What's Next? Theory Y Marketing

After all is said and done, after all of our grand self-actualization and accomplishments, our self-esteem and degrees, our meaning-making and our financial success - we still feel lonely. What drives us in the world is our attempt to move from our loneliness to a place of relationship, connection, and loving. Our soul prints [our essential unique selves] seek to reach out to the prints of other souls - to touch them, and to be touched by them in turn. The more our soul prints connect, the sharper their signatures, and the more sustained and expansive our souls will be. Our soul prints are driven to other soul prints...Nothing is more important to us than the need to share our lives with another...to imprint and be imprinted upon. - Soul Prints, by biblical myth scholar Marc Gafni

I went to an AMA meeting last night. That's the American Marketing Assocation.

I obviously forget sometimes how most marketing is conducted.

I think many marketers are convinced - or perhaps sincerely hope - that customers are passive. And thus being driven by compulsive forces beyond their control - their limbic system and biochemicals for instance. (To be fair, as customers we often are certain we are entirely conscious and thoughtful in our interactions. The truth is messier. It takes a lot more work to break free of established patterns in order to be fully mindful than you've probably imagined. But most of us as we mature are aiming to liberate ourselves from passive choices.)

I often combine discussions of self-awareness and motivation and mindfulness as well as marketing and innovation into my blog. For instance, in terms of innovation why are we sometimes blind to the realities and possibilities that are staring us in the face? It all goes into understanding what makes people, including ourselves, tick.

Glancing at different marketing campaigns you can get a pretty good idea what the marketer was using as their base assumption for what truly motivates people. Douglas McGregor used his knowledge of human behavior and motivation to construct a model of management's assumptions about what motivates employees in the workplace context. Theory X managers assume that a workplace of control, coercion and punishment is necessary due to their underlying assumptions about human motivation, needs and wants.

I believe there is an equivalent for marketer's assumptions about what motivates customers in the marketplace context. We're mostly taking stabs at the dark (and testing, testing, testing) with marketing campaigns because we haven't dwelved into understanding human behavior.

I'll be fairly honest and say I come away from marketing meetings depressed about how the majority of marketers view people. It's Theory X marketing.

For instance, the discussion on blogs last night seemed to stress the "uncontrollability" of what customers could say about your product and the risks inherent with amplified word-of-mouth. With moblogs, the power to snap a picture of your lemon and post it on the Internet - hey, look it broke down in just 3 days. Consumer generated media is a double-edged sword, of course. I continue to be surprised by the fear around consumers gaining a voice. It would be nice to see some confidence in the products we sell and a company's ability to right any wrongs.

Actual comment. What if someone posts a comment on your own blog that's negative? Can we delete it? Edit it?

The only inspiring marketing example I heard during the evening was one that Volvo conducted. Every new customer gets an email a few weeks (or thereabouts, I forget exact timeframe) after their car purchase. The email contains a video welcome message from the CEO encouraging them to call in to customer service to relate their experience of the car so far and share their impressions. Fifteen percent do phone in and it's proven to be valuable one-on-one feedback that Volvo has used to enhance the car's features and the entire buying experience. It's a model built on respect and trust and interest in a new customer's perspective that makes the customer feel valued and is leveraged for future customer's purchases and experiences.

Then someone in the audience raises a hand: Do you know if there is any attempt to cross-sell accessories?

If you read my blog description closely you'll see I discuss innovations in marketing and innovation. I think marketing is headed toward the opposite of Theory X marketing. Theory Y marketing acknowledges, respects and encourages the highest and deepest desires and aspirations within people.

We have faith in the potentialities of others, of ourselves, and of mankind because, and only to the degree which, we have experienced the growth of our own potentialities, the reality of growth in ourselves, the strength of our own power of reason and of love. - Erich Fromm

Comments

[Frank Shines]

You are spot-on re: the fear of the customer voice and loss of control in most marketing circles. Like Volvo, Toyota takes similar actions to stay close to the voice of the customer. I bought my first car, a Toyota, when in college and have purchased two more since then. I also share my postive Toyota stories with people around the world as a public speaker and trainer.