Beyond Customer Driven Marketing

What seems like a minor shift in perspective can produce a major increase in marketing effectiveness.

By
George Silverman
President, Market Navigation, Inc.

The Nobility of Marketing

Too many marketers have allowed themselves to become intimidated by those who would have us believe that money is dirty, business is sleazy, persuasion is manipulative, and promotion is deceptive.Unfortunately, the disdain with which some people view marketing is partially justified. Too many marketers still view the marketplace from the perspective of their companies and products, not from that of the customer. They think they are looking from the customer's point of view, but they are really just looking at the customer. They are like the person who is intensely listening to you, but you realize he's just looking for an opening to make his point.

As marketers, we must go beyond listening -- to Customer Empathy. We must genuinely learn to see things as the customer sees them. I know this may sound like a platitude. Allow me to preach a little longer.I'm not talking about the "obsession with listening," or about the ``total customer responsiveness'' or even the "customer revolution" that Tom Peters so brilliantly talks about in Thriving on Chaos, although I applaud these attitudes. I'm talking about taking the next step beyond those already bold prescriptions to a complete shift in attitude: to lose your identity temporarily and almost be your customer.I'm talking about the ability to see things from the eyes, head, hands, heart, guts and shoes of your customer. In fact, not only your customer, but also your prospects, suppliers, representatives, dealers, distributors, service people, and your other employees -- everyone who has the fate of your products in their hands is your ``customer.'' I call this Customer Empathy. Customer Empathy means truly seeing and feeling things his or her way -- identifying with the customer.But it means even more. It means empathizing with all the various types of people out there. It means knowing that customers are people, and there are many different kinds of people. They have different attitudes toward themselves, their jobs, products in general, new products, your product in particular, and your company. They have different ways of processing information and different things they take as evidence in support of your claims. Just as there has been a move toward more specialized products, there has to be a greater ability to customize the communication between the customer and the company. So, you can't put yourself into the shoes (and everything else) of ``the customer,'' you must put yourself into the shoes of all of your different types of customers.So, what I'm calling for is a shift in attitude -- coming at the marketplace from the point of view of the individual customer, each and every individual customer. But, on the face of it, it is difficult to customize marketing. After all, most marketing communications are in mass media.I am convinced that individualized, customer driven marketing is not only possible, it is so powerful that in a few years everyone will be doing it. Those that resist it will be devastated.The way to achieve Customer Empathy is through bringing quality and service not only to the product, but to marketing itself. Everyone is on a product quality and customer service kick. There is a dramatic shift toward higher quality in product development, design, manufacturing and service.

 The time has come for the quality and service revolution to hit marketing.

 ``Quality'' is not a term usually associated with marketing. It's easy to see how manufacturing and service could have Customer Empathy, with improvement in quality. We know what product quality is, but what is marketing quality?

Let's look at how to turn Customer Empathy into quality marketing.Customer Empathy in marketing means seeing, thinking and feeling the decision process from the point of view of all of the individual customers.But Customer Empathy is a perspective, an attitude. It's like having a thousand dollar bill at a toll booth: it's valuable, but not very useful and even somewhat embarrassing. We have to turn Customer Empathy into negotiable currency. Let me ask you to shift perspective for a moment. Just as a creative exercise to stimulate our thinking, let's approach marketing as if it were a service to your customer, not your company.Let's look at marketing not as something you do to customers, but as something you do for customers -- as if marketing were something that is serving customers, not making war upon them. What is the nature of this service? In essence, it is helping your company make offerings that are responsive to the customers, and to help the customers for whom your product is best, decide most efficiently to buy, use or prescribe it. The same standards of quality apply to marketing as everything else.Viewed traditionally as an internal business function, we tend to look at marketing's wallop, pizzazz, sizzle. Viewed as a service for the customer, we will be concerned with its quality. What does quality mean? Zero defects. What is a defect in product design, manufacturing or service? A failure to perform to the full satisfaction and delight of the customer. What is a defect in marketing? Also a failure to perform to the satisfaction of the customer: a failure to communicate, a failure to help the customer come to a satisfying decision, a failure to get your company to produce a product that is responsive to the customer, a failure to make it easy to try the product, a failure to substantiate your claims. In other words, every time there is a communication with a potential customer who you do not persuade, convince, satisfy, help further along in a decision to use your product, you have made a defective marketing service call. The marketing equivalent of zero defects is that every element (ad, brochure, supporting material, scientific study, sales call, press release, etc.) works for everyone for whom it is relevant.This means managing the information channels in a way driven by and serving the customer: giving people what they need to make decisions, in the form they need it, from the sources they need it, when they need it.

Looked at this way, most marketing efforts are incredibly sloppy. The brochures are slick. The ads look attractive. The sales aids are often magnificent. They are even informative. But they are rarely compellingly persuasive. Let me repeat that phrase: compellingly persuasive. We'll come back to it. The trouble is that marketers read their own materials and feel satisfied. The material is compellingly persuasive to them, so they think that it will convince others.

Let's do it. Let's take a walk in the shoes of our customers. What do we see? A busy person assaulted by an incessant onslaught of clever, intrusive, bids for his or her attention. Every company making conflicting claims; one-sided pitches for product superiority; everyone marshalling biased support for the claims; distortions, half-truths and manipulations; lying by omission; hyperbole, exaggeration; images without substance; and outright deception. Customers are justifiably leery. Let's not mince words. The customers have been lied to so often, and in so many ways, that their attitude is, ``I have better things to do than to sort out this mess.'' There are an increasing number of physicians who will not even talk to pharmaceutical company reps. Extreme indifference, skepticism, cynicism, distrust, disbelief, suspicion are what we are up against. Whoops, did I say ``up against''? That's the perspective of the company waging marketing warfare on the customer. The customer would see it as sticking to priorities, having more important things to do, careful deliberation, due diligence, not believing everything they hear, rigorous checking, and not fixing what is not broken. The view depends on where you stand, and where you stand depends on where you sit.

How to convince almost everyone

1.   Develop Customer Empathy2.   Apply to marketing the same zero-defects standards of quality that we apply to manufacturing and repair.3.   Realize that you can't really sell most people anything, but you can create the conditions in which most people will sell themselves.4.   View the marketing function as a service for the customer -- not as something we do to them. 

How do you construct an effective, quality marketing program? Let's look again at the decision process. (Need I say from the point of view of the customer?)First, it is important to realize that there is no such thing as ``the purchase decision.'' It's not a single decision: Product adoption takes place in a series of steps. Let's listen to the decisions we hear continuously from customers. They form a progression you'll recognize:

 1.   Yes, I want to be able to do X.2.   Yes, I'm interested in hearing about a product (service) that would do X.3.   Yes, it sounds interesting, tell me more. What about ...4.   Yes, I'd like to look into it and the alternatives further.5.   Yes, your product seems to have merit. It might actually be something I want.6.   Yes, your product looks like it might actually be better than my alternatives [your competition].7.   Yes, your product is worth a demo, talking to users, etc.8.   Yes, your product might be worth trying.9.   Yes, I'll try your product.10. Yes, the trial looks like your product may actually work as promised.11. Yes, it's worth using more of your product in order to decide.12. Yes, your product is the best available to me at this time, for this purpose.13. Yes, it seems to make sense to use it regularly on the following basis: ....14. Yes, I'll buy it now from you on the following terms.15. Yes, I like it so much I want to find out how to use more of it, or for different applications.16. Yes, quality, service, repair, delivery, availability, cost remain excellent, so I'll continue to be your customer.17. Yes, I want to encourage others to use it.18. Yes, your product still seems superior to alternatives, so I'll stick with you.

 Not all the above are applicable to every adoption decision about every product, and some may be missing from the list, but it should be obvious that it takes a progression of approximately eighteen different decisions  before someone is a fully committed customer. Usually, several different products in a category are trying to get these 18 different commitments, and a person is often being approached in dozens of different categories (or even hundreds with engineers, physicians and purchasing agents).In this bedlam lies great opportunity! Who do you think will be more effective: the company that adds to the confusion, or the one that helps the customer sort it out? Who will they believe has the superior product, the one who makes the noisiest appeals, the wildest claims, the fanciest materials, OR the one that lays out the alternatives in a clear-cut manner, honestly acknowledging the advantages of its competition and its own disadvantages? Who do you believe: the person who talks a good story, or one who makes it easy to try his product? The one who talks only about his advantages, or the one that shows you an honest product comparison chart? Don't your customers realize this and act accordingly?

Recommendations

To take your marketing to a higher level, you have to be willing to step back from your enthusiasm about your product and ask a series of hard questions:  

1.   What do people really value? What would convince the various types of hard-headed potential customers to take a serious look at your product? 2.   What are the decisive arguments that would convince all but the most irrational of these different types of people? Keep challenging every argument you come up with, get others to do the same, until the arguments make marketing research respondents drool and beg you to put them at the top of the list when the product becomes available.3.   What would encourage people to want to go through the decision process, and have fun doing it?4.   What would help these people sail though all the decisions they have to make to use my product -- that they may not be too excited about making -- without giving them a bad case of information overload?5.   What would make it easy and fun for them to get the third-party verification that they need in order to believe us?6.   What are the different sources from which various types of people are going to need this information? 7.   What would help them get first-hand experience with the product, risk-free? How am I going to protect them from the financial and non-finanical risks of trying my product? How am I going to convince them that I will fix anything that goes wrong?8.   If I were willing to go to the ends of the earth, and I am, how can I help those people out there come to the best possible decision for them, in the best possible way for them?9.   How can I help people get comfortable enough to go from trying my product to full adoption?10. What am I going to do to keep my customers, and keep them coming back? What am I doing to amaze and delight them, besides sleazy giveaways?11. How am I going to encourage my satisfied customers and experts to spread word of mouth about my product? Am I going to leave the most powerful force in the marketplace, word of mouth, up to chance? 

You should stop at nothing less than a package that gives everyone in the marketplace that can use your product just what he or she needs to sail through the decisions without floundering, while feeling good about themselves and you. I don't mean a pile of brochures, spec sheets, studies and sales aids. I don't necessarily mean a literal package in a box. I mean the whole mix: the ads; the written material; the demos (live, on tape, in trade shows, etc.); the sales training, aids and calls; seminars, symposia, scientific studies, expert endorsements; peer word of mouth, etc. I'm talking about a mix in which: 

1.   You have identified the important types of customers with their special decision needs.2.   You have mapped out every decision that these different types of customers have to make.3.   Every element of the marketing and promotional mix has a purpose in supporting one or more of these decisions.4.   Every element works as intended.5.   You have organized all the elements into an integrated, sequenced marketing system.

 Surprisingly, from the customer's view, it usually involves less written material and less talk than they are getting now.I'm describing a marketing program that is constructed with as much care, with as much precision, with as much quality as your product. You can't afford to throw together your product, and you can't afford to throw together your marketing.I don't have to tell you that this approach is extremely rare, almost nonexistent. The irony is that it usually costs less than doing things the traditional way, it brings enormous product acceptance very fast, it is extremely gratifying and a hell of a lot of fun. But it's also a hell of a lot of work. It requires entering some psychological ground that not every marketer is comfortable with. It demands an organized, strategic AND tactical approach that is sometimes difficult to accomplish amid the frenzy of a new product launch, when just getting the brochures and samples out on time can be a major accomplishment.

How to make it happen

It is easy to describe how to accomplish all this.Start early. Most of my pharmaceutical clients have been starting before they submit the drug for approval. The smartest ones start before the drug is even invented!Find a market researcher who knows how to sell. Have him or her try to sell the product in focus groups, in as persuasive terms as possible. Don't use a dry product description, and don't do a survey. You need interaction. Honestly tell people what you are doing, and why you are doing it. (See my article on Concept Testing in Focus Groups for more on this.)Give the market researcher a team of people to work with: a star salesperson, the product manager, someone from R & D, engineering, manufacturing, advertising (in the pharmaceutical industry add someone from the medical department, regulatory affairs, clinical studies).Identify the different clusters of attitudes, approaches, beliefs, and styles, i.e., the different types of potential customers that are out there.As you keep trying to ``sell'' these people, identify how they make their decisions, and what would ease their decisions. Have the team develop those things, either for real or in simulation, and keep selling. Tune up your approaches by successive approximations.You will quickly be able to spot the different types of people in the marketplace. You will know exactly what would help them move forward through the decisions. As you keep refining the process and sharpen up the elements, you will motivate people with a high degree of predictability to decide on your product. You'll sell almost everybody. They will drool, they will beg, they will cajole, they will demand special treatment to become the first to get the product. That's when you know you have a winner.Now, and not before, you are ready to launch the product. Try to do the above steps before the launch, although it is never too late.Don't let top management screw up the process. American companies are beginning to learn not to let products with defects out the door. They have not yet learned to prevent products with unproved, even defective, marketing support from going out the door. This is often the point when upper management, in a misguided effort to maximize sales, steps in and says that the product is positioned too narrowly, we are not making a big enough claim, we are not targeting a broad enough base of customers. We are bringing up negatives that should be avoided unless the customer asks point blank. Or, that sales quotas are not high enough. ``In my day'' we did it all with a few announcement ads, and a few quick-witted salespeople armed with a good brochure.Take them out in the field, show them how you can sell almost every truly qualified prospect. Challenge them to do better.Train your salespeople not with an objection-answering attitude, but how to facilitate the different kinds of prospects' decision processes. Train them how to be a manager of resources, instead of a pusher of brochures.Be there to serve the salespeople. Give them what they need. Believe them. Run telephone focus groups of salespeople, and be ready to make decisions and develop materials immediately.Pay as much attention to what is working as to what is going wrong. Find out what your sales stars are doing and spread it to the rest of the sales force.Don't neglect the people who don't buy. Find out why people don't try or adopt. Should they use your product? Is it really better for them, at this time, in their situation, given competing products and priorities? If you can candidly answer yes, you are actually doing them a disservice, even harming them (or, in the case of physicians, their patients) by not convincing them to use your product!Someday, a company will be sued for failing to convince a customer to use a product, when the failure to use the product caused injury! The attorney for the plaintiff will claim that ``the brochure did not make sufficiently clear, nor substantiate in a credible manner, just how beneficial the product really was, nor sufficiently answer the naÊve objections brought up by my client and your competitors.''Don't neglect the increasingly larger numbers of people who just won't believe anything that comes from the company. Develop or fund separate, organized programs of seminars, scientific studies, speaker programs, independent ratings, PR, articles, customer panels, people who are willing to serve as references, etc.Work up a word of mouth program, before launch. Word of mouth is the most powerful force in the marketplace. Don't be at it's mercy. [This will be the subject of an entire upcoming paper]Marketing is getting more complex all the time. By doing your homework, you can simplify the process. You can have smooth sailing once you launch, or you can get a product moving that is dead in the water.Let's look at what such a marketing program would look like. But, before we start navigating the marketplace, let's check the weather: let's look at the present marketplace climate.I have identified the following trends in marketing, based on 20 years experience and about 5000 focus groups.  

Marketing Trends

Let's look at what such a decision package looks like. Let me offer you at this point two tracks, to be most responsive and respectful to you, the reader. After all, you are my ``customer,'' for at least as long as you are reading this. Hopefully longer.

(1) A technical product: Since many of my clients are pharmaceutical and medical device companies, I feel that I should start with how to sell a new product to physicians. If you have a highly technical product, whether or not you are marketing ``to'' physicians, this is the track to concentrate on. Those of you not selling to physicians who are still reading this have more than a little imagination, so you will have no trouble making the necessary changes to apply it to your own highly technical products outside the health care field.

Keep in mind, however, that the pharmaceutical industry labors under some difficult and unique constraints. It is almost impossible to change the product directly. The decision maker is a prescriber, not the purchaser, but  both are customers. The products directly effect the life and well-being of the customer. Marketers are severely constrained by the FDA in what they can, and cannot, say, even to the point of not being able to tell the truth about certain characteristics of almost every drug. Product success is often dependent on whether the patient uses the product properly (takes the medication, on schedule, for the full course of therapy). So, ``If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.''

On the other hand, there are several things that make marketing easier. The decision-makers do not have to pay for the product. The decision-makers have a tremendous personal and professional interest in using new products. The decision-makers are smart. They want information. They spend a great deal of time seeking new information. A positive decision is highly leveraged, i.e., can influence many purchases.

(2) Consumer products: Let's take a high-ticket product, and a service.

(1) A NEW DRUG

 You are coming out with a new drug in a major therapeutic category: an antibiotic, cardiovascular, anticancer or psychoactive drug.

It goes without saying (almost) that you should do your homework:

Since the way the Package Insert reads is of crucial importance, you have to know the lay of the land even before doing the studies.

What are physicians using now? What are their satisfactions and dissatisfactions? What are their felt needs? What are their hidden needs -- their obvious and hidden attitudes? Most importantly, but most often neglected: How will they be making their decisions? What are the criteria and their relative importance, what will they take for evidence, what will they be looking at, from whom, etc.?

You must not only look at FDA requirements, but also at the physicians' decision-making requirements and preferences. Some clinical and laboratory studies must be designed from the point of view of the decision maker -- against the drugs he is presently using, using measures he can understand, with patients similar to his.

The requirements of the FDA for scientifically establishing safety and efficacy are often different from the requirements of the practicing physician when he or she is looking at your new drug to see if it's ``better'' than the one already being used.

The necessary studies for decision making can usually be run at the same time as the studies required for approval.

This is not the place to go into an exhaustive analysis of the naÊve and unimaginative condition of clinical trials. But I want to stress a point, not only to the pharmaceutical industry. You are eventually going to be making claims that have to be backed up: You better make sure that they are not only the right claims but that the substantiation is driven by the decision maker's information preferences, rather than your convenience.

Before marketing the drug, test the materials with real physicians to see (1) what communicates and (2) what is persuasive.

Develop materials that recognize the different perspectives of the different decision makers. For instance, different physicians may be looking for:

Greater efficacy.

Lower side effects.

Greater patient compliance.

Greater cost effectiveness.

Greater specialist usage.

The one with the most scientific data.

The one with least legal risk.

The one that works in the hands of experts.

The one that works for the typical physician.

The one that will most impress the patient.

The same brochure may be able to address several of the above, but you will need different approaches for the sophisticated vs. the unsophisticated, the specialist vs. the generalist, the innovator vs. the traditionalist, the scientist vs. the pragmatist, the people-oriented vs. the technologically oriented, the inner city vs. the suburban, the large city vs. the rural, etc.

You are going to need several different communication channels. (See my paper ``How to Convince People To Adopt Your Product'' for a detailed analysis of the messages and media.) Some physicians love salespeople, some will not see them. Some read journals, some do not. Some go to meetings, others never go. Also, some learn best from audiotape, videotape, audio or video teleconferences with experts or peers.

Whatever the emphasis or the channels of communication, you need to come at it from the perspective of: How can I help these people make the best decision? How can I help them get what they want? How can I help them do better?

They will be trying to figure out exactly where the drug should and shouldn't be used. Where it might be best. How it compares with the alternatives. How to try it with the least risk. What to look for. How to evaluate their trials, how to apply it further.

Create an integrated system.

If you want to help them come to the best decision fast, you have to help them, not just hit them with a lot of facts, however well substantiated. You have to organize the material for them. You must chart the course of events and materials so that they get what they need, when they need it, in the form they need it, from the sources they need it. If your product is really better, the truth is on your side. So, the facts are on your side. Therefore, the evidence is on your side. If you organize and sequence the presentation of evidence right, people will sail through the decision. If your product is not superior, you need to augment it in one of the many ways so widely written about.

The first thing you have to do is make a compelling claim. It's been called the Unique Selling Proposition, the Big Idea, The Raison D'Etre, the Positioning Statement. It has to be sharply focused, and you only get to have one. Everything else is a variation of this one idea. However, it can't be so broad that it is meaningless. Very few products have a compelling case for use. I like to call it The Idea Behind the Product, or the Essence Of The Product, or the Product Identity. Take your pick.

Most products lack definition. The opposite of something that has definition is something that is a blur, or is in a fog. That's how most products are experienced to most people. [See the Club Med example later.]

This product positioning is what ad agencies try to create. Unfortunately, they are often the victims of their superb creativity. They often live in a world of their own creation and fall in love with their own ideas. Too often, they look, but don't see, they listen, but they don't hear and they identify but don't empathize.

Once you have the compelling claim, you have to develop an educational program around that claim. Let me quickly add that I mean an educational program in the best sense: exciting, fun to engage in, one where the pride of accomplishment can be experienced, one that is inspiring (yes, inspiring). One that does not look like traditional education or marketing. There aren't many analogies in either education or marketing. The best blend of the two is Sesame Street. In pharmaceuticals, a rare few of the seminars (most are deadly, if you'll excuse the pun), a rare few of the formulary (P & T) committee folders, and a rare few of the monographs, roundtables, tapes, etc., and, of course, most of my telephone conferences.

You have to develop a case for why someone should switch to your product. A case requires evidence and evidence requires substantiation.

Different physicians look to different places for substantiation. Some want experts to distill the information and give a considered opinion. Others want to see the scientific studies firsthand. Still others don't care what the studies at the large universities show, they only want to know whether the drug is working out in their peers' hands. You must cover all these bases, and more, to have materials that will be believed.

When you make your case, include an objective product comparison chart. This is often the single most powerful piece of material you can provide, since it goes to the heart of decision making. Make sure that you include your disadvantages and your competitors' advantages. Make sure the measures on the chart are in vivo, clinically relevant criteria. Also, make up another chart showing your features, their benefits and the implications (the so what?, the what-to-do).

It is astounding how many products do not make their case in a simple, coherent manner, with backup. Instead, they present the decision maker with a mishmash of unsubstantiated claims and bald assertions.

Then, you must make trial easy. Realize that trial usually takes place on refractory patients. Show physicians who to try it on, what to look for, how to handle side effects, what to tell the patient, how to interpret the results. Give guidelines. In short, write a guide to trying your drug.

Conduct field trials: keep track of actual results under practice conditions, and feed them back to the physicians. That is what the physicians are really concerned about.

Spread the word. There are dozens of specific ways to encourage word of mouth, yet very few are used. More about this in a future paper.

The Long and the Short of it.

There are two opposing forces destroying most product communication. (1) It has to be simple, terse. (2) It has to be long: complete, detailed, with alternate approaches, answering the lingering questions.

That's why, in the pharmaceutical industry, the detailing aids are often 10+ pages long, but are so simplistic that the physicians' eyes glaze over. What is needed is a set of organized materials: complete and well organized, but any given element is direct and simple -- just what the doctor ordered.

Do you think that customer driven marketing is naÊve and idealistic, especially in the pharmaceutical industry? Then you don't know about Merck. This is the pharmaceutical company that most approachs what I am advocating. Can you imagine a company that actually conducts seminars that devote much of their time to teaching physicians when not to use a drug, which of their competitors' drugs should be tried first, and how to detect and control adverse reactions? Where a salesperson who does not present the negatives about a drug as aggressively as the positives is reprimanded? That's Merck.

Conventional wisdom in the pharmaceutical industry says that sure, a company that has the leading drug in almost every category, a company that has the money of Merck can afford to be honest. I say that conventional wisdom has it backward: Merck is a consistent winner because they are committed to a customer orientation, not because a customer orientation is something they can afford as a luxury. Incidentally, they treat their suppliers as consultants, keeping them informed, working with them, acknowledging superior work, and paying their bills on time. It is also no accident that Merck is consistently voted the best company in the U.S. to work for as an employee.

In fairness, I have seen dozens of examples from other companies where a product manager developed an organized, integrated set of customer driven materials and events that pushed the product over the top. However, almost every marketing program I have seen has had major gaps that severely limit the rapid acceptance of the product. More often than not, these are easy to identify and fix.

Let's look at a consumer product that has lessons for all industries.

A HIGH TICKET CONSUMER PRODUCT: THE NORDIC TRACK

The NordicTrack exercise machine simulates cross country skiing. It has one of the best marketing programs I have ever seen. If you haven't seen their materials, I strongly suggest that you give them a call (their ads are in almost every magazine). They illustrate customer driven marketing almost perfectly.

They start by recognizing that different people might want an exercise machine for different reasons, but everyone wants efficient exercise. That is the Big Idea behind their product: Efficient exercise; more calories burned and more muscles exercised per unit time than any other activity. They seem to have identified the person who wants the machine for weight loss, general fitness and rehabilitation from an injury. Within the general fitness category, they seem to have identified several types of people: those who want more energy, a high efficiency workout, those who don't want to waste a lot of time, cross country skiers who can't get out skiing as much as they want, those who want cross training for other sports, older people who want to stay fit. Cutting across these categories are the unsuccessful dieters, the successful dieters who worry about gaining weight again, injured joggers (and people suffering from other injuries), people who lead busy lives, and people who have other exercise machines gathering dust. How do you sell to such a diverse group of people?

First, get them to make an inquiry. Different NordicTrack ads start off with a strong claim designed to catch the attention and arouse the curiosity of different types: ``Get off the diet roller coaster,'' ``More  energy, less time.'' Not exactly award-winning headlines, but ones that make a compelling claim.

You then call an 800 number and reach a wonderful, friendly person who offers to send information and answer any questions. She asked me if I wanted a free video cassette, and what format recorder I have. She was much more ``real'' than almost anyone I would have met in a store. I received the information promptly. What information! Again, nothing that will win any awards -- just the most compellingly persuasive material I have ever seen. First, you get to meet the inventor of the NordicTrack and his daughter. You get to read the story of the invention of the machine and how his daughter won the intercollegiate cross-country ski championship twice by training on his machine.

The separate brochure is really several brochures split into several ``tracks'': information for the exerciser, the dieter and the health conscious. But more importantly, there is information for people with different information preferences. The scientifically-minded are informed by descriptions of university studies comparing calories burned with other exercisers including other ski machines. There is a page of testimonials from both experts and ordinary folks, broken down according to weight loss, rehabilitation, feeling good, etc. Every objection is addressed, including its size and portability: there is even a story about a chef who travels around the world giving cooking demonstrations, who claims that it is the only thing that allows him to maintain his weight! I doubt that anyone really reads more than a quarter of the brochure, but it is so well organized that they can skip to exactly what they want to know, making it almost custom-designed.

When you call them to ask questions, the person talks from experience and enthusiasm -- all their people, apparently, are NordicTrackers (they must be the healthiest company in the country). I wasn't sure whether to get the middle model or the high-end model. She patiently referred me to some pictures in the brochure, all the while maintaining that the cheapest model would do exactly what I want. She pointed out some adjustments that were possible with the high end model that I might appreciate later, but won't need immediately. Of course, I wanted the adjustments. She said that unless I was one of those people who liked precise measurements (she stressed that she wasn't), the middle and the high-end model were identical in adjustments and performance, except for two guages. When I told her I am a gadget lover, she said that she wouldn't pay an extra $100 for the two guages, but that if I would get motivation and pleasure from them, we were only talking about a few dollars a year over the life of the machine, but that I had to be the judge of something like that and that I would be happy with any decision I made. Of course, I could use it for 30 days and return it for another model (or a refund) in the unlikely chance that I wasn't satisfied. If I hadn't ordered then, she probably could have sold me a BMW!

Always, I had the feeling that she was trying to help me do the right thing, that she wanted me to experience the benefits of the machine that she believed in with near religious fervor. However, if I didn't want to buy, or wanted to think about it longer, she respected that decision.

When I said that I would like to order it, she said that their usual 10 day shipping policy could not be honored because of the unusual demands of the season (it was near Christmas). She gave me a realistic delivery (not shipping) date, and asked if I could live with that. I said yes and she repeated that it was worth waiting for. I did not receive the usual series of post cards that mail order firms send out announcing that their product is back ordered due to the popularity of the item. Instead, I received the electronic stopwatch and distance guage very quickly, with another confirmation of the approximate date I would receive the machine.

Not only did it come on time, it was intelligently packed and came with clear directions, with a small wrench to tighten a few bolts, in case a wrench was not handy. There was an 800 number attached in case I had trouble, with a promise that there were specially trained people at that number who could help me with the very simple assembly, who could even give me instruction on the correct motion, in case I had trouble ``getting the knack'' of cross country skiing. It came with a training program. These people definitely cared about whether I took it out of the box and used it properly.

I had two minor problems in the year I have been using it: one with an adjustment knob and one with the electronic stopwatch/speedometer. Both were handled courteously and expeditiously, no questions asked. I was even sent a rebate offer if I referred a friend who bought.

I can only think of a few things that would have improved the process. I was not sent a survey, or called, to find out if I were satisfied and if I could suggest any improvements. Also, if I were them, I would expand my line of accessories to include video tapes of beautiful cross country ski scenes for viewing while ``tracking'' (I often watch the travel channel when ``tracking,'' but it feels funny to cross country ski through Maui).

Incidentally, they are probably not doing much qualitative marketing research, since there are several obvious other themes that they could be emphasizing, which I think could increase their sales dramatically. They should certainly be doing focus groups of people who have just bought their machines, those who have had it a year, and those who have gotten the materials but who did not buy.

(2) ANOTHER CONSUMER EXAMPLE: THE CLUB MED

Unfortunately, this one is a negative example. They have a wonderful product. They even have a Big Idea, which they can state clearly: ``The Antidote for Civilization.'' Then their marketing falls apart. They sell it as if it's another resort, though they say that it is unlike any other resort, and they even say why. In fact, if you look at their beautiful brochures, you will think that they are selling  typical luxury resorts. On the contrary, there is a central idea behind their resorts: that they deliberately and systematically remove unneeded (on a vacation) trappings and expectations of civilization that cause stress, and substitute a series of services and social mores that would not work in civilization, but are perfect for a vacation. Some of these things are alluded to in their brochures, but the basic message is lost. Their Winter/Spring 1989-90 brochure talks about ``What the Club Med Is.'' They talk about beautiful sites, villages, their unique staff concept (GO's), and the variety of activities offered. But unless you already know what they are talking about, the brochure might as well be about a Marriott resort. To people who understand what the Club Med is all about, their description is perfectly clear. However, their new prospects miss it all, because it is not explained clearly in fundamentals. They are preaching to the already converted.

My proof is that every time I go, I find myself talking with people who are furious, whose expectations were violated, who have no idea about the idea behind the Club Med. When I tell them the story behind the invention of the Club, and when I explain the reasons behind what the Club is trying to do  there is a dramatic change of attitude. They not only see that the rules are not arbitrary, but that the strange practices have an important purpose. They usually see that dozens of things they were regarding as negatives, such as small rooms without phones and TVs,  are actually well-thought-out benefits.

Further proof is that many of the Clubs are the best family resorts I have ever found, but they still have a reputation as being only for the ``swinging singles.''

What should a company like this do? They need to segment their markets much more clearly into singles, couples (older and younger) and family markets, probably with different resorts for each. They need to tell their story and, above all, they need to articulate their raison d'Etre, if they haven't forgotten it. They need to recognize that even within the three main segments, there are many different reasons to go on a vacation, and they have to address themselves to each, even at the risk of driving away many people who are not really suited for a Club Med vacation. By being clear and customer driven, they could again operate at near capacity. They need to have several different types of brochures. They need to have a price comparison with other resorts, showing how much money people would have to pay for separate food, sports, instruction, flights and child care. They need a travel agents' program that gets their idea across to agents who think they know all about the Clubs (after all, they've been there) but don't. They should talk about the Club Med experience, and make it almost into a movement toward the important things in life instead of on the superficial trappings.

Their past advertising was brilliant advertising for the general idea of a vacation, the need for relaxation and the need to get away from civilization -- it did not sell the Club. Their new campaign, which just broke, shows the diversity of people they serve and the variety of their activities. They explicitly state the theme of their advertising in a recent brochure to members. ``Our message: Club Med is the vacation of infinite possibilities for couples, families, singles, and sports enthusiasts of all ages.'' They have fallen into the versatility trap: He who tries to be all things to all people is nothing to anybody. They still fail to distinguish themselves from conventional luxury resorts.

I'll bet they have little trouble generating inquiries, but that they have a low closing rate and return rate. I'm sure that people have a high degree of curiosity about the Club Med, that travel agents don't satisfy and that the brochure does not satisfy. I can't tell you how many people tell me that they were there a few years ago, loved it, but just don't know why they never went back. The reason is that they don't have any idea why the Club Med was uniquely suited for them -- that their satisfaction was not a fluke. That it wasn't just ``well run,'' but that its unique characteristics were responsible for a great vacation, so they can count on being satisfied in the future.

Satisfaction comes from having your needs and expectations met or exceeded, from having your criteria met. If the criteria are fuzzy, you never really know what to make of your experience. The difference between a satisfied customer and a convert who keeps coming back is that the convert knows why he is satisfied, understands why the product is unique, and believes that the uniqueness will continue.

If you don't make clear why your product is superior, customers can't tell others clearly why they should use the product. All they can say is that they had a good time, that they were satisfied. So, most of the power in word of mouth opportunities are lost.

The moral is: Set up the expectations right, exceed the expectations in a way the customer understands, turn happy customers into converts, then turn the converts into evangelists.

Come to think of it, the Club Med  needs an objective outsider, who loves their concept, to profile their customers and prospects, look at their promotional mix, figure out what is missing or has to be changed, sequence the materials and events, and sharpen their communication. As I think about it, I realize that I'm the perfect person for the assignment.

THE NEED FOR A NEW KIND OF MARKETING CONSULTANT

There is a need for consultants who bridge the gap between market research and the agencies who execute the marketing materials (ad agencies, promotion agencies, PR agencies, marketing communication companies). That is the responsibility of the product manager, but most product managers cannot and should not do it themselves. They should hire specialists who can be objective, who can afford to be non-political, who have been through 100+ product launches, who are experts in the psychology of product adoption and who are qualitative marketing research experts.

Think of it this way: When you build a house, you need someone between the surveyors and civil engineers who give you the lay of the land (analogous to the market researchers) and the contractors (analogous to the agencies who execute the plan). This person is called the architect. A good architect integrates the surveys, engineering, desires and other psychology of the client, availability of materials and cost constraints. He then comes up with a master plan that has structural and aesthetic integrity. He then gets it approved, makes mid-course corrections and then either manages the general contractor or lets the customer do it.

The advertising and marketing communications agencies are general contractors who at best have several conflicts of interest. Most people putting up a house would not dream of doing it without an architect standing between them and the contractors. You should not put together a marketing program without retaining an unbiased expert to coordinate its integrity, integration, strategic effectiveness and structural soundness. I call this process Persuasion Design. More about it in a future article.

I hope that this article has inspired you to steer beyond traditional image and slogan marketing, even beyond customer driven marketing, to navigate toward organized, customer empathic, quality marketing. Let me know what happens.