I ran across Aviva, a global insurance company, through this ad at a U.S. airport. I was immediately intrigued by their customer-centered mission: YOU. While arguably not a formal mission statement (most aren't very good anyway), it makes manifestly clear where they want us to think their focus lies.

And Aviva is consistent with this message throughout their communications. For example, their brand promise explanation is all about a distinctive customer experience that recognizes the value of each one of us:

Aviva has committed to deliver one distinctive experience for our customers, wherever we are in the world - we want them each to feel that "no one recognises me like Aviva".

And they nicely tie this intention to their cause marketing efforts. In fact, their brand is the centerpiece of all their communications. Check it out here.

Aviva (which means "Spring" in Hebrew) gets that branding is a core and essential business discipline. They are a good example of a company in which marketing and customer research have seats at the decision-making table.

Now, having generated such high expectations, it's especially critical that they deliver on their promise.

According to the U.S. government website Treasury Direct, our national debt now exceeds 14 trillion dollars. $14,201,111,097,252 to be exact. Does that number, or even the word "trillion" mean anything to you? I cannot conceive of what a trillion is, besides being a whole lot.  Which is a problem because it makes the amount of our debt seem unreal, and therefore hard to take seriously. 

We can use numbers in ways that make quantities easy to understand or hard to understand. (I was going to say "obfusicate" but that would be counter to the point now, wouldn't it!). I believe that most of us have trouble once we get beyond millions. We may know that a trillion has 12 zeros after it, or is a million millions, but does that really help?

The always-growing U.S. National Debt Clock helps by breaking down the huge debt into smaller parts.

And then of course we have social math analogies to the rescue, this time courtesy of ABC News (for visuals, check out this video). 

Our national debt is like:

• 2,169 Haitian economies
• Super Bowl tickets for half of the entire world's population
• The 400 largest companies in the U.S.
• 58,000,000 (that's 58 million) new homes
• U.S. defense budget for the next 20 years

That fact that our national debt is over $14 trillion dollars is what it is. And rising $8,000 every second according to Laurie Anderson's video PSA (personal service announcement), with interesting social math about paying off this staggering amount of debt.

While social math does not change this reality, it can increase our understanding, make the number personally relevant and real, and ideally activate better decisions and policies.

Check out this BP oil spill social math post too.

I just had a fascinating conversation with a colleague who runs a Peace Institute at a southern California university. He posed this marketing challenge to us: Fix the stigma of peace. He feels their success is hampered by the stereotype that "peace people" are card-carrying liberals who naively think everyone should play nice, and who don't get the necessity of war to keep the world safe.

So, do we:  a) try to change how people think about peace? Do we:  b) reframe peace and call it something else that's less "loaded?"  Or do we:  c) accept people where they're at, and find a common ground regardless of political idealogy?  (hint: not a or b).

I call this "wrong reason marketing." Get people to do the behavior based on their own reasons (or even no substantive reason), without requiring them to know what you know or believe what you believe, aka the "right" reasons.  Be forewarned: The stronger you believe in something, the harder - and perhaps the more important- it is to do this. Remember though, small wins lead to bigger wins. More to follow...

Old fashioned bumper stickers are the medium of choice in this war of ideology taking place in laid-back Ocean Beach (OB), in San Diego County. OB has long been known as a liberal, safe and friendly haven for the homeless.

Compare the two bumper stickers. Both welcome people to friendly OB. The brown one says "Don't feed our bums" and was made by a local smoke shop to deal not the homeless they say, but the more aggressive panhandlers: 

"It isn't about the homeless...it's about the bums, the trolls that we deal with day in and day out, they get angry at you if you don't have spare change, they urinate in your doorways, graffiti on the buildings, it's terrible." said Denise Prigmore, an employee at The Black.

Many OB residents were angered and felt that the message portrays them as intolerant. Look what was created in response, by San Diego's Regional Task Force to End Homelessness.

Ideology and personal beliefs about homelessness aside, I see all forms of separatism, prejudice, and racism as a market segmentation issue. It involves dividing based on differences and uniting into subgroups based on similarities. Even good ideas like segmentation can be put to bad use. The positive segmentation challenge here is to distinguish between the "good" homeless and those that cause unnecessary harm and damage.

Food marketers have known this for years. One powerful way to appeal to customers is to emphasize what is missing.  Misleading? Sure can be. Depends on how you look at it. I see it as more honest than not, when it comes to health.

I remember when "cholesterol-free" was all the rage, seeing orange juice touting its no cholesterol advantage. Which of course it always had, given that only animal products contain cholesterol.

When avoiding an ingredient or preparation method or chemical becomes a hot topic, be prepared to see all kinds of food products using it to grab your attention. Like Ocean Mist Romaine Hearts, which is...lettuce. Their bag calls out that their lettuce is gluten free, lactose free, and vegan. And that it supports a healthy heart. All good things. Hey, what about fat free?

I believe this British Petroleum ad ran in The Economist in 1999:

And they are. Tragically ironic, isn't it? Careful of what you promise. More than your brand is at stake.

A small but significant example of a successful company that says they care and shows it. SWA has always favored "plain language" messaging and connecting person-to-person. The recorded jokes when on phone hold, the goofy singing by flight attendants, and now this "We miss you" e-mail message. Southwest Airlines knows how to connect. Which is one reason why they've been the only airline to be profitable many years running. Another example of customer intimacy paying off!

At ResearchWorks, we talk a lot about customer intimacy. We do our best not just to help clients be customer-intimate, but to practice customer intimacy ourselves. One sign of customer intimacy is when you say you care and show you care, and customers feel it. There is a match between how you intend to treat customers and how customers feel treated.

The sign above pronounces how much this family camp in Northern California cares for its guests. Even though the camp is not much more than a giant patch of dirt, people feel the love. The sign conveys the promise, the camp delivers on it. And guests come back year after year. That's how customer intimacy becomes customer loyalty.

Oral Roberts, the television preacher whose faith healing ministry had millions of followers, died last week. Here's a short video of him faith healing little Billy Ray, a boy with polio, so Billy can suddenly walk without crutches.

I remember as a kid watching Oral Roberts, and Jimmy Swaggart, the 700 Club, and other TV ministries with utter fascination. Even then I questioned what they said, but loved how they said it. They were experts at the art of persuasion! Their effectiveness had very little to do with facts, and everything to do with faith, and feeling. Which is, I believe, why the religious right is as powerful as they are. In public dialogue, they "own" feelings and emotion. As entertainers, they tap into our uniquely human ability to suspend disbelief and go along with the story. Those left of center are driven by logic and reason.

The promise of hope and despair of fear almost always trump rationale thinking, especially when it comes to the abstract values that guide our lives. What would happen if the pendulum shifted? Let's try it!

(P.S. When I start typing "Oral" into the Google search box, the first suggestion is "Oral Roberts" -- immediately followed by... "oral herpes." Be careful of the company you keep!).

We're just wrapping up a marketing study with primary care doctors across the country to test the appeal of potential new medical equipment and services. I am constantly hearing doctors lamenting the condition of healthcare in America, and very clearly saying what they do everyday - how they treat patients - is directly affected by what is r eimbursable by insurance and what kind of coverage a patient has. It is both understandable and frightening. 

In the midst of healthcare reform, are you and I willing to sacrifice our benefits for the greater good?  As the cartoon suggests, many lawmakers have a double standard and would not. Wouldn't that be like a marketer representing a product they don't believe in? Not a good thing. And it always shows. Integrity: Don't leave home without it!