Maybe it’s just me but I don’t quite understand enchantment in the context of marketing. Enchantment is more connected, in my mind, with gingerbread houses, helpful teapots, and cheerful birds who hang out the washing. The real world just doesn’t have enough unicorns to make this work for me.
On the other hand, what do you call it when, despite your best efforts to screw it up, you manage to engage a customer at a level beyond just helping them part with money? What is the word for delivering an experience so powerful and so perfectly aligned with what both parties seek that each remembers it forever? I don’t know if enchantment is the right word, but the lessons and insights Guy Kawasaki has curated under its aegis ought to attract a garden gnome or two.
Enchantment *begins (don’t all business books these days start thus) with an Apple anecdote. Don’t worry, the book also anoints Zappos and Disney as Leprechaun Masters. What follows is a carefully constructed checklist of things that may work to enchant those who need it.
Each concept is illustrated with examples or supporting data from sources including Dale Carnegie, Russell Granger and most everyone in between. There is also a good deal of common sense, much of it familiar to readers of Steven Covey and those who listen to their mothers. The basics are to be likeable and trustworthy, and Kawasaki supplies some pretty straightforward steps to getting there. These include perfecting a handshake, smiling like George Clooney and listening intently to customers. Zappos, naturally, is invoked on the trust -your- customer bit, but it is a lesson too few marketers seem able to heed, despite the fact that it is mostly free to do so.
If I had to recommend this book specifically to any groups they would be start-ups and non-profits. For start-ups, the chapter on how to launch is an excellent place to figure out how to get things right in the first place. Kawasaki even celebrates our influential friends in the P-Cube, and the G-Spot, regrettably by calling them nobodies:
“There is an important difference between Influentials and nobodies. Influentials are so busy acting influential that they often aren’t power users of products. They try a product for a short time…pronounce judgment, and then move on to the next shiny new thing.
“Nobodies aren’t similarly distracted. They have to use the products in their jobs, so they understand what’s needed and what’s good (or bad). Nobodies, for example, decided Macintosh was good for desktop publishing. They also decided it wasn’t good for spreadsheets, databases and word processing.”
The chapter on overcoming resistance is great, but the illustrations are a little limiting. We read about the US Navy’s creative approach to engaging mothers, but that’s not really news and it is pretty extreme. We are also asked to consider this strange dilemma by pretending to be “…the CEO of a startup… and you are trying to enchant a great engineering student to leave the PhD program at Stanford to join your company…”
In this exercise, there are parents, grandparents, a boyfriend and the student herself, who all influence the decision and resist the idea to one degree or another, for very different reasons. But hold the phone here, Guy. What decent, menschy CEO enchants someone out of a PhD program? That’s not enchantment, dude; that’s luring. Let the girl finish her degree, guarantee her a nice job when she’s done, ask her to join the board and maybe shoot her a little cash to help with tuition. But let her finish and then everyone wins.
So what’s in it for B2B marketers? Nothing specific but I would say if you are reading this in the bookstore at the airport, you should read Chapter 7 on making enchantment an enduring thing. There is marvelous advice about both reciprocated philanthropy and about building ecosystems for your enchanted customers to play in. Kawasaki misses a good opportunity here to dig in a little on how Cisco, Dell and IBM have succeeded in this regard. But there is a photo of the author in a fez. I’m just saying.
Non-profits or volunteer organizations should spend time in Chapter 8, learning the basics of using push technology to get their message out. If you’ve been wondering about this Twitter thing, you need to read this chapter. I would also recommend B2B marketers copy down this passage and post it someplace obvious because we suck at this:
“Enchanters sell their dreams for a better future – cooler social interactions, a cleaner environment, a heart-stirring driving experience, or the future of publishing. This perspective is the foundation for a presentation that transforms people. It makes them think of what could be, not what is.”
There is good stuff for bosses on page 162 and equally good stuff for non-bosses in the subsequent chapter on how to enchant your Overlords. It’s refreshing to see a little reality injected into the usually vapid advice given workers about making sure their work aligns to some unseen “north star”. Kawasaki refreshingly cuts that crap and recommends just doing what you’re asked because that is a hell of a lot more enchanting than not doing it at all.
Bottom line: I don’t quite buy enchantment as what we are doing here, but I can’t think of another word so let’s go with that for now. The recommendations here are solid and Kawasaki has brought together a good collection of great ideas, most of which will work just fine if you let them.
Bizmarketer is Elizabeth Williams
Follow me on Twitter @bizmkter
or email escwilliams@gmail.com
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