When Will Marketers Learn to Behave?

By Aaron Kahlow

Fundamentally, marketing begins with assumptions about human behavior. We build our strategies, initiatives and campaigns in an effort to influence the behavior of our target market. It would then be safe to say we must understand the behavior of our audience to properly influence them. Right?

Unfortunately, many of us have lost sight of this, and simply crank out campaigns, ads and other marketing initiatives without devoting much thought as to how we'd like to influence our target audience, or making an effort to understanding its behavior. Here's where it gets interesting: if we look at the core of why the Internet is changing the marketing world, what it really comes down to is, as humans, the way we think and behave (our preferences and actions, etc.) has changed dramatically. And it is this core shift in behavior that needs to drive our thinking as marketers, rather than conversion rates or whether digital is replacing print or what's the best medium.

OUR COMMUNICATION PREFERENCE IS ELECTRONIC
It's a simple claim, really. We now prefer to communicate electronically when it comes to a business setting. How many times have you said to a colleague or vendor, "No, no, don't call me. Just send me an e-mail"? So, if we prefer to communicate electronically and spend more time e-mailing and texting than we do actually talking, then it's safe to say our behavior has changed.

RESEARCH IS ALMOST ALWAYS DONE ONLINE
When we are interested in learning more about a person, product or service, nine times out of 10, we research it online. Why? Because it's easier, more efficient, anonymous and allows us to determine how deeply we want to research, as opposed to getting too much or too little information via traditional means (e.g., a large print catalog or a salesperson on the showroom floor). And it's only after we have found what we want and feel good about that option that we will make the outbound call, or walk into the store to buy a product. It doesn't matter whether it's a book or a $2,000 diamond necklace.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS DON'T HAPPEN TWICE
Since we start our initial foray online (whether prompted by an infomercial, print ad or something else), our first real experience and true impression of the person, company or product we seek happens there. It's much like the first impression we receive when we initially walk into a restaurant--even if we've already seen an ad on local TV. Our first impression happens there, and if it's not a positive one, there's no chance to hit the "do-over" button.

So, what does this mean to marketers? Let's re-think our customers' behavior--what it is they want and how they go about getting it. And then let's start to apply this thinking to our marketing budgets, programs and so on. Remember, it's not marketing that drives behavior; it's behavior that drives marketing.

Aaron Kahlow is managing partner of BusinessOnLine and chairman of the Online Marketing Summit. He can be reached via e-mail at aaron@businessol.com.