Class 9: PET Brainstorm: How to Inspire Others to Take Action

Introduction to Jamie Hartmann from Taproot: Pro Bono Action Tank
- Multiplier effect drives the organization

Call with Steve Knox, CEO of Tremor, at Procter and Gamble 31 years
- PG mission statement: “improving the lives of consumers”
- The most powerful way to market is friend-to-friend word of mouth: stories
- Social media does not equal digital media; #1 form of social media is face-to-face interaction (only 15% social media interaction is digital)
- Product Adoption curve: innovators --> early adopters --> early majority --> late majority --> laggards
- “Trend setter” pronoun is “I”. Once their idea is adopted, trend setters drop it.
- “Connectors”: very similar to regular consumers, they simply have a much larger social network (5-6 x larger than average peoples’). Connectors are “Trend Spreaders” – their pronoun is “we.”

- Word of Mouth: The Right Message
-- There is a message the consumer wants to HEAR (i.e. typically advertising message)
-- There is a message the consumer wants to SHARE
-- These two messages are always different
- Messages that consumers hear typically have 2 parts to them
1) Advocacy factors “Reasons to care”
2) Amplification factors “Reasons to share”
-- High Advocacy / High Amplification – High Word of Mouth potential
-- Low Advocacy / High Amplification – no effect on market share, waste of promotional funds (i.e. Office Max elf viral marketing, Budweiser “Wassup” commercial)
- People like to stay in psychological equilibrium; people talk if equilibrium is disrupted, talking helps return to equilibrium
- Consumers talk about brands for 2 reasons: 1) positively reflects on the consumer 2) consumer feels that he has something that will help someone else (altruism)
- Brand Congruency: information presented on brand must be congruent with foundational truth most of the time and incongruent some of the time
-- Brand Foundational Truth --> Disruptive Equilibrium -->“Buzz Tactics”
- Take-Away:
-- Connectors need to be scaled in the market place
-- Messages need to be rooted in foundational truth of the brand most of the time and need to be related to disruptive equilibrium only some of the time
- Q&A
- Can check out Vocalpointe.com to get a sense of screening questions that are asked of Connectors
- Measurement is very important
-- At Tremor, measure representative population to get measurements
- Connectors are not compensated monetarily

Jennifer Aaker’s Lecture:
- Critical Words (3 types; the exact words that you use)
-- Positive words: compel people forward
-- Neutral words
-- Negative words

- Q to class: What are the words that have traditionally been used with your pod/project?
-- Brainstorm other words you can use
-- In-class exercise: Write down 5 words that have traditionally been associated with your cause THEN reverse the words or use other more-positive words that you would like to be associated with your pod and cause. (i.e. on topic of privacy: “secretive” --> “selective”)
- Metaphor Model:
-- If start to develop a set of metaphors around a business model then can get people on board faster, or at least engage them to a greater degree

- Keep in mind:
-- The words that you choose will be influenced by your pod members
-- Words mean different things when different people say them (i.e. some may say certain words in more authentic ways than others)

- GET Framework
- “Get Attention”
-- Aesthetics (that get attention i.e. bring green color, pleasant design)
-- Personal connection (i.e. joke, humor, something that resonates)
-- Surprise (“sticky ideas”)
- “Engage”
-- Fall in love (think in the context of our brands, pods)
- "Take action”
-- Emotional circumflex (?)
--- Negative emotions are highly motivating, but not as sticky or long-lasting as positive emotions are.
----> Fear
----> Anger
----> Guilt
--- Positive emotions also motivate, but do not drive action as much as negative emotions do. Compared to negative emotions, positive emotions are more sticky and long-lasting.
----> Empathy
----> Happiness
--- Powerful use of negative emotions in the right context is very important for your pod. This class is focused on getting others to take action, negative emotions are extremely effective at this.
--- The combined use of negative and positive words is very effective. For example, two words that are not aligned are at times very powerful (“i.e. peaceful energy”)

Friday is offsite, watch Casablanca
- Watch or read screenplay

Take Action Assignment (due this Wed 02/04 7pm):
- create some sort of action/message/ video/ etc that inspires people to take action.
-- For example: Do two things and write-up a one page that explains each item: 1) inspired people to take action b/c [look for metrics, use experimentation] and 2) another did not inspire people to take action b/c [look for metrics, use experimentation]
-- Keep in mind that this assignment is not limited to digital technology; just make sure to keep the right metrics in place.