Emotional Alchemical Marketing
By: Nathan Dube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...=1&v=JzYFjCk6sMk
The video posted above was created by a prospect/customer of a company I used to work for. The video was a submission for a promotional contest series that I created for my company to generate brand awareness regarding our products and services.
The “Destroy Your Printer Contest” series is an excellent example of what I like to refer to as “emotional alchemical marketing”.
The contest invited frustrated office employees to smash a piece of office imaging equipment on film in a humorous/creative way for the chance to win free toner cartridges and a donation to a charity of choice in their name.
The contest was an instant hit, first garnering the attention of {GROW} blog author, Professor Mark Schaefer of Rutgers University. After Mark’s blog post was published, a firestorm of press from publications all over the world ensued.
From Recycler Magazine to the New York Times and countless blogs, magazines and books in between, the contest was hailed as one of the first successful B2B social media marketing success stories.
What made the contest so successful was the fact that it taps into pain points of virtually any and all people who work in an office environment. Within the first year of any employees experience in such a setting, it becomes clear that printers, copiers and similar pieces of equipment are necessary evils.
Every person who has ever worked in an office has had to bare the burdens of that fateful day when a report or document of extreme importance is not received from the printer at the worst possible moment. Clearing error codes, removing paper jams, restarting the machine and still…
Nothing.
The desire to take a sledge hammer to a printer at some point in time is practically and initiation and/or rite of passage in modern office culture.
In addition to projecting a sense of empathy to our target prospects, the videos provide a source of positive energy.
In almost all of my sales meetings with new prospects I would show the videos from the contest as an icebreaker during the meeting. The astonishment and humor from the particular video above is most useful in transmuting the atmosphere of the sales meeting to that of a more laid back social gathering.
When the conversation returns to the topic of doing business there is a positive emotional afterglow present in the prospect as the discussion turns to the pending sale.
Indeed, a person may forget what you say to them, but they will never forget how you made them feel and this video always makes my prospects feel good.
I would suggest that content such as this will be at the heart of the marketing/sales paradigms of the future as we move into a time in human history where the stark corporate history of marketing and sales gives way to a modern emphasis on empathy, entertainment and education within said careers.
At the end of the day, people don’t give a darn about what you are selling. They care about how you are going to take care of them, how you make them feel and how well you can meet their needs.
By generating content which taps into a prospects pain points and transmuting the negative emotions associated with them into positive emotions, one can effectively use negative experiences as a catalyst for manifesting positivity.
This is not new knowledge, however seeing this knowledge spread and be used by more and more businesses is a modern phenomenon brought on by the shrinking global village we live in.
Social media has effectively connected humanity to itself, and it is understanding and empathy which will result in success in our modern world.
By using emotional alchemical marketing techniques within the framework of your content generation, you will find that connecting with new prospects and turning them into dedicated customers/fans is a breeze.