Just finished a great book called “Switch,” written by Chip and Dan Heath (yes they are brothers). The book is very insightful for anyone looking to incorporate change – personally, professionally, organizationally, culturally and to me, especially useful to marketing executives. I want to focus on a very quick point, but first you must understand the basis of the book.
Changing behavior to the Heath brothers revolves around a 3 step process:
- Direct the rider – the analytic, thinking part of your brain. The part that focuses on facts and figures, features of a product etc…
- Motivate the elephant – the emotional side of your brain that usually gets its way, even though what it wants might be bad or wrong for you. That’s why the call it the elephant, because it can often crush the rider or analytical part of your mind. Think of smokers, they know it’s poor health decision, but they do it for the instant gratification although it’s a lousy long term decision.
- Shape the path – removing the obstacles that are often in the way of change. Think of eliminating useless steps in the buying process.
The part I want to focus on is the Elephant, or the emotional part of the brain. For marketing purposes, engagement here can really differentiate your product, company or service in a positive way. This can lead to a sale, increased brand affinity, larger market share etc…
So how do you do this?
Find the feeling. Most of the time we focus on what the product is or service does, its cool features, that’s great for the rider (analytical side of the brain), but we need to find what hits the consumer on an emotional level (elephant). Change the narrative from a “product discussion” to a “passion discussion.” As the Heath brothers say “knowledge isn’t enough to trigger a change.” This isn’t always easy, but think of what effect your product or service has on people, how does it make them feel? Does using your product or service make them feel special? Are there things they can do with your product that empowers them? Do they identify with your product or service? (if I use this green eco product, I’m the type of person that protects the environment). These all tap into emotions. Think of a Nike commercial, they don’t talk about a special grade of rubber, where the cloth of the shoe is from or how strong the laces are. No, you see a person that you identify with sweating, striving towards a goal, working hard, yeah you see yourself in that person – you identify with that brand.
So let’s take something un-sexy, say a dry cleaner. It’s easy to talk about Nike, one of the biggest brands in the word, but what about the dry cleaner down the street. Aren’t they all the same? How can you be passionate about a dry cleaner? Find the feeling. Yeah you could wash and press your clothes yourself. You could take it to any of the 3 cleaners that are probably within a 1/2 mile of where you live, but you take it to cleaner XYZ. Why? Maybe they tapped into the feeling of pride? Or the feeling of achievement? You choose XYZ cleaners because you saw an ad of someone crisply dressed, looking sharp and feeling great, closing a big sale or spending a night on the town – that’s YOU – you want to look and be your best every minute, everyday, because that’s the type of person you are. You identify with that, they found the feeling of personal achievement and pride. “Yeah, I go to cleaner XYZ because I want to be the best.”
Cleaner ABC however, talks about how they spray collars in a 360 degree motion and use a dura-press micro steam process for ultimate wrinkle control. That’s great for the rider – nothing for the elephant. Tap into the emotion or feeling of your product or service.
This is the main part I wanted to highlight, however there are two other components that can help motivate the elephant that I want to pass on to you:
Shrink the change – break down the change or path to success so it doesn’t look so daunting to the elephant
Grow your people – cultivate a sense of identity within your people and instill a growth mindset.
Switch is a terrific read, If you liked what i had to say about how to motivate the elephant, I highly recommend this book, you will find it very useful.
Bill