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It’s been a little while since last posting. I, and my wife, were up in Sonoma, CA and then down to San Francisco.<\/p>\nIt’s been a little while since last posting. I, and my wife, were up in Sonoma, CA and then down to San Francisco.<\/p>\n
I noticed some things there which I’ll blog about at some point, but the issue I wanted to address today is my dog Nigel – a marketing savant.<\/p>\n
Why do I say that? Because he can get past any and all barriers we put up to get through our day undisturbed. I see it every single day, time and time again.<\/p>\n
Today, for example, while walking Nigel we saw an older lady coming in the opposite direction, the usual straight-faced expression one sees on a pedestrian.<\/p>\n
But<\/em> – as soon as she reached us she launched into a monologue about a dog outfit she had just seen at the mall. No introduction, no transition into the subject, she just felt an instant rapport.<\/p>\n More than that, she felt COMPELLED to talk to us. To tell us her story. I hadn’t said one word to her and yet, because I was with Nigel, I was golden.<\/p>\n This wasn’t a unique experience. This happens all the time. Nigel has the power to instantly build trust. Many times people don’t address or even acknowledge me.<\/p>\n People will come up, kneel down and start petting him; all the while they’re telling Nigel how cute he is. It’s as if I don’t exist – and for that moment, to them, maybe I don’t. It’s all about Nigel.<\/p>\n I’ll write more about the ‘Nigel Phenomenon’ in later posts, because there’s a lot that we can learn from him and how people react to him. For now, here’s a start.<\/p>\n Nigel is cute. He’s not ‘stunningly handsome’ or impressive. He invites people to approach him, to talk to him, to pet him. Not literally, but on some unspoken level that humans operate on and respond to.<\/p>\n A prize show dog can be beautiful, but how many people would run up to it on the street and start cooing to it? Those impeccably coiffed animals don’t inspire a desire to interact with them.<\/p>\n Those types of dogs aren’t ‘inviting’, at least to a stranger.<\/p>\n What does this have to do with marketing? Marketing for a lot of products and services is about building trust; and you need to do that as quickly and as firmly as possible.<\/p>\n Some industries do call for the Awe-Inspiring or Deeply Impressive image. A security firm, for example, won’t do well using the cute and approachable marketing avenue, or as I will now call it – the ‘Nigel Factor’.<\/p>\n Most, however, will benefit from being ‘cute’, not ‘stunning’. You want trust. You want rapport. You want to draw people in like a magnet. It’s not something you can fake.<\/p>\n You will have to work at it. It’s not about being ‘cutesy’, it’s about forming a bond.<\/p>\n If you really want to learn how to do this, I offering consultations with Nigel, for a substantial fee. Serious inquiries only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s been a little while since last posting. I, and my wife, were up in Sonoma, CA and then down to San Francisco. I noticed some things there which I’ll blog about at some point, but the issue I wanted to address today is my dog Nigel – a marketing savant. Why do I say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"content_audit":[110,112],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other","content_audit-audited","content_audit-refresh"],"modified_by":"Jonathan Cook","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pananadesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pananadesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pananadesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pananadesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pananadesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pananadesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651,"href":"https:\/\/www.pananadesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pananadesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pananadesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pananadesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"content_audit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pananadesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_audit?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}