I’m preparing to make a joint presentation with a client from Xerox and their ad agency, Y&R, at the ARF/Advertising Week 2009 conference. It’s part of the Engagement Council Forum*
Wanting to do the very best job possible, I asked exactly what the ARF means when they use the term “engagement”. What I learned is that the Council is still wrestling with a definition.
There are a couple of ideas on the table, including “generating relevant behavior with the customer or prospect” which to me sounds like code for “selling more stuff”.
But another definition under consideration describes engagement as “attention to something that emotionally impacts you”.
Well, now we’re getting somewhere.
The case study that we’re presenting at the conference demonstrates this very issue. In early 2008, Xerox unveiled a major change in its corporate identify. The fresh, new look was designed to project the concept of Xerox as human, approachable and customer-centric, while maintaining its long-term position as a tech-savvy, innovative company.
Despite decades of research showing that decision-making in their category (document management) is fundamentally rational, with little or no emotional involvement, the Xerox team understood that in order to create true human, approachable, customer-centric engagement, they were going to have to find new ways to connect with the emotional aspects of decision-making.
Frankly, everybody was pretty surprised and excited to discover the primary Emotivations in this utterly "emotion-free" product category. As it turns out, features, functions, speeds and feeds are table stakes. Product differentiation means helping people feel Zen, Heroic and Inspired.
So, Xerox and their advertising agency, Y&R, hired Drumcircle to uncover the deeply hidden Emotivations™ (Drumcircle’s term for the emotions that motivate behavior) that drive or inhibit decision-making in the photocopier, printer and fax machine category, worldwide.
Our work revealed some insights that were so unexpected that, in one case, we actually had to invent a new emotion.
When people are dealing with documents, (for example, when they’re producing a critical report), they want to feel something that came to be called Zennitude**; a perfect calmness and focus balanced with razor-sharp readiness for the unexpected.
People also want their machinery to help them feel Inspired to do more exciting, creative work.
And, particularly in the U.S., they want to feel Heroic when they “deliver the goods” for the people they’re Teamed Up with.
Discovering and applying these Emotivations helped Xerox create new, brand-differentiating ways to connect with and engage customers. But the deeper lesson of this project was about the level of emotional engagement that was generated within the team itself as we worked together to discover and apply these new insights.
The Xerox team, led by Barbara Basney, had to be bold enough to open up to new ideas (remember, they’d known for years that they operate in an “emotion free” category). The Y&R team, guided by Belle Frank, had to be confident enough to bring in “a new vendor” with unfamiliar tools and techniques. But, together, the whole group engaged multiple business partners in multiple countries deeply in the process of discovering Emotivations and putting them to work.
So, in the end, this story is about the importance of building “engagement” from the heart of the brand and the company all the way out to the end, end customers.
Yes, we learned a lot about IT managers’ emotional involvement with photocopiers. And we also learned a lot about how to help big, complex organizations work together, openly, to do new things that, they’ll admit, weren’t always comfortable or easy.
Of course, each time you do it, it becomes a little more comfortable and a little easier. And maybe that’s the truest measure of “improved engagement”.
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* It’s on Wednesday, Sept. 23 from 9:30 - noon at the Time Warner Screening Room; so check out: www.thearf.org/assets/ad-week-2009 and mark your calendars accordingly
**To give credit where it’s due, this term was actually invented by the CIO of a French transportation company who used it in a Create/Debate Session in Paris.
