Just Curious

August 18, 2009

#3 Real “Engagement” Requires Real Guts

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.

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.

July 9, 2009

#2 What’s the value of emotions in decision-making?

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The way to a man's heart is through his orbito frontal cortex.

In our work at Drumcircle, we often reference neuro-scientific research that supports the role of emotions in decision-making. One of our favorite stories come from Antonio DeMasio, author of the best selling book, Descartes Error.

Not long ago (in the early 1980s, in fact), neuroscientists believed that “good” decisions were rational decisions, based on fact and analysis. Emotions only got in the way. That belief was struck down in 1982 when a now famous patient named Elliot went to see Dr. Damasio.

Elliot was a great guy: a good father and husband, a respected executive and friend. He had been diagnosed with a small tumor in his frontal lobe, which was successfully removed. After the surgery, he seemed healthy and his IQ was exactly the same as it had been prior to the surgery - in the 97th percentile.

Then, Elliot’s life went downhill dramatically; he became incapable of making even the most mundane decisions. Here’s what Damasio observed about Elliot trying to decide when to return to the doctor’s office:

“I suggested two alternative dates. The patient began consulting the calendar…(and) for the better part of a half hour, enumerated reasons for and against each of the two dates: previous engagements, proximity to other engagements, possible meteorological conditions…an endless outlining of options and possible consequences. It took enormous discipline not to pound on the table and tell him to stop.”

As a result of his surgery, Elliot had lost the use of his orbito frontal cortex, a small part of the brain that, as it turns out, plays a significant role in producing emotions. Elliot was a smart, healthy and totally rational man who was utterly helpless because he couldn’t make even the simplest decision.

Lesson learned: Decision-making is impossible without emotions, so the concept of a “totally rational decision” is equally impossible.

When you can discover and tap the emotions that really motivate your customers’ purchase decisions (what we at Drumcircle call EmotivationsTM) you’ll make better decisions about your own marketing initiatives.

July 2, 2009

#1. Why do elephants have long noses?

This is my first blog entry. To begin, I was told I needed to have a name for the blog. I settled on Just Curious because I am known for asking a lot of questions. In fact, I’ve made a business out of asking questions, not just because I am just curious, but also because I believe that curiosity is the foundation of all things new and improved. To explain why curiosity is important to me (and to you), I want to pose another question:

Why do elephants have long noses?

A New and Imoproved elephant's child - proof that following up on your curiosity, while sometimes painful, is essential to innovation.

A New and Imoproved elephant's child - proof that following up on your curiosity, while sometimes painful, is essential to innovation.

According to Rudyard Kipling, it’s because of one very curious and persistent Elephant’s Child. If you recall the story, you remember that the Elephant’s Child lived in a time when elephants had short stubby noses. And this particular Child had a secondary trait, a “’satiable curiosity”, which meant he asked a lot of questions that annoyed all the other elephants. One day, he asked one question too many when he asked what crocodiles (a species he had never seen) liked to eat. His Mom and Dad, and all the elephants told him not to ask the question. But he couldn’t let it go. And so he decided to summon his courage, follow his (very short) nose and find the answer to his question. And he did. He found the crocodile. The crocodile grabbed his nose (in order to eat him), which is when the Elephant’s Child started to pull, and pull, and pull. And his nose grew and grew and grew. At the end of the story, the Elephant had a long and very convenient nose.

He was, in our terminology, a new and improved elephant.

And all the other elephants wanted noses just like his.

The story of the Elephant is a truth, if not true in the absolute sense. Curiosity, and persistence, are the foundation of innovation. Curiosity drives us to ask the important questions like “how does this work?” or “How can I find a better way to….”. Curiosity gets us dreaming, learning and “following our noses”. In other words, curiosity is the beginning of discovery and innovation. And curiosity – that is asking difficult questions, persistently - sits at the heart of our work at Drumcircle: how can we find ways of improving your business by asking questions, taking risks, and learning.

My partner Bill and I hope you will come along for the journey.

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