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Marketing Consulting, Leadership Training and Writing.
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Stephen Denny
"Our Assumptions Determine Everything."
Monimus the Cynic
Dear CMO:
Monimus the Cynic must have been an early Greek ad agency creative. He clearly knew the first two executions were put on the board room table just to set up the one that he liked the most. No wonder they called him the Cynic. However, all cynicism aside for the moment, let’s not begrudge the man his place in history. Our assumptions do determine everything. In comparing options, our frame of reference is all – and whether what we have been presented will look bigger or smaller depends purely on what we were shown first.
Forgetting Monimus and the ad creative for the moment, let’s apply this idea to your business at hand. How do we best employ the "contrast phenomenon" as professional marketers?
When we present options, we choose what we present first. We frame our requests in a manner that is most appealing to the needs of our listener.
If you recall a post I put up some time back on the “safe,” you’ll understand how contrast can work in a marketing setting. Compare a campaign that starts with cold-calling into a CXO’s designated gatekeeper and saying, "we’d like to bring a BIG SAFE into your boss's office," and "thank you -- you've been such a great customer for a long time (consistency) and we appreciate it greatly (liking)... we'd like to have a little fun -- nothing embarrassing, of course -- but we need your help (liking again): we'd like to bring in a SMALL SAFE and put it in the boss's office with a gift inside (reciprocity for the boss, at least)… that will give your company a sneak peek at a new product we’re going to launch in the coming months (exclusivity)..."
It was the same safe, roughly sixty pounds and one foot square. Tell me: is that a “big” safe to you? Or is it a “small” safe? To me, a “big” safe is the kind the security people walk inside at a bank. What we’re talking about, by comparison, is an extremely small one. Small enough to put on your desk (just lift with your legs, not your back).
The first campaign execution gets the phone slammed down in your ear. The other got us a 33% acceptance rate.
The Cynic knew what he was talking about.
Regards.
PS: the above story came from a previous post called, "Winning at the Small Stuff," and serves as a powerful case study in the application of Dr. Robert Cialdini's "Principles of Persuasion." We did, in fact, get a 33% acceptance rate amongst C-level officers in Fortune 500 companies in New York and New Jersey -- all less than two months after 9/11.
Stephen Denny is the President of Denny Marketing, a marketing consultancy helping clients in the areas of marketing strategy, demand generation and outbound communications. He is also the first in Silicon Valley certified to facilitate the "Principles of Persuasion” (POP) Workshop to corporate clients seeking leadership development and training in the science of influence. The POP Workshop is based on the research of Dr. Robert Cialdini, Regent’s Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University.
Apart from his consulting work, Denny also writes the marketing blog, Note to CMO: and is a frequent contributor to The Daily Fix.
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