What do we want when we visit the hygienist? Scaling, cleaning, fluoride…sure.
But I think that most people also want respect.
Yesterday, I sat down in the chair of a perfectly nice woman. She was middle aged, well dressed, silvering hair, and a welcoming smile. She is the new hygienist at my dentist’s office.
As my mouth was filled with gauze, water jets and that rude-sounding suctioning device, I was asked a few questions. Did I have any problems with my teeth. I shook my head “no.” Did I find it challenging to floss certain parts of my mouth. Again, no.
Then, the questions started to become more pointed and complex, and my responses of head shaking were insufficient (and thus I was rendered mute). The observations and related advice started to flow:
You should show me how to brush (with the clear but silent assertion that I was obviously doing it wrong);
The gaps between your molars are not being flossed well. (that is to say that there are areas of my mouth that I am clearly NOT flossing properly;
I’m sorry to tell you that I would characterize you as having gingivitis...and that is what I'll note in your file today. (the announcement of her findings for which I was being punished);
Finally, the medical community now recognizes the connection between oral health and heart disease. (add her tone, and the translation becomes: brush or death will come knocking)
The longer she spoke to me, the more patronizing her tone.
I didn’t get “lectured” about my sometimes less that perfect oral health, but I did get instructions as if I was an 8-year old. I started to resent her assumption that oral hygiene was the only thing that could possibly be of importance in my life. When she started to infer that my mild gingivitis was a “risk factor” for heart disease, I wanted to scream through the suction tube that I think my extra 40 lbs and my grandfather's aortic aneurysm were likely larger determinants in any early demise I may suffer.
The part that annoyed me was that I had gone into the dentist this time with pride. I had painstakingly developed a much improved daily schedule of brushing and flossing since my last visit, and I was really looking forward to a little praise for the diminished tartar build up.
However, as I said, she was new.
Her only perspective on my mouth was her current view, and a few cryptic notes and x-rays in my file that spoke of cavities, caps, and dates. My file, apparently, did not document the years of “soft reproach” I had received from the last hygienist that had led me to gradually adopt improved behaviors.
Finally, to seek some reprieve from this "treatment," I changed the subject by asking whether the admittedly very nice photographs in her room were her own.
This story, although true and a very recent personal experience, is a social marketing parable.
It reaffirms my opinions about trying to direct a person’s actions:
1. Don’t be overly paternalistic or maternal in your tone; even children like to be treated with respect.
2. Don’t assume that your message is the only important message in their life.
3. Be aware that if your audience is giving up something of value (or worse, PAYING) to listen, you don’t have carte blanche to say anything you like.
4. Give your audience a chance to respond.
5. Trying to scare your audience into action by giving them a worst-case scenario may be counter productive, especially if the link is tenuous.
6. Don’t be disingenuous: don’t disguise your message in a kind, friendly demeanor that only appears benevolent.
7. Ensure that your message reinforces existing good habits and actions.
8. Don’t focus on the negative exclusively.
9. Make sure that your audience research includes “soft” information and not only statistics and facts.
10. Don't make it so that your audience feels compelled to change the subject. (or flee!)
Who knew that a visit to the dentist could be so illuminating?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Subject: Water
More specifically, clean water.
For us Canadians living in the land of lakes, rivers, snow melt and glaciers, clean water is an assumption. Tap water is clean and almost free to most Canadians. Kayaking on Georgian Bay offered me the luxury of simply dipping my cup overboard to quench my thirst.
So what are the social marketing messages related to water? Conserve? Reuse greywater? Collect rainwater? Install a low volume toilet? A tuna can of water on your lawn each week?
Yes, these are all typical messages for Canadians to hear: important environmental messages.
However, the real message we need to deliver is not about water (ab)use in Canada, but about water scarcity for the rest of the globe. Access to water—let alone clean water—is a luxury for millions of people worldwide.
Few resources could be considered so important for humans (and all living things) and yet the scarcity of water in many places makes it more valuable per litre than gasoline.
The real social marketing message to Canadians should be encouraging everyone in Canada to participate in some way to provide clean water to those in developing countries who need it.
Water conservation is important, but access to clean water is a necessity.
Here is my shameless plug for worthwhile organizations to support:
Watercan, is a Canadian organization that is dedicated to water and sanitation programs overseas.
Charity:Water, with a very much dedicated program to potable water (as compared to the more typical water and sanitation efforts of many international aid organisations).
WaterAid, a UK-based global charity which can be supported in Canada through Engineers without Borders.
If your are buying bottled water in Canada, be sure to purchase EarthWater where 100% of net profits support refugee water programs run by the UN Refugee Agency.
As an aside for online marketers, Charity: Water has a strong online presence that is worth a visit. They have a web design that is welcoming, professional, and motivational. I particularly like the staff listing page because it allows supporters to put a face to the work of the organization.
Next time you have a drink of water, consider a way you can support an organization that makes it possible to quench another's thirst.
For us Canadians living in the land of lakes, rivers, snow melt and glaciers, clean water is an assumption. Tap water is clean and almost free to most Canadians. Kayaking on Georgian Bay offered me the luxury of simply dipping my cup overboard to quench my thirst.
So what are the social marketing messages related to water? Conserve? Reuse greywater? Collect rainwater? Install a low volume toilet? A tuna can of water on your lawn each week?
Yes, these are all typical messages for Canadians to hear: important environmental messages.
However, the real message we need to deliver is not about water (ab)use in Canada, but about water scarcity for the rest of the globe. Access to water—let alone clean water—is a luxury for millions of people worldwide.
Few resources could be considered so important for humans (and all living things) and yet the scarcity of water in many places makes it more valuable per litre than gasoline.
The real social marketing message to Canadians should be encouraging everyone in Canada to participate in some way to provide clean water to those in developing countries who need it.
Water conservation is important, but access to clean water is a necessity.
Here is my shameless plug for worthwhile organizations to support:
Watercan, is a Canadian organization that is dedicated to water and sanitation programs overseas.
Charity:Water, with a very much dedicated program to potable water (as compared to the more typical water and sanitation efforts of many international aid organisations).
WaterAid, a UK-based global charity which can be supported in Canada through Engineers without Borders.
If your are buying bottled water in Canada, be sure to purchase EarthWater where 100% of net profits support refugee water programs run by the UN Refugee Agency.
As an aside for online marketers, Charity: Water has a strong online presence that is worth a visit. They have a web design that is welcoming, professional, and motivational. I particularly like the staff listing page because it allows supporters to put a face to the work of the organization.
Next time you have a drink of water, consider a way you can support an organization that makes it possible to quench another's thirst.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Between stimulus and response
"Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
-VIKTOR FRANKL, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, 1905-1997
Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, was describing how he was able to live through the hell of a Nazi concentration camp. He saved his humanity—and his own life—by choosing not to respond with aggression to the torture and the inhumanity to which he was subjected.
His is a remarkable and inspiring case of triumph and courage.
Most of us, thankfully, will never have to engage this “space” to seek our spirit’s freedom from cruelty. Nonetheless, when confronted with social ills and inequality, we each ought to consider Frankl’s words of wisdom as we prepare our response.
Social marketers need to be mindful of this almost imperceptible delay between stimulus and response. Marketing is the business of stimulating people into action and we want to be sure that we give our audience the stimulus in such a way as to allow for their moment of reflection to generate a positive response for the society in which they live.
All too often, marketing messages are delivered forcefully, graphically, even belligerently in the hope of shocking the audience into action. This approach appears even more common now than ever, as we are all competing for attention in the white noise of advertising.
Indeed the goal of most marketing is to expedite a response. We fear that our audience will become distracted and lose interest or conviction if they don't act immediately.
Our messages for positive social behavior need to cherish the space between stimulus and response. We need to cultivate the time for every audience member to allow them to consider their actions and behaviors such that their response can be sustained and can be adopted into their habit.
For social marketing messages, we need to generate this cause for pause.
-VIKTOR FRANKL, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, 1905-1997
Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, was describing how he was able to live through the hell of a Nazi concentration camp. He saved his humanity—and his own life—by choosing not to respond with aggression to the torture and the inhumanity to which he was subjected.
His is a remarkable and inspiring case of triumph and courage.
Most of us, thankfully, will never have to engage this “space” to seek our spirit’s freedom from cruelty. Nonetheless, when confronted with social ills and inequality, we each ought to consider Frankl’s words of wisdom as we prepare our response.
Social marketers need to be mindful of this almost imperceptible delay between stimulus and response. Marketing is the business of stimulating people into action and we want to be sure that we give our audience the stimulus in such a way as to allow for their moment of reflection to generate a positive response for the society in which they live.
All too often, marketing messages are delivered forcefully, graphically, even belligerently in the hope of shocking the audience into action. This approach appears even more common now than ever, as we are all competing for attention in the white noise of advertising.
Indeed the goal of most marketing is to expedite a response. We fear that our audience will become distracted and lose interest or conviction if they don't act immediately.
Our messages for positive social behavior need to cherish the space between stimulus and response. We need to cultivate the time for every audience member to allow them to consider their actions and behaviors such that their response can be sustained and can be adopted into their habit.
For social marketing messages, we need to generate this cause for pause.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Talking to your ex (donor)
After reading Jeff Brooks comments on “last notice” fundraising control packs, I feel compelled to add my voice.
As a designer, cultivator, and purveyor of direct mail for years I would celebrate when I could work with my colleagues to design a pack that could generate a 3-4% response rate from lasped (or even long-lapsed!) donors. If you are in the business of direct mail, you doubtlessly are nodding your head in agreement.
If you are a person living in the real world, you’re probably perplexed.
Maybe even shocked.
The corollary to a “spectacular” 4% response in this very difficult segment, means that you’ve effectively “lost” the other 96% of past donors.
Jeff is absolutely correct…there is a tendency to beat these non-responders over the head with the same message over and over again every time you feel like throwing the lapsed segment in the house control pack (or as a segment of the next prospect mailing).
In effect, this postal abuse means you are gambling with the organization’s credibility.
As a fundraiser, I was relatively “lucky.” I worked for an agency that helped the most disadvantaged on earth—refugees—and the best way to renew lasped donors was through an emergency appeal that dovetailed with some complex humanitarian global tragedy reported in the news. However, once renewed, this segment would often revert to dormancy until the next visible emergency. We were ambulance chasing for a good cause, using the horror faced by others to compel the reluctant donor into action.
As hard as I tried (sic), I was never able to successfully build an annual campaign of appeals out of humanitarian catastrophes; although there were sadly legitimate examples of human tragedy every time we mailed (Afghanistan, DRC, Haiti, Uganda, Darfur, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Lebanon…) it was admittedly crass to continue to scream EMERGENCY on the front of every envelope. I know it was crass only because donors would tell me: in the unmistakable voice of no response. (and sometimes using our toll free number to make their opinion expressly clear to me!)
Fundraisers need to gracefully shepherd lapsed donors into the pasture once they have given what they wish to give. In my opinion, mailing them the same EMERGENCY or LAST CHANCE copy will do more damage than good. We all know that good opinions travel slowly, while anger, frustration, and annoyance spread in social circles like wildfire.
Everyone likes to complain; don’t give your ex-donors the ammunition to shoot your program in the back while you leave their home.
Of course, I don’t advocate simply walking away. The discipline of fundraising requires us to at least do our best to include donors in the annual program. All fundraisers will try to renew donors with a regular mailing schedule, using interesting and compelling and well tested copy. Seasoned pros will then try a personalized lapsed donor copy (or at least a tailored variable paragraph in your renewal appeal.) Some may even test this segment in the prospecting program, and determine response for both the prospecting control pack, or a new creative. Those with significant budgets may even try calling lasped donors to ask for their support, or to get a sense of why they have stopped responding.
Maybe your outgoing donors simply want something different from you. If you can give them online outreach, better program access, volunteer or staff visits, participation in the mission, invitations to special events, or some other form of engagement, then renewal may fall outside the realm of direct marketing. (and therein may lie the dormant major donor!)
If, however, your donors are ready to walk away, set them free. Keep their record as a memento of their generosity, and stop pestering them if they haven’t responded to your sincere multiple appeals.
Certainly don’t make them angry with belligerence or with volumes of the same package.
Leave the endless stream of “last chance” mailings to the credit card companies and the desperate, or those who have already lost their good name.
As a designer, cultivator, and purveyor of direct mail for years I would celebrate when I could work with my colleagues to design a pack that could generate a 3-4% response rate from lasped (or even long-lapsed!) donors. If you are in the business of direct mail, you doubtlessly are nodding your head in agreement.
If you are a person living in the real world, you’re probably perplexed.
Maybe even shocked.
The corollary to a “spectacular” 4% response in this very difficult segment, means that you’ve effectively “lost” the other 96% of past donors.
Jeff is absolutely correct…there is a tendency to beat these non-responders over the head with the same message over and over again every time you feel like throwing the lapsed segment in the house control pack (or as a segment of the next prospect mailing).
In effect, this postal abuse means you are gambling with the organization’s credibility.
As a fundraiser, I was relatively “lucky.” I worked for an agency that helped the most disadvantaged on earth—refugees—and the best way to renew lasped donors was through an emergency appeal that dovetailed with some complex humanitarian global tragedy reported in the news. However, once renewed, this segment would often revert to dormancy until the next visible emergency. We were ambulance chasing for a good cause, using the horror faced by others to compel the reluctant donor into action.
As hard as I tried (sic), I was never able to successfully build an annual campaign of appeals out of humanitarian catastrophes; although there were sadly legitimate examples of human tragedy every time we mailed (Afghanistan, DRC, Haiti, Uganda, Darfur, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Lebanon…) it was admittedly crass to continue to scream EMERGENCY on the front of every envelope. I know it was crass only because donors would tell me: in the unmistakable voice of no response. (and sometimes using our toll free number to make their opinion expressly clear to me!)
Fundraisers need to gracefully shepherd lapsed donors into the pasture once they have given what they wish to give. In my opinion, mailing them the same EMERGENCY or LAST CHANCE copy will do more damage than good. We all know that good opinions travel slowly, while anger, frustration, and annoyance spread in social circles like wildfire.
Everyone likes to complain; don’t give your ex-donors the ammunition to shoot your program in the back while you leave their home.
Of course, I don’t advocate simply walking away. The discipline of fundraising requires us to at least do our best to include donors in the annual program. All fundraisers will try to renew donors with a regular mailing schedule, using interesting and compelling and well tested copy. Seasoned pros will then try a personalized lapsed donor copy (or at least a tailored variable paragraph in your renewal appeal.) Some may even test this segment in the prospecting program, and determine response for both the prospecting control pack, or a new creative. Those with significant budgets may even try calling lasped donors to ask for their support, or to get a sense of why they have stopped responding.
Maybe your outgoing donors simply want something different from you. If you can give them online outreach, better program access, volunteer or staff visits, participation in the mission, invitations to special events, or some other form of engagement, then renewal may fall outside the realm of direct marketing. (and therein may lie the dormant major donor!)
If, however, your donors are ready to walk away, set them free. Keep their record as a memento of their generosity, and stop pestering them if they haven’t responded to your sincere multiple appeals.
Certainly don’t make them angry with belligerence or with volumes of the same package.
Leave the endless stream of “last chance” mailings to the credit card companies and the desperate, or those who have already lost their good name.
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