Oh hey, how’s it going?
I was just trying to figure out why I’ve been in a bit of ski rut lately, and I think I figured out that I’ve been skiing the same ski over and over.
So, today I’m going to take out a ski that’s a little more playful to see if that shakes things up and brings in a new perspective.
You know, I love thinking about how the human mind works—how it makes decisions, both good or bad. How it pushes us forward or holds us back. How it can be the difference between winning and losing.
While so much of Walden Hyde’s work depends on understanding human behavior, I realized the other day that marketers and brand folks don’t actually spend much time on the behavioral side of building a brand.
If you do, you’re pretty rare. And I bet you’re really good at your job.
But if you don’t really think about it much, I thought I’d share a wicked simple little framework that we use when we’re building strategy or creative, to be sure that we keep human behavior front and center.
Before I tell you the framework, let me tell you why it matters.
And it’s really really simple.
You’re trying to get people to notice you.
And you’re trying to get people to buy something from you.
And hopefully, you’re trying to get people to come back and buy something again.
Now, as you’re doing all the things that you do as a marketing department, how much time do you really spend thinking about the specific details about the person you’re trying to reach?
I’m not talking about analyzing their demographics or buying behaviors, but rather about what makes them tick …
What are they thinking about? What excites them or worries them? How is what you’re offering connected to what they really care about—and maybe can’t even articulate?
I’m starting here because it’s key to this simple framework, which goes like this:
Thoughts lead to feelings. Feelings lead to behaviors.
You might recognize that as something you learned in therapy. But it’s also a great little framework for aligning with what matters to your consumer.
So how do you use this to build a campaign or anything that reaches consumers?
I like to work backwards with this. So we’re going to start with behavior. Let’s call our target consumer Joe the Athlete.
Ask yourself: what behavior do you want Joe the Athlete to do?
Buy something? Sign up for your email list?
Let’s just stick with those two things because no one is really thinking about anything else, are they?
Okay, next: what is the feeling Joe will have about you or your product that would create that behavior? Excitement? Relief? Calm confidence?
And last: what is the thought that would start Joe’s search in the first place? Is it planned and researched, like “I need this thing so I’m going to find the best one” or is it more spontaneous, “That looks cool…”?
Okay so let’s play this out for Joe the athlete, this time from start to end.
The Thought—”Steve won’t stop talking about his new skis. Maybe it’s time I picked up a more playful ski.”
The Feeling—”Just thinking about it gets me stoked. I’m looking forward to leveling up my skiing.”
The Behavior—”Whoa, clearly those are the most playful skis out there! Get them in my cart!”
The magic then is for your brand to embody the feeling that will get Joe to do the behavior of getting them in his cart.
Oh and also, don’t make it easy for Joe to back out of the behavior after he’s decided to do it by messing up his purchase process 😉
Okay, was that too much for today? I hope it inspires a new perspective to what you’re putting out there.
We’ll see you out there.