I believe everyone surely has more than one date in their life. You call your crush, ask them out for lunch. You wear affluently and trying to impress her. Did some research on her and see what she likes to eat and where usually she goes during free time. Trying to offer her another lunch or date after sending her back home. If it clicked, congratulations, she’s yours. At the same time, congrats to you again, because you’d already become a marketer.
Yea, I’m, not kidding. You surely bewildered, why dating can become a marketer? The same reason your customer buy the products from you. Trust. Familiarity. Because you trust the brand that offers the benefit to you, and you are familiar with the brand. You trusted the Brand. Same goes to company or marketer, we need to build a genuine relationship and sincere trust with our customers.
There’s a story written by my favorite marketing guru, Seth Godin. He describes there are two ways to get married; ” The guy buys an extremely expensive suit. New shoes. Fashionable accessories. Then walk into the nearest bar and start talking to the nearest person and proposes marriage. If it turned down, the guy will repeat this process again on every person in the bar.” The other way, he describes, it’s a lot more fun than the previous one; “A guy goes on a date with the targeted prospect, if it goes well, the two of them go on another date. And then another. Until after ten or twelve dates, both sides can really communicate with each other about their needs and desires. Finally, after three or four months of dating, the guy proposes marriage.”
By interpreting the two ways of dating technique by two different guys. He is trying to likening the technique with the marketer. The first one it’s the way of most large and fancy company’s technique. They hire an agency, build fancy ads, produce mediocrity products and shove the “Product’s benefits“ into the consumer’s throat. The second one it’s the meticulous marketer who done a lot of “research“ on the targeted prospect and sincerely dating with the customer by listening to their needs and desire.
I dare not to say I’m expert in dating, but I can be able to discern there are so many similarities between business and dating and dissect the 7 effective ways to date our customer and marry them:
Competition
The more competition in the business, the lesser opportunities for us to grab the market share. It’s okay to let go some of the popular girls in the school, I know they are pretty and charming. But do we really have a chance to get near to her and ask her out? Imagine how long we have to wait for her answer. She’s probably busy at choosing the next handsome or popular guy she’s gonna dating soon.
Self-awareness
Don’t go in the business that we don’t understand, even if we see lots of people making money from it. Maybe they are the survival of the fittest in the industry. We never get to hear or see the loser in the game, no one wanna share about their failure but success.
Financial
Always be prepared for the worst possible scenario. And play only what we can afford to lose. We don’t date the girl from the rich family. We all know that rich girl’s father will always find a way to despise us and tend to look at our bank account whether we are capable enough to marry her daughter. (Trust me, I’m a father. I know, even if it sounds prejudice and biased. But I only wish the best for my daughter.)
Marketing
Marketing it’s not that hard and abstract as we think. if we can be able to know where our target prospect appears, and how do we reach them. It’s only a matter of how to communicate with them. The point is if the girl is “the one” that we desire most. We will always find a way to reach them no matter how difficult it is. Marketing is a discipline of mindset, not fancy medium or gimmick.
Branding
What is brand and branding after all? This has been a very controversial topic for a very long time. There’s a lot of misconception about Branding. But based on my definition, it’s about impression. Yes, how the people perceive about you when they first look at you. Make it simple, the tone and the manner. Your action and dressing will determine your character. If your crush likes to date a guy who is neat and clean. You better shaved and shower before you go off on your first date.
Strategy
What is strategy? A strategy’s actually a plan of action to achieve a major and overall aim to win the game. Before action, how many of us really spend the time on research and planning? How many of us really spend time on the market research and learn about our target prospect? How do we strategically differentiate ourselves so that our crush can be able to notice us in the crowd? Do the homework before we execute the plan.
Retention
Business is about providing the best offer for our customers so they will not shift their loyalty to another provider. Likewise a marriage, we committed to being sincere and loyal to our life partner. We invest trust, time, energy, honesty and sincerity to cultivate our long-term relationship in marriage.
Basically, these are the 7 steps to date our customer and to marry them forever. But last and the most important it’s actually “Resilience”. Because sometimes, things do not go according to our plan. But that doesn’t mean we should give up easily. We might heartbroken for a moment, feel despondent and hopeless for love. But, don’t forget the world is beautiful and full of opportunity for people who do not give up easily. Be faithful and don’t afraid to try and challenge ourselves for continuous improvement.
“The consumer isn’t a moron. She is your wife.”
-David Ogilvy, Founder of Ogilvy & Mather, and known as the father of advertising.
Lone Wong | Things to remind in the journey of life 