Stumbling on Happiness, Stumbling on Customers?

Posted on | January 15, 2008 |

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The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness..
You have to catch it yourself.

Benjamin Franklin

We all like to imagine that customers will respond in droves to our advertising and marketing efforts. Why else would we spend so much time and energy trying to generate sales? And yet, so many of these efforts fail, and fail badly. Why is that? Why are we so bad at predicting future outcomes? If you enjoyed the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, or the Purple Cow by Seth Godin, you’ll probably enjoy reading Stumbling on Happiness by psychologist Daniel Gilbert - a book that not only reveals a great deal about the human condition in general,
but I believe also has some important implications for the future of sales and marketing.

The topic of Gilbert’s book is one that we are all interested in, but is a topic that we don’t generally give much attention to: namely, how is that we actually plan for making ourselves happy in the future? Citing numerous studies, as well as drawing on dozens of interesting anecdotes, Gilbert makes a convincing case that despite our preoccupations with tomorrow, we are inherently bad at imagining what will truly make us happy when tomorrow actually arrives. It turns out that our minds constantly dance between a realistic assessment of the future, blended with an idealized vision of the future.

“We tend to forget that our brains are talented forgers, weaving a tapestry of memory and perception whose detail is so compelling that its inauthenticity is rarely detected.”

Often times, our choices are somewhat ambiguous regarding the future:

“Should I have another fish stick or go directly for the Ding Dongs?
Accept the job in Kansas City or stay put and hope for a promotion?
Have the knee surgery or try the physical therapy first?”

Other choices appear to be more clear cut (at least at first glance) - i.e. being the CEO of a Fortune 500 company vs. dangling at the end of a hangman’s rope. But what appears to be clear cut turns out not always to be the case. In fact, many people who suffer tragedies and calamities of all kinds report that they are actually very happy and well adjusted - and yes, even convicted criminals facing the hangman have reported feelings of contentment happiness!

These are just some of the fascinating ideas that Gilbert explores, and if it sounds interesting, you might be happy to go buy the book at Amazon.

Meanwhile, what are the implications of Gilbert’s research for sales and marketing?
First, at the end of the day, people are buying your product with the expectation that it will in some large or small way make them happy. Furthermore, they are naturally and instantly assessing your product claims with their all-too-human brains; brains that constantly navigate between both a harsh realism, as well as an idealized future view. Now it turns out that people tend to err on the side of believing all of their current actions will make them happier in the future, rather than taking a more realistic assessment. Naturally as marketers, we play towards this idealized future bias - this new pair of pants will cause beautiful strangers stop me on the train, this new car will transport me to an environmental Garden of Eden, this low-fat raspberry swirl ice cream will add sparkles to my personality while simultaneously reducing my waistline, and so on, and so on, and so on. Needless to say, buyer’s remorse is rampant in all aspects of our lives! And if your customer feels buyer’s remorse over your product (whether it’s a car, a college, or a new coat), what are the chances they will become a viral marketer of your product? Yes, slim to nada.

So, while perhaps it’s stating the obvious, the critical component to great marketing is to deliver products that make people happy when they buy them, AND AFTER they’ve bought! It’s called exceeding expectations, the Cracker Jack surprise inside, the mint on the pillow case, etc. This surprise factor can be simple, or elaborate, cheap or costly - the key is to add that something extra on top of an already great product that the customer hadn’t envisioned when they first bought the product. The other side of the coin is once you have made a happy customer, give them a platform for telling other people about their newfound happiness. This can be done online, via eMail, or even thru a simple survey. The key is to get them sharing their happiness with others in their network. Once that happens, you’re not only selling a great money-making product, you’re making the world a happier place! And, hopefully that act of service will bring you even greater happiness!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, your own pollyanna brain is constantly analyzing the results of your marketing efforts. Don’t be fooled! The great and fundamental revolution of online marketing is that it has poured a massive and unrelenting dose of realism onto our typically wishful thinking marketing strategies and tactics. So - while you need to be massively focused on your customer’s happiness, don’t let your slap-happy brain ignore the concrete data that you are gathering from your online activities. If no one is clicking-thru on a message, take the hint, and rework the message! Or, likewise, if people are clicking-thru, but no one’s buying, revisit the previous paragraph and make sure you are delivering some honest, talk-about-it happiness to your customers.

Well - that’s all for now.. Happy Marketing!

Jim Walker
jimwalks@yahoo.com