Tuesday 20 November 2012

Communicating (through my letter box)

Ever been shouted at, or shouted at someone; by e mail?  It’s remarkably easy YOU JUST DO, IT OK!

Or, ever seen something remarkably simple that stuck in your mind?  Yesterday I was driving home and took the usual route which ends with me stuck in traffic on a small down gradient hill expectantly waiting to transverse the final roundabout before home.  Here I saw it; a poster, a photograph of the saddest looking white cat with black face.  This feline had a small multi coloured tie around its slightly scrawny almost underfed neck and one of this moggy’s eyes was slightly offset down to the left as if indicating a sad outlook on life.  The poster strapline ‘Have you seen Blackie?’

I am writing this blog from a West London suburb traffic queue.  It has got my overactive activist brain pondering a matter which has perplexed me recently.  In fact such enigmas require audience participation through the medium of blogging.

Here it is…

Question 1: What do the following subjects have in common?- Pete and Maureen’s dog grooming, Akan Tandoori, Wooden Blinds Cars.  Yes, correct, they all have a major role in the destruction of South American rain forestry because they are a regular feature of my door mat.  And I wonder what the communication policy of these companies is; imagine a small dimly lit room, a consultant facilitator and the Directors of each organisation participating in a well versed model which reaches its mission statement and values crescendo with the earth shattering delivery plan - ‘to dump leaflets in every house, each Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday until submission of the householder is gained’.  Now I have to be careful here!  Understanding as I do that marketing is crucial, (see previous blogs) sales are essential and constant visibility is enduring; but what do we actually see, hear, feel, taste or even smell?  What makes us be drawn and what draws you to an organisation (or a cat?).

Question 2: Close your eyes and think of the first organisation that comes to mind, so which one came up what made you do that?  Who was it and why?  I certainly didn’t see Pete, Maureen a curry or Nat West’s valeting service or whatever it was.  Stephen Hawking said ‘communication is the key’ and adversely George Bernard Shaw famously quotes ‘The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place’.  Which spectrum is your communication product, a Stephen Hawking or a George Bernard Shaw?

I recently worked with an MD from an engineering company and asked him what their Unique Selling Point is; he thought and pondered and squirmed a bit and then said, ‘well we are no worse than the others’.  Outstanding!  Imagine the leaflet on your doormat ‘JJ Engineering, no worse than the others’.

Certainly in Zest we use simply this - ‘The meaning of communication is the response you get’ - measure the response and you grasp the success.  Part two of the communication seminar in the dimly lit room would be the response plan; how do we stop all our expensive graphically exclusive colourful leaflets ending up in the blue recycle bin?

I am in a West London Suburb because my business partner Elaine sent me an e mail strongly urging Zest Business Coaching to get into action, but because of a typo I am here in Acton.  I’m looking forward to seeing Blackie on the way home.