Add Personality To Your Direct Marketing
Sometimes when I give a seminar I play a game called "Pick the Personality." I show slides of four catalog pages and one newspaper ad. (with no company names showing) all featuring similar winter snow parkas. I ask the audience if they can identify the slides. Most of the time, they can identify two out of the four catalogs. The newspaper ad is from a major department store. Some people do guess the store – but many others guess competing retailers.
However, there a few slides the audience can easily identify. One is L.L. Bean, the other is J. Peterman. Why? Because of their distinctive personalities. L.L. Bean’s rugged, no-nonsense style -- with a guarantee that is reprinted throughout the catalog -- is easy to spot. So is J. Peterman, with its distinctive illustrations and pages that read like a collection of short stories that happen to feature items of clothing.
Direct marketing companies need a personality to give them the immediate recognition they want. When you get your mail at home, you are attracted to the packages that stand out from the crowd; the ones with whom you’ve done business before – the ones that somehow endear themselves to you. Think about it – if you found yourself in a crowded room full of strangers, you would immediately gravitate toward the one face you recognize.
But personality is more than a familiar face (or logo). It’s a lot more than branding in the mail. Your personality should act as a magnet to your target market. As a direct marketer, it is to your benefit to determine your identity as a company, then figure out how you can translate that identity into qualities that ingratiate you with your customers – just as you would in a one-to-one selling process.
It all goes back to the fact that customers buy from people they like and trust. Even when they’re buying from a catalog or a direct mail piece, they like to feel as if they’re dealing with a person, not a company. You have to give your company human qualities.
Take Hallmark, for example. Hallmark exudes sincerity, warmth and honesty. If Hallmark was a person, it would definitely be someone you could take home to mother. Harley Davidson, on the other hand, has an equally strong personality -- on the other end of the spectrum. The personality here is tough, macho, and adventurous. This is probably not someone you would take home to Mom (unless she was a biker babe). As David Aaker noted in his book, Building Strong Brands, "What other brand do you see tattooed on people?" Yet this is the personality bikers trust; they see the Harley personality as an extension of their own.
They also form an active relationship with the brand. Just as people choose their friends for their personalities, people often pick companies for their personalities. They might buy a particular brand that had a young, hip personality like Swatch to feel part of the "in" crowd. Or they might choose a brand like Betty Crocker with its warm, friendly, down-to-earth qualities because it reminds them of home and family.
Whatever your company personality may be, it must be consistent. Imagine getting a letter from "Betty Crocker" that was full of Generation-X jargon. Your personality should come across in every single communication you have with your customers and prospects. That means in your direct mail packages, in your advertising (direct and otherwise), in your telemarketing, and in your customer service. This consistency of personality is an important customer retention strategy that will help you bond with your customers -- so that they will purchase more from you.
As I prove in my "Pick the Personality" game, this can be a valuable method of differentiating yourself from the competition. Consider the personalities of Hallmark, Betty Crocker, and Harley-Davidson. They definitely stand out from similar companies who don’t have such strongly recognizable personalities.
Copyright 2003 Mason & Geller Direct Marketing, LLC., All rights reserved.
