06/21/07 - Basic desires and the marketing syntax

People who struggle to connect and win others to their point of view usually have a tough life.

Connecting with other people and winning them to your viewpoint is one of the principle challenges in life, and a key to success, no matter what you do. Connecting and getting movement is the very lifeblood of business. You either do it successfully, to some degree, get lucky, or eventually go out of business.

Let me know how it works out for you, if you are counting on luck.

In my observation, luck is what most people rely on. As you might expect, luck produces less than ideal results and can't be counted on in a pinch to deliver the goods. It certainly can't be relied on for anything, consistently.

It's a funny thing: The most common strategy often produces the worst results in marketing, sales and leadership. Most people do nothing, just rely on word-of-mouth and never define what they really mean to their markets, so that the message can be successfully repeated to others for referrals.

If you are committed to your dream, you may want to read on, to find out how you can rely less and less on luck when it comes to connecting with people and winning them to your point of view, or to take the action you desire.

In our Marketing Fast Track Program we cover the marketing syntax of effective messages. This process works practically every time, if you are willing to work through a little trial and error.

Once you have it working for a problem that a particular market commonly has, it will often work unchanged for years and even decades.

For example, a mini-version of marketing syntax: "Hot, fresh, and at your door in 30 minutes, or it's free." Domino's Pizza (At least that's how I remember it.)

Target: Who are your ideal clients?

Problem: What is your prospect's issue or challenge?

Outcome: What result or outcome would they prefer?

Story (proof): Stories or case studies about moving from problem to outcome.

Benefits: What's everything clients get when they work with you?

Credibility: What qualifies you to do what you do?

Process: What do you actually offer, and how does it work?

Call-to-action: What do you want them to do next?

OK, so that is a great structure to work from. The next question is: "How can I know what problems people have that will move them?"

The issue here is often one of, "How can I get through the trial-and-error period before I go broke?

I might have a good answer for you today.

Did you know that all other writing on basic human drivers, up until the year 2002, was not based on any kind of valid scientific research?

I was shocked. I was also delighted. This information is a hidden jewel. If you recognize it, and are willing to work with it in the context of the marketing syntax above, you will have a true key to success in business and life.

An excerpt from Steven Reiss's groundbreaking book, Who Am I?:

Although most people are not used to thinking about human behavior in terms of fundamental desires, knowledge of our 16 basic desires can help you gain insight into who you are and why you do what you do. The desires give you a new way of analyzing your behavior; when you learn the 16 basic desires, you can figure out how your behavior and life goals are connected to them. Because your desires indicate the path of psychological growth that you need to take to become who you want to be, they can help you think about what you need in order to gain value-based happiness.

The 16 basic desires also provide a powerful tool for analyzing the behavior of people you know. If we want to know what people will do, we should find out what they desire and predict that they will try to satisfy their desires.**

Desires may not tell us everything we want to know about ourselves or others, but what it tells us is very important for understanding behavior and happiness.

Here are the 16 basic desires. The order of presentation is without significance.

Power is the desire to influence others.

Independence is the desire for self-reliance.

Curiosity is the desire for knowledge.

Acceptance is the desire for inclusion.

Order is the desire for organization.

Saving is the desire to collect things.

Honor is the desire to be loyal to one's parents and heritage.

Idealism is the desire for social justice.

Social Contact is the desire for companionship.

Family is the desire to raise one's own children.

Status is the desire for social standing.

Vengeance is the desire to get even. (A.K.A. competition)***

Romance is the desire for sex and beauty.

Eating is the desire to consume food.

Physical Activity is the desire for exercise of muscles.

Tranquility is the desire for emotional calm.

*Taken in whole from Steven Reiss's book, Who Am I? The 16 Basic Desires that Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personalities. Berkley Press 2002.

**Emphasis is mine *** my note

When you want to connect with another person in business or personal life, consider trying to observe which one of the 16 basic drivers, above, are apparent in their lives and behaviors.

Next ask how does what I am offering connect with what I am observing about that individual, group or target market.

The Domino's tag line above is an excellent example of the power of the urge to eat being used to make a connection.

Take the urge to eat and add status and you have an advertisement for a restaurant such as Morton's, or Ruth's Chris, where steaks can be priced north of $40 for the meat alone, and the total tab can be north of $100 per person.

Steven Reiss suggests that many religions meet as many as 12 of the basic drivers for their congregations..

eHarmony.com relies on #13 (romance), #4 (acceptance), #9 social contact, and indirectly, #10 (family). eHarmony.com is a booming success. No surprise, given their link to four of the 16 basic drivers.

It may take a little creativity and head-scratching, but you can connect one or more of these 16 basic drivers to any product or service.

I cover this in my Marketing Fast Track Course starting July 10th, if you want help making the connection and making it fast. If you have time, the information I have provided here will work well for you, I suspect. (The previous Marketing Fast Track Program sold out in one week. If you are interested, I encourage you to sign-up, now. I am limiting this class to 50 participants. The next class won't start until September).

What action might you consider taking? I would recommend that you use both marketing syntax and the 16 basic drivers to create messages that will connect with your markets, move people to share your point of view, and to take the action you desire.

I sat down with my wife and charted out how we each related to the 16 basic drivers. Having been married more than 20 years, it was no surprise that we were closely aligned on 80 percent, and less aligned on the remaining 20 percent. Consider buying Steven's book. You will enjoy it. Here is a non-affiliate link to the book on Amazon.com: Who Am I? The 16 Basic Desires that Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personalities

That's it for now. I hope you enjoy these tools that are meant to help you connect to your world.

Cheers,

Eric Albertson
Portland OR
June 21, 2007