Micheline, head of our International Desk, recently gave me a Time magazine article about seducing customers. Actually, it was about how supermarkets create "zones of seduction" that get customers to spend more. What the author and consumer fan Martin Lindstrom (check out his buy-ology book pictured below), called "seducing," I used to refer to as "engineering." But seducing sounds well, more seductive (and is actually more customer-centric). Don't you think? 

A key point was changing the environment to trigger our primitive, and often subconscious survival responses, like hoarding for lean times. The approach requires lots of customer field research to know what works and to fine-tune the changes. For example, changing a point of purchase sign in the supermarket aisle from $1.95 to 1.95 increased sales. The dollar sign seemed to trigger a greater awareness of expense, not value. Adding the line "maximum 3 cans per customer," coupled with smaller shopping carts and a bumpy (and noisier) tile floor that led people to slow down increased spending sevenfold. Sevenfold!

Think about slot machines in Vegas, starting with your first steps off the airplane.They are everywhere! You can't even go the bathroom without passing a zillion slots seductively beckoning your credit card.

Are we being constantly manipulated? Yes. Is that bad. Sometimes. Is it an inherent part of a capitalistic society? Yes.

And the real bottom line question: How can YOU more effectively and ethically seduce your customer (or client, patient, partner, investor, etc.) to "buy" from your organization?

I just bought a new phone at Verizon. It's always, umm, an "experience" shall we say. First I went to my local Verizon store to try some out. I found what I wanted (the new Samsung Fascinate in case you were wondering!) and told the very helpful salesperson I wanted it. Who told me they couldn't give me my special $100 discount until my 2 year renewal date hit in another week. By which time their SmartPhone "2 for 1 special" would be over. Hmm. I talked to the manager who said things like "nothing I can do. it's policy. can't change promotional dates or any rules, etc. why am i a manager anyway, etc. (I made up the last one)." Anyway, I knew that no matter how much I threatened to go to AT&T or played my 'good customer with lots of phone lines' card, it wouldn't matter. So much for the in-store retail sales channel!

Frustrated, I called Verizon and asked for a customer service manager. Who immediately agreed my request to start my new contract one week early and get the discount and the twofer was very reasonable. And she made it happen. When I remarked on how much better her service was, she said that it usually goes better by phone and that retail outlets often run into problems. And that phone sales reps can redeem "mail in" rebates without needing me to mail anything in. Made me realize that the two Verizon sales channels - in-store sales vs. phone sales - compete! With phone sales the clear winner. The question is should Verizon steer people toward the better sales channel? The answer...Why not?! 

Old Spice figured out who holds the purchasing power in their target market's household. In previous campaigns, they targeted end users' (men's) awareness and liking. Look at their old ad with the shouting macho dude that would annoy maybe 200% of women. However, men may actually like the fact that women don't like the ad, with this logic: Because women don't like it, it is automatically manly. Who said we're not shallow.

Now to focus on a better outcome - selling their product - in the newer campaign, they are targeting and winning the buyers' preference by appealing to women, and through women, to their men.

This ad has multiple messages. What women doesn't want a man to bake them a cake in the dream kitchen he built with his own hands??  But the message doesn't negatively affect men's awareness or liking of Old Spice. Men appreciate that Old Spice understands their "situation" - another way to sell manliness.

As marketers, we know Old Spice probably conducted copious amounts of research to intimately get to know and understand their customers and the the purchase decision process. To Joe Bro, it feels like he just had a "manversation" consisting of mostly grunts, nods, and maybe a fist bump with Old Spice. Then the product he (and she) wants magically appears in his bathtub. Cha-ching.