Waiting For Your Cat To Bark?

At the TEXCHANGE dinner in Austin, Texas we were treated to a panel discussion on "Persuading Customers When They Ignore Your Marketing". The expert panelists, Sam Decker (VP of Marketing at BaazarVoice) and Bryan Eisenberg (Author of the best selling book, "Waiting For Your Cat To Bark?"), shared many insights into the current state of marketing in the world today. These guys know their stuff!!!

It used to be that customers responded to ads. Now most traditional marketing has become background noise. When asked how many in the audience used TiVo or another digital video recording device, over half the hands went up. The follow up question of how many viewers skipped the commercials produced the same number of hands. Consumers today actively and intentionally skip past the ads.

The discussion moved to the topic of "word of mouth marketing", which is how many products today have achieved their great success. Sam is one of the country's thought leaders in the "Word of Mouth" industry. His insights into getting your clients to talk (and rave) about your company had the audience lined up for an hour after the meeting to learn more.

Mr. Eisenberg's book, "Waiting For Your Cat To Bark?" is based on the premise that customers used to behave like Pavlov's dog. Wave some advertising at them and they would purchase product. And like dogs, they were loyal and excited to see what you had next. Today's consumer is more like a cat. They are fickle. They do what they want to do. They do not bark. A company today must be looking for a "meow". There will be no barking from a cat no matter how many ads you run in the New York Times.

I have read his book, and it is great. You can get it at Amazon.com or your local bookstore.

Have A Great Day, and celebrate the "Meow".

Thom Singer
www.thomsinger.com
thom@thomsinger.com