What's Your Real Message?

What's Your Real Message?
Andy Stetzinger
11-28-06

Say you are dragging your wire canoe across the desert because it runs out of gas, how many pancakes does it take to fill a log cabin?

WHAT???

Exactly.

It makes no sense. In this case, it's not supposed to. What about your case? Is your well crafted, finely tuned, swiss-precision message really reaching your audience?

When I was first married, my wife Wendy and I moved to Arkansas. The first week we were there, I saw some guy picking through my garbage cans beside my house. I ran outside, and yelled at him. I told him to get out of my yard, stay away from my house, and to quit going through my trash. I let him have it. Boy did I!

He didn't move. He didn't budge. He didn't leave.

I was all ready to come at him with round two, when he stopped me.

"Sir, let me explain", he said. "This is my job. I work for the city. Since we don't have a scheduled trash pick up day, I come down the street and move your trashcans to the curb side so the truck can pick it up."

Talk about a helping of crows feet!

After regaining my composure, I attempted to salvage what dignity I had left, and offered the guy a cold soda, which he gladly accepted.

If the guy had been dressed in a city uniform, or had a name badge, or anything that identified him as a city employee, the event might never have happened. He might have easily conveyed his message completely non-verbally. I would have watched him, and seen what he was doing rather than completely misunderstanding his intentions.

Are you inadvertently confusing your customers? Are you frustrating them to the point they walk away from any business they might do with you?

Successful companies go to great lengths to make sure their message is clear, precise, to-the-point, and easily understood.

A simple, yet highly effective testing method is to find someone who doesn't use your product, show them your message, and ask them to repeat it back to you. You'll hear first hand what your real message is.

Just remember, if it's not what you think it is, don't yell at the person. They're just doing their job.

~Andy Stetzinger
KeyThing Marketing Technologies