The Ten Commandments of Marketing

6th Commandment

Don’t Just Think... Feel.

 

One common failure of marketers everywhere is our tendency to overthink things. We assume our audiences will see and hear our story with the same intellectual rigor we applied to its creation.

Certainly we want to be analytical in our approach and deliberate in our execution but it’s important to recognize that our consumers’ first reaction is emotional not rational.

Whether it’s a highway billboard, a website home page, the cover of a paperback or a homeless person’s handwritten sign, the cells in our bodies and brains squirt some kind of hormone or enzyme and we have an experience, typically subtle but nonetheless impactful.

Our job as marketers and communicators is to control the squirt — to manipulate our target audience into a predictable response: buy, sell, join, click or simply turn a page. And lest you think “manipulate” has too Machiavellian a ring to it, I would gently remind you that it’s what we are all paid to do.

If we are to be successful persuaders and influencers, we must learn to empathize with our audiences and tap into their feelings of compassion or self-interest, courage or fear, humility or vanity, generosity or avarice, altruism or envy.

In order to convince the minds of your consumers, you must first capture their hearts.


For more information on Adler and the Ten Commandments of Marketing e-mail info@stanadler.com.

Living by the 6th Commandment

While we need to connect with our consumers on both a rational and pragmatic level, unless we first make an emotional connection we may never get to deliver the message. An effective marketing message connects with the needs, minds and hearts of the audience.

The Right Point of View Comes With Experience

For over 40 years, Adler Branding & Marketing has been advising clients about all facets of brand strategy, communications and design.

“The Ten Commandments of Marketing” series is the distillation of our decades of experience, epiphanies and, of course, mistakes into something useful. We welcome your thoughts and comments.