AROMATICALLY SPEAKING

In our rush to win the hearts and minds of different populations, we just might have forgotten something.

As cbyd readers, you know we’re nuts about visuals, and the impact images can have on our work in branding, marketing, change, communications.  The “one picture is worth” is integrated into our mantra; every time the change word appears, so does our ‘eye’ thinking.  Science backs us up.

Recently, the power of a different human sense – smell – is invading the media.  Since the mid-2000s, retailers, from the obvious food chains to apparel stores, have been actively engaged in developing and using specific, often branded aromas to lure customers into their outlets and, once there, lure them into purchases. 

Cinnabon, for one, claims success from its sniffs of cinnamon and brown sugar. 

Hugo Boss, at the high end, deliberately crafted a smell to accompany its brand. 

And Panera (no surprise!) is transforming its bakery shifts to day time, with ovens and bakers upfront to explain and sample wares.

All is truth:  Through some practicums and research, one enterprising environmental psychologist from Washington State University demonstrated the compellingness of vanilla (women) and rose maroc (men) in doubling sales in an apparel store. 

Then, our questions:  How do we use this oldest and most primal human sense to drive other behaviors in our audiences and stakeholders … other than sales, that is?  Is it through that oh-so-80s’ scratch and sniff technology?  And/or via a fragrance that triggers important memories, putting us in more receptive, more conducive to change moods?  Or through emotions driven by oPhone use (watch for it at the end of 2014)?

We’ll sniff out the answers, if you will.

BEHAVIORAL MUSINGS

We’ve resisted adding our two-cents’ worth for quite some time.

After all, the debate started in the early 1990s, when email became a way of life.  That’s a long time to rage.

Today, opinionators and etiquette mavens, corporate security-types and bloggers, technologists and journalists offer solutions, ranging from more software (argh!) that will underwhelm the overload to Friday bans.  Here’s a sampling:

• Strive for Inbox Zero.  [Then, what else will we have time for?]
• Buy smart mail filters.  [On top of what we’re already charged for service?]
• Set a time limit.  [Alarm clocks aren’t a good idea – they’re scary.]
• Don’t sign up for junk.  [Your comment here … ]
• Prioritize.  [If we could do that …]

Look at the suggestions:  They’re all driven by behaviors, good and not-so-good.  Much of which, in our worldview, is caused by some pretty common emotions:

• ‘Suppose I overlook a critical time-sensitive message from my boss … and then fail on an assignment?’ [Fear]
• ‘I’ll miss something important.’  [Uncertainty.]
• ‘I don’t think I can manage without checking email.’ [Doubt]

Even with many unspoken concerns about managing email, the FUDs (fear-uncertainty-doubt) in many lives tend to dominate.  With 28 percent of our time spent writing, reading, and answering email (McKinsey), with 13 hours each week devoted to our beloved monster, and with double-digit email growth expected for the near term (Radicati Group), it’s time for a change.  Of the individual kind.

Anyone for establishing Emailers Anonymous?

ABA ... OR THE ART OF THE ASK

It happens to us all:  We get shy.  Tongue-tied.  Even be-set with laryngitis when we seek favors or advice or work.

The why is obvious.  We’re asking for something from someone we don’t know very well.  If at all.  We’re suddenly unsure of the response, or the person, or ourselves.

If we think about it, though, the art of the ask is awfully close to the art of selling.  About a year or so ago, we advocated that designers, marketers, and others who make up our profession learn how to sell, read signals, and master how to close. 

We’re changing our minds … slightly.  There’s a kinder, gentler form of sales that all of us need to get comfortable with:  substituting the ABCS (the “always be closing” acronym) with ABAs or Always Be Asking.  Requests, in our opinion, are a softer form of selling, and the most likely to be used, day in and day out, in these days of electronic everythings.

“Let’s set a date to sit and talk about your challenges.  I’ll call you … “

“Do you know Mr. Chief Client Officer at major corporation X?  I’m getting ready to meet with his staff – and would like to hear what you know about their work.”

“Would you mind being my bounce on this article?  I could truly use your feedback.”

These are specific asks.  And straightforward, no dithering allowed. 

For asks, you might also consider the quid pro quo (i.e., a give for a get) as well as the open ask.  And then be very very surprised by what you hear.

After all, what’s the worst your askee can say?

UPTALK, DOWNTALK

Little news notes fascinate us.

Especially when arcane research is released.  Most recent on our hit list?  A study from a William & Mary sociologist who studied Jeopardy! contestants (double exclamation point) to look at the incidence of answering questions with a question.

It’s called uptalk.

Not surprisingly, women were nearly twice as prone to lift their voices at the end of a sentence; men, only when correcting a female colleague.  The sociologist suspects that high-powered women lilt to appear less dominant, more likable.

In case we jump to other psychological theories, another academic, this one from San Diego State, claims that kind of intonation doesn’t necessarily signal powerlessness; it’s simply just another way people talk.  [Then again, she’s from the land of the Valley Girl.]

What this all means is, obviously, subject to much interpretation.  The underlying message to us, as communicators and brand and design folks, is that how you say it is far more critical than what you say.  According to linguistic experts, your voice gives others cues to stress, age, socioeconomic status, anxiety, gender, personality, and culture (among other indicators).  Voice sounds influence those around you:  deeper tones are more memorable, for instance.  Foreign accents strain for credibility … at least, to U.S. listeners.  And familiar voices are instantly recognizable (just ask our pets).  We raise and vary our pitches for emphasis, to show surprise or irony or enthusiasm, or to simply pose a question.

Media and speech coaches, take note.  As should all of us who agree with Benjamin Disraeli’s contention that there’s no index of character so sure as the voice.

IN _______* WE TRUST

It’s a phrase we see all the time – especially on our currency.

It’s not one we always hear in our cubicles, offices, and meeting rooms.

This favorite five-letter word of PR and advertising and communications and branding consultants – trust – has been plumbed and probed through innumerable surveys and opinions.  Most of those polls deal with the outlooks of external constituencies, measuring the barometer of our feelings toward public institutions and officials, toward industries and individuals.

Yet not so much exists about the bond between employees and leaders, and how to establish that trust in the first place. 

Steven Covey talks about the 13 behaviors of a high-trust leader.  Forbes and Fortune columnists opine on the ten (or fewer) signals of executives that showcase trust.  Read them carefully; few words guide new (and old) C-suiters on exactly how to build those relationships.

And yes, relationships drive trust.  We’ve got to know that leaders have our backs, that they’ll do what they say they’re gonna do, and that they be real, or ‘authentic’ (as the current verbiage goes).  That’s a commonly accepted trust platform.

As employees, we’d add more:

• Ask us what we’d do about the issues if we were in your shoes.  Chances are, we’ve lived them … intimately.
• Listen.  We don’t always get to dialog with leaders.
• And talk with our customers.  They, too, can pinpoint challenges and opportunities.

In this world of phone and Internet spying, of data breaches and mining, just make us promises you’ll keep.

*You fill in the blank.