDesign. Prices are ~US$5/card for a batch of 100. My suggestion is not to worry about the cost and instead go with the "field of dreams" approach - If you get such cards, your clients will be so impressed that they will dump you with no-bid contracts.

Marketing to human beings

SecretGeek has this hilarious reconstruction of the branding thought process in Redmond.

Proposed Name	Feedback from Microsoft HQ
X#	Too snappy
Xen	Too religious
Polyphonic C#	Too arty
COmega	Too Mathematical
XOmega	Too greek
XLinq	Still Too Snappy
Linq to Xml	Not Long enough
Microsoft Ubiquitous Structured Services Framework For XML Querying and Collaboration 2008!	Perfect

This is a trend that I have noticed in Microsoft product branding since around the first Media Center release - at that time it was branded "Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition". Then came "Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition". Topping it all up were "Microsoft Windows Mobile PocketPC Edition" and "Microsoft Windows Mobile SmartPhone Edition". Damn name wouldn't fit within a smartphone screen.

To all M'Softies - The human brain is a very advanced non-linear machine. It doesn't need to be given the full context to figure out a brand. Just call it Media Center and I know that it is Windows that can do tricks.

My wild guesses on the internal rationale for this branding strategy -
-- Microsoft thinks users are morons who need everything explained to them.
Problem: See above. With this strange Redmond rationale, people wouldn't have known what an iPod means.
-- I have a very peculiar feeling (the one I have when I think of something weird which is usually right) that there is some senior Windows VP who has a hard time tracking all his Windows-branded products out there; and so has enforced this branding convention to get his head clear whenever he has to contemplate the entire Windows family :-)

If you want people to identify with a brand, you've got to give it character. Who wants to identify with "Microsoft Windows Mobile SmartPhone Edition"?

For operating systems with character, lets hail the big cats - OS X Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard.


Related Post: How would Microsoft have branded and packaged the iPod?

"Email This" - The cheapest and simplest way to attract new users

In order to grow your web business, you need new users.

There are a multitude of ways in which you can attract new users. Targeted ads, affiliate programs etc etc etc. But the cheapest and simplest way is to let your current users do it for you for free.

For this to happen, you need to do 2 things -
-- Create compelling content. It should be compelling enough that a portion of your users want to tell others about it. This is the critical path. Without this, there is no point trying anything else as otherwise any new users you manage to attract will ultimately leave.
-- Once your users find something on your site compelling enough to share, make it easy for them to tell their friends about it

I started using the Internet in 1999. In trolling thru countless news-sites, blogs, web apps etc etc since then, the easiest way I have found to share something is thru an "Email This" link right next to the content I wanted to share.

It in incredible how many people manage to botch this up. So, from my user experience, this is my cheat sheet for a great "Email This" link design...
-- Have the "Email This" link displayed prominently next to the content you want your users to share. Having a familiar letter icon will help. The aim is to put the thought of emailing the content into the mind of a user who has not even considered sharing your content.
-- Clicking the link should preferably not open a new page. The best implementation would open a new Ajaxy-layer within the same page. The aim is to prevent the user losing interest in the time it takes to load an email form in a new page.
-- Email the entire content. Most recipients don't bother clicking on URL's sent by their friends. If the content they read in their mail client is good, they will come to your site looking for more.
-- If you gotta have a captcha, then try not to make it intrusive. I hate captchas that are filled with numbers because I need to refer to the captcha again and again as I fill it out. As I have mentioned in a previous article (Corvette not GS450H), human beings prefer meaningful words rather than numbers. If it takes too long to type the captcha, I'm outta there.
-- Don't have stupid restrictions in your email form, like allowing only 1 recipient address, enforcing ridiculous formatting requirements between multiple email addresses etc etc.

In the next few posts, I will highlight some of the most brain-dead implementations of the "Email This" link that has had me banging my desk in frustration. I will also cover my search for the perfect "Email This" link for this blog.


Related Posts
Corvette not GS450H
Why "Simplicity Works Everytime"

Simplicity and iPod packaging

Continuing on today's marketing theme, lets look at the beauty of simplicity - the iPod packaging.

[If you cant see the embedded clip, see - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUXnJraKM3k]

Corvette not GS450H

Why is it that Nokia insists on branding their phones around some stupid number series... 6510, 6210, 8210, N73, N91, E71????? Who remembers these names?

I am shopping around for a phone, and its so maddeningly difficult to remember the Nokia model recommendations from colleagues and friends. I am reduced to asking about "that Nokia with the great camera" and "the Nokia with the good keyboard" etc etc.

Nokia should learn from the dudes at Motorola. Those guys are on a roll with the awesome "4 alphabets ending in R with a vowel in the middle" theme. RAZR, ROKR, SLVR etc etc. I hope they take it to the logical next step with FUKR and LOSR. That would be so AWSM.

So if you are a marketer, it's very simple - Corvette, not GS450H

A great logo

I was checking out the website of a "boutique" software consulting firm called Vertigo, where Jeff Atwood of "Coding Horror" works.

That's when I noticed their great logo. A very nice way of representing the firm's name, catches your attention immediately, is different from most logos out there, but not different enough to appear tacky. Great thing is that you never completely forget this logo.