Regular readers may have noticed that Redswish has taken a slight turn in topic style over the past few months. This is largely because it’s a one-man mission and I tend to blog about what I’m interested in or learning about at the time. Recently I’ve been focusing a lot on new marketing, building up more personal and effective relationships with clients, the demise of mass media and commoditisation, the evolution of experience design and authenticity and the psychology behind how we, as marketers and advertisers can influence and connect with  people and craft stories that spread.

Hence the reason it’s been a while since a design post, which as a web design blog I truly feel I owe you. But I must admit there’s been a wealth of great design articles blanketing the web at the moment so feel free to hit up Smashing Magazine, Web Designer Depot etc and you’ll find lots of great material. BUT NOT RIGHT NOW! Because I have other stuff to sell.

This article may not seem beautifully crafted and may come across as thought spilled onto paper (or a computer screen). Well, that’s exactly what it is. I want to hear what people think about this, I’m merely dipping my toes in the vast lake of this subject and I’m totally cool with holding hands!

Advertising is dead

Advertising will never die. But it sure as hell is transforming massively. And we’ve known this for a long time, but are still slow to respond. Investing stacks of cash in big, bold, flashy, in-your-face ads isn’t enough anymore. Breaking through the noise is too difficult. How often do you notice the Google AdWords or daft banner ads on a site? Most certainly less and less as we subconsciously train ourselves to tune out the distractions. I’m not saying billboards, TV, radio etc are completely useless, but yeah unless you’ve got a silly marketing budget and creative license to bang your head against a brick wall, then yeah.. go home.

Creating ideas that spread

It’s the way forward folks. Viral is still in it’s infancy. In old marketing the marketers jump in at the end and try to bridge the gap between product and consumer, now flip it upside down. Authenticity is essential. Great products and services that people talk about is what will drive you forwards. Your customers are your marketers.

Following the herd

Another element in the spectrum I want to look at is that of social influence. This is a huge factor in the psychology of marketing and when harnessed properly, and respectfully, can provide us with power to ‘nudge’ people in a better direction, based on a concept called Libertarian Paternalism proposed in the book Nudge by Thaler & Sunstein.

Social influences can easily be broken down into 2 categories:

• Information – the simple passing on of relevant information that may or may not influence our opinions.
• Peer pressure – often subconscious, but can be more targeted, more personal and can in certain cases be extremely effective – although quite often for negative purposes.

Peer pressure may conjure up ideas of teenagers forced into smoking, drinking or sex. But it really stems to all walks of life, in even the slightest of situations. Quite often it’s subconscious or easily dismissed, but the truth is that a massive part of everything we do, every day is influenced by others. A few examples off the top of my head:

• In the office: “Anybody fancy a brew?” – did you really want a brew before that question was asked? “Well, if everyone else is…”
• People often read the same newspapers, support the same political parties, football teams, listen to the same music, wear similar clothes, can even look the same as their peers.
• When eating together, there’s more likelihood you’ll finish your food if your peers do, even if you’re full.
• People smile when people on screen smile, even when there’s nothing funny. Yawns are contagious.
• Everyone faces the same way in a lift.
• Do you ever read on the train in the morning even when you can’t be bothered, simply because everyone else is?

These examples may not apply to everyone but there’s certainly some basis of fact in them. Decades of scientific research supports it, seriously.

Conforming

The fact is most people are either conscious about what people think of them, or even ignorant as to what others really think. The 2 sides of the see-saw are labeled with the clever terms collective conservatism and pluralistic ignorance.

• Collective conservatism refers to when groups stick to established patterns or practices, afraid to challenge the status-quo or other people’s perceptions of them. Or perhaps in some cases there’s simply no better alternative. Examples may include Google users, Playstation gamers, smokers, coffee drinkers, heavy-metal enthusiasts etc.
• Pluralistic ignorance, on the other hand, refers to an ignorance about what other people really think. Even when people hate doing something, they maintain it because they believe it’s correct, not realising that others disagree or have trended differently. In a marketing sense this most likely lends itself to people stuck to trends that have gone out of fashion, but in some extreme cases it can relate to politics and has been linked with the cause of Soviet Socialism and Nazism… sheesh!

Marketing to groups of this nature can be nearly impossible. Sometimes being the next, or the new, or the improved isn’t merely good enough. Challenging group perceptions can be a serious task, one that was once dominated by high-budget advertising. But new media and marketing provides us with infinitely more channels through which to communicate with people and help spread the word, build and nurture conversations that flow from person to person.

Where once marketers had to collide head-on and try desperately to force messages across with the hope that enough people would listen – we now have the ability to align ourselves with customers and engage on a more personal level with people, not demographics and statistics and names in a database.

Harnessing the power of influence

Marketing starts as soon as that idea pops into your head. Through internal stages of selling an idea or product to management and colleagues, through testing, development and launch. More open work processes are becomming more popular – this confirms authenticity and builds trust.

Make a great product. Make it for people, not for profit.

Once it’s out there, get people talking. Find out what people really think – social networking is your greatest asset here. Companies like Threadless, thesixtyone, ASOS etc have fantastic relations with people on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Offer customers prizes, offers and discounts and freebies in return for their feedback. Then don’t ignore it! Test and retest – constantly evolve your product, service, approach. Immerse yourself in every element of what you do and constantly consider how you can be providing a better experience.

It’s really not that difficult. iPhone apps can reach millions of downloads in weeks, Youtube videos gather hundreds of thousands of views in days! People rapidly find themselves in niches and soon even tribes. Their influence can spread like wildfire. People tend to follow others on Twitter because they’re interested in their opinions and findings. One person with 500 followers can influence a huge percentage of people and invoke interest in something very quickly.

Sometimes people feel they have to keep up so they don’t feel left out, this is collective conservatism in action. The difference between good and bad marketing depends upon how you adopt the power of social influence. Embracing it and using it to ‘nudge’ people in the right direction, to a solution that mutually benefits everyone is a goal we should be looking to. However abusing it, spamming people, spreading lies instead of authentic stories is not only evil, but is beginning to fail.

People are getting wiser and better at distinguishing truth from bullshit. So it’s simple. Tell the truth and don’t bullshit. There you go, that big sprawling article above led me to that conclusion.

Your views

I really want to know what people think about this. It’s still quite new to me and as a designer I almost feel out of my depth rambling about this. But I think I can learn, and surely many others can, a lot from this.

Voice your opinions below, I’m looking to keep this active for a while.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan