Please indulge me as I start with a long aside...
Most people know nothing about quantum mechanics; and what
they do know is usually wrong. Say ‘quantum’ and some wise acre will chime in,
“Oh yeah, everything is relative, there is no truth, do whatever you want,
there’s no right or wrong.”
Thanks so much for that tidbit.
Yet, this ignorance hasn’t stopped marketing agencies from
trading on the term ‘quantum’. I Googled ‘quantum marketing’ and up popped
scores of gravy-training quantum marketing companies.
I could barely stand to read the convoluted logic of these
agencies. Here’s a typical paragraph:
“Quantum
Marketing Group offers expertise and resources that have helped organizations
maximize performance and identify hidden opportunities for profitable growth.
Quantum helps small, medium and distributed enterprise organizations develop an
effective sales automation process. Well designed and properly implemented
sales automation improvements deliver a strong return on investment (ROI) and
return on time (ROT). Sales automation improvements prepare a company for
longer term sustainable growth. Sales automation, properly developed, provides
tools, methods and processes needed to build and operate a successful sales and
marketing program.”
As Blackadder said to
Baldrick, ‘utter crap’. These geniuses broke the first rule of B2B marketing
which is NEVER WRITE ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR COMPANY THAT THE COMPETITION CAN SIGN.
How does the above statement make these guys different? And what happened to
quantum? Sales automation = quantum? In what parallel universe?
What does any of this
tripe have to do with the observer’s perspective or individual packets of data
or the speed of light or electron clouds or collapsing wave functions or
space-time or Neils Bohr or Schrodinger’s cat or Heisenberg’s Uncertainty
Principle or branes or gravity or space-time? Read this slop again: Quantum
Marketing Group hangs its hat on sales automation, whatever the hell that
means… but I know this much, it has NOTHING to do with quantum anything –
unless there’s such a thing as quantum stupidity.
These guys and the
other 100 ‘quantum’ agencies are gravy trainers: “let’s say ‘quantum’ because it
means nothing but sounds scientific and oh, so modern.” Is that the kind of
thinking you want from a marketing company?
Glad I got that off
my chest.
Now to the issue at
hand. In 2006 some guy called Danziger came up with the ‘quantum theory of
shopping’. Yes, he gravy-trained the name, figuring that because he developed a
mathematical formula as to why people buy, it must be ‘quantum’.
Forgive him… because
his formula is dead on. Here it is:
P = (N+F+A) ×E2
P is the propensity for a shopper to buy
N is need
F is product features
A is affordability
E is emotion
Notice that there are two tangible factors: F
(features) & A (affordability). Intangibles are N (need) & E (emotion).
[As I look at this, Danziger has an argument about using ‘quantum’
because part of this formula relates to position and perspective (as does
quantum mechanics): the buyer’s emotional perspective on what’s needed and
what’s important at the moment of purchase is in the ‘quantum’ ballpark.]
Like quantum mechanics, when it comes to shopping/purchasing there’s
more unknown than known. We do ‘know’ the features and the affordability (to some
extent); but we’re working with probabilities when it comes to need and emotion,
particularly E.
[Notice, that you multiply by E squared – it’s the equivalent
of the speed of light in Einstein’s E=MC2 (that’s 186,000 miles per
second squared or one hell of a number). For Danziger, E (emotion) is that ‘big’
number.]
Emotions, excitement and pleasure and even fear that people associate
with a product, can transform need into desire: enhancing perceived product features and increasing
attraction. And we all know that emotions can make people pay a higher price
than they ever intended (no explanation necessary to anyone who’s ever bought a
home).
Building an emotional response is what marketing is all
about. That's true for B2C and B2B, although the B2B ‘marketers’ will never,
ever admit this because they and most of their clients just don’t get it.
What’s the best way to build an emotional response?
Tell a good story for god’s sake. Facts and bullet points and “we’re the best”
approaches are cold and unemotional. They are not marketing, in spite of what 99% of B2B agencies think.
The right words with the right images, often shown to consumers in unexpected places, create the E2 – sometimes at the speed of light.
Look, marketing has changed completely, at least in the way
stories are told and what emotional triggers stimulate today’s consumers. But
what hasn’t changed is Danziger’s formula (with my addendum): E (emotion)
drives sales and S (story) builds emotion.
This isn’t rocket science… or it it?
[NOTE: This formula applies to in-store displays as well as web sites: they too contribute to the E in Danziger’s equation. The more you can make customers feel pleasant and positive during the entire selling process, the more you enhance their shopping experience and the more emotion you build… and that emotion creates need, improves perceived features and expands the concept of what’s affordable.]
[NOTE: This formula applies to in-store displays as well as web sites: they too contribute to the E in Danziger’s equation. The more you can make customers feel pleasant and positive during the entire selling process, the more you enhance their shopping experience and the more emotion you build… and that emotion creates need, improves perceived features and expands the concept of what’s affordable.]
