Product Anthropology

Filed under: Product marketing

S. Anthony Iannarino - Stop Selling Product

Stop Selling Product

Salespeople that sell products can get all wrapped up in believing that because their product is the very best that they have only to sell its superiority over its competitors to win. They believe that because their product is so clearly the best, it will make the sale for them.

The biggest problem with this line of thinking is that their product doesn’t solve their prospective client’s problem:

Your client’s problem is not that they don’t have your product.

via thesalesblog.com

Brilliant thinking on sales and solving our customers' *real* problem...

Habits and Rituals in Product Marketing

What I love about anthropology is its focus on deeply understanding people within the natural environment of their everyday lives. We look at how they construct meaning from their experiences and their surroundings. And as an anthropologist and marketer, I'm intensely passionate about the interactions between consumers and products.    

Once upon a time, the connection between marketing and anthropology might have been confined to the edges of business thinking. Not anymore, though...it's clearly moving to the mainstream. This was one of the discussion topics at a recent Forrester Roundtable here in Austin: 

Takeaway #2: Stop Asking Your Customers What They Do. Really? Tech marketers are obsessed with surveys — so why should we do something different? According to Markman, “If you’re trying to uncover why customers act, they can tell you what they’re doing, but are likely unaware of the human factors that are influencing them, and no survey will every capture that.” So what then?

He urged tech marketers to spend more non-selling time on-site, observing how their buyers and users go about their day. They should start with three areas: 1) personal information consumption methods; 2) organizational technology decision-making rituals; and 3) habits they’ve developed with your competitors.

WIM:Do more field work and break out of the tech marketer survey-obsessed habit. Instead of inviting customers to your next Customer Advisory Board meeting, ask them to host you for a day of shadowing. It may seem farfetched and even difficult, but if you’re serious about embedding your products and services into instinctive actions for your customers, break with traditional thinking, find a way, and begin a new habit.

Josh Duncan over at A Random Job also posted his write-up of this session:
http://www.arandomjog.com/2011/10/getting-your-customers-to-stop-thinking-of-you

Habits, rituals, and meanings...all good stuff from an anthropological perspective.

McRibbing Your Product Marketing Strategy

The McRib's Magic Marketing Sauce

McDonald's brought back the McRib this week, but once again just for a limited time. Cruel and unusual? Maybe. It's also brilliant marketing. Here's what you can learn from the country's most in-demand pork sandwich.

via inc.com

Call me strange, but I'm not a huge fan of the McRib. However, there sure are a bunch of folks who are not only fans, but crazy passionate about this boneless pork sandwich.

Inc has some excellent ideas for how to take some of the McRib marketing magic and use it with your own product strategy:

1. Scarcity works, but only if your product is known.
2. Your customers know your products better than you do.
3. Before the buzz dies, engage the community.
4. Don't be a marketing robot.

The big takeaways?
Listen and observe how your customers are *actually* using your product. It might very well be in ways you never intended for it to be used...and that's okay. Users have real-world problems to solve and they'll use whatever tools are available to get the job done. If you pay attention, you might just uncover an untapped market need that only you can meet.

And don't be afraid to give your marketing some quirky personality. Yeah, this is tough because it can be a risk. But boring doesn't cut it anymore so find a way to help your customers have fun with your product and your business.
 

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