What Americans Really Want....Really

Sorry I've been absent this week.  The difficult thing about being self employed for me is giving myself permission to do personal things during "working hours".  On Monday a gave myself permission to install some new shelving in the laundry room.  I started at 1:45 PM and by 2:10 I was in bed shivering intensely and at 3:30 I had a 101.3 fever.  I don't know what kind of flu it was but it came on fast and went away pretty fast.  I called my Doctor and had some Tamifu by 6:30 and started taking it.  By Wed evening the fever was gone and I was feeling much better.  However, I'd did choose not to expose the guests at the family Thanksgiving dinner and stayed home.  All better now and I had the chance to do some reading. 

There are two great books out there for those of us who consider ourselves to be marketers.  1) What Americans Really Want...... Really, by Dr. Frank I. Luntz.  2) What the Dog Saw and other adventures, by Malcolm Gladwell.  Both are a great read and filled with insight about what people do and want.  This information is critically important to developing a product and selling system that is consistent with "what people want".  This has been the theme of my writing so far and will continue to be a guiding principle as we talk.  Both books confirm that as a marketer if you can get in sync with your customer you are more likely to succeed.

Dr. Frank Luntz is a frequent guest on the Imus in the morning show on radio and the Fox Business network in the morning.  Do you think less of me now?  Dr. Luntz is a scientist and his conclusions are based on hard data from thousands of research projects done for some of the most important companies in the world.  His conclusions are well documented in the data.  From a data perspective he knows what people want, really. 

Malcolm Gladwell is a writer for the New Yorker magazine and this book is a collections of his favorite articles written for the magazine.  Thus far, Mr. Gladwell's books have examined human behavior and the human condition through the eyes the people who live it.  He has an incredible talent for getting below the surface and exposing what is really there without pretense or shading to meet the needs of the teller. From his perspective Mr. Gladwell is able to glean what people want by exposing how and why they achieve certain things in life.  He exposes the thought process and actions as they go about getting they want.

In my opinion, both writers get to exactly the same place.  One is scientific, the other is intuitive and the themes are largely the same.  Sell what people want, sell it in a way that people want to buy, deliver it in the way people want to receive it and support it as if you are the customer yourself.  The quality and the values behind our intentions play a huge  role in the long term success or individuals and societies, I think.  Therefore, these ideals will contribute to your success in life. 

I've heard all this before, as you have as well.  My earliest memory of this concept comes from the J.C. Penney company.  J.C. Penney himself called it the "Golden Rule" when he founded the company back in 1902.  On the 90th anniversary of the J.C. Penny Company they were a customer of mine and my contact gave me an official commemorative golden ruler which I have on my desk before me now.  On their 90th birthday the Golden Rule was still a guiding principle.  Though the department store style of merchandising is suffering the "Golden Rule" is not out of style.  In fact, it is more important today than ever and those who understand this have an overwhelming advantage in the market. 

Online marketing rule #1 is the Golden Rule.  Treat others as you would like to be treated.  

Thanks for reading.