iTunes Wrote This Post
29 Dec
As a spur-of-the-moment blogging experiment, I’ve set my iTunes to shuffle and will let the music dictate the content of this post.
I will attempt to draw parallels between marketing or PR and the next five songs to pop up. Here (listed retroactively) are the five songs:
- Avril Lavigne, “I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend”
- Evan Rachel Wood, “If I Fell” (Beatles cover)
- Radiohead, “Karma Police”
- Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Sweet Home Alabama”
- Phish, “Bouncin’ Round the Room”
Okay, here goes…
Avril Lavigne, “I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend”
Yes, I’m embracing my inner rebellious teenage girl…you got a problem with that?
Avril nails the Interruption Marketer’s “Pick me! Pick me!” tactics perfectly. Check it:
“In a second you’ll be wrapped around my finger
Cause I can, cause I can do it better
There’s no other
So when’s it gonna sink in
She’s so stupid
What the hell were you thinking?”
Despite Seth Godin’s influence, Permission Marketing (or Conversation Marketing, if you prefer) hasn’t supplanted Interruption Marketing yet. Whether you’re Billy Mays pitching the merits of OxiClean, that poor PC guy, or just “a mother f—ing princess,” shouting at your customers still brings in some business.
Of course, Avril’s fictional boy toy probably left her after a month, and the same happens with customers. If you seduce them with “we’re better” pitches, they’ll buy today, but it’ll be a short-term relationship.
Conversational marketing establishes long-lasting customer relationships built on trust and respect. Listen to your customer, instead of talking at him, and you’ll be better equipped to meet his needs.
Evan Rachel Wood, “If I Fell”
“If I fell in love with you
Would you promise to be true
And help me understand
’cause I’ve been in love before
And I found that love was more
Than just holding hands
If I give my heart to you
I must be sure
From the very start
That you would love me more than her”
Sure, it’s a little schmaltzy for a consumer anthem, but it works. After all, isn’t reassurance exactly what consumers are looking for?
Love is more than just holding hands. If you’re courting my business, I need to know you’ll be there when I need you. I need to know you won’t forget about me after I say “I do,” mixaphorically speaking. I need to know you won’t let me down.
Does your marketing message say “Please go out with me,” or does it say “I’ll be yours in sickness and in health, in good times and bad?”
Radiohead, “Karma Police”
Thoughts, Part I.
We’ve all heard a marketing pitch that just gets under our skin. Mine is that grating “Saved by Zero” commercial for Toyota. Who came up with that? I say we find him and do as Radiohead suggests:
“Karma police, arrest this man
He talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge
He’s like a detuned radio”
Actually, Karma would be strapping him to a chair and making him listen to that commercial on a loop 24/7 for six months.
Thoughts, Part II.
“This is what you’ll get when you mess with us.”
Let me explain how social media works: First, an out-of-touch decision-maker in your company does something that pisses off your customers (dry fuel). Next, one of your customers writes a blog post about it (match). Then, in a matter of hours, your Big Mistake spreads across the social web (wind gusts), pissing off thousands of current and prospective customers.
As Radiohead says, “This is what you’ll get when you mess with us.”
Of course, if you were an earnest and authentic participant in the social media space, you could have kept that fire under control. Still think social media doesn’t matter?
Lynyrd Skynrd, “Sweet Home Alabama”
In all of music, no song resonates as the anthem of a people as proudly as “Sweet Home Alabama.” I may be just a Yankee, but I have a deep appreciation for what this song means to the South. Beneath the defiance, beneath all the “The South will rise again” rhetoric, is a story about home.
“Sweet Home Alabama” isn’t about the fertile soil of Dixie. It’s about pride, pain, rebellion, faith, tradition, and identity. Home isn’t a place, but an emotional touchpoint.That’s the reason the song has reigned for 35 years as the birthright of Southerners.
Does your marketing reach your customer’s emotional touchpoints? Is it a balm for his pain? A mirror on his own vulnerability?
Phish, “Bouncin’ Round the Room”
I’ll confess, I don’t get Phish, and I’m not a huge fan. This song has one refrain, though, that seems apropos of social media marketing:
“and I awoke, faintly bouncing round the room
the echo of whomever spoke”
Hmmm. Social media is often described as an echo chamber — single thought/idea repeating themselves over and over until, at last, they fade away.
What are the implications for brands? If the original burst of noise is negative, you could have a PR maelstrom on your hands (see Motrin Moms). If the first thunderclap is positive, though, you get “buzz.” I’m not crazy about buzz — I think it’s vague, hard to measure, and even harder to link directly to conversions.
Ever try to remember your dreams? “Bouncin’ Round the Room” calls to mind the ethereal, elusive remnants of a dream after you awake. The harder you try to remember a dream, the further it slips away — an apt metaphor for the social web. The harder you try to control what people say about your company/product/brand, the quicker that control slips away.
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