“Every brilliant innovation in the history of technology looked a little looney when first proposed.” says Kenneth Caldeira, climatologist at Carnegie Institution of Global Ecology at Stanford University.

After running complex computer models, Caldeira, and much of the climate-focused scientific community seems to be intrigued by Ron Ace’s proposal for how to cool the planet. Ace, who had no government support and no formal scientific training (though he has studied physics) pioneered the idea to place 1,000 strategically-located “water guns” spraying sea water into the atmosphere at altitudes of no more than 200 feet.

And what’s even more astounding, Ron Ace says he “never saw himself making a dime on it.” Evidently, he just wants to save the planet.

This reminds me of  Margaret  Mead, who said: “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”  Since NASA and the NOAA, with their entire brain trust, haven’t come up with practical ideas, once again we see the best ideas coming from individuals.

When I read that headline, it got my attention!

Laura Ramos from Forrester Research wrote on her blog, (read it <here>) something interesting. Her simple observation was: Buyers are more likely to use information from friends and associates than from marketing messages and sales people. While she focuses on those marketing high technology products and services, I actually think it’s true for lots of stuff. (Afterall, WOMMA is an entire industry built around this.)

Sounds simple, but that statement points to stuff a lot of us already do: search any of the millions of social networking sites to research other’s experiences before we buy. When was the last time you looked at ads for a plumber instead of going to Angie’s List? It’s been years since I have!

And there’s social networking sites and blogs for everything now, from Amazon to Zombies from Transgendered folks to numerous Free Breast Implant sites where woman post photos of themselves to see if men may want to foot the bill for their new boobs.

In Columbus, Ohio men were comparing notes (ie: social networking) on Craig’s List about local hookers!  (Read it <here>.) They were sharing their experiences about these woman. People (well, men) have to be incredibly dumb to be posting these comments online, but they founded a community of like-minded idiots. Of course, since sex is arguably the biggest thing on the web, this probably shouldn’t shock us… but I have to admit it caught me by surprise.

So what does this tell us (besides, of course, men being stupid)? Well, we have to becomes experts on how to reach audiences through social networking, blogging, You Tube, and any number of ever-changing avenues.

Starting…..NOW!

If you’ve never read Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics book, it’s really interesting.
It explains what school teachers and Sumo wrestlers have in common, and how the KKK and Realtors have both been “undone” by the same forces.

Now, a new book by author Dan Hill called Emotionomics explains how we make decisions. He says only one company in an industry can win on price, if you’re not that company, you need to know how emotions drive your prospect’s decisions. He shows how our decisions are rarely rational, but instead, mostly emotional. After all, isn’t “loyalty” a feeling?

It’s no coincidence that our economic situation has always been described using emotional terms like “consumer confidence” (as in: “lack of”) “panic,” “hunches” and “Wall Street jitters.” Even Alan Greenspan’s phrase “irrational exuberance” has become an instant classic.

So if your marketing isn’t addressing the emotional desires (opposed to the needs) of your audiences, you’re not getting the biggest bang for your marketing buck.

I believe human creativity is a much bigger factor in how well things are done vs. technology.

For example, it’s understood that fixing global warming can’t be done by technology… it’s gonna take humans to make the difference, or use technology in a creative way.

Another example: give a website project (ad, email campaign, etc.) to 10 different designers, and you get 10 different results. Why is that when they’re all using the same programs and have the same technology available to them?

Because creativity is the differentiating factor in any good marketing program.

And technology, used-well, in the hands of creative folks is a powerful combination, and one more likely to result in better marketing for an organization. Unfortunately many folks believe technology itself can be an answer to their marketing needs. That’s why they believe having an IT person, or administrative assistant, who knows how to use  technology can do their marketing.

I think any individual who’s paying attention can tell the difference.

We believe in the 5-second rule.

No, not the food on the floor, but the fact you only have 5 seconds you have to get someone’s attention. If you don’t get it in that time, you won’t get it at all. That’s why we craft marketing campaigns that get noticed: in 5 seconds or less.

If your email marketing or direct mail hasn’t worked, maybe it’s the message, and not the medium.

Here’s an example of a direct mail campaign (also to be used for a series of email blasts) for a produce distributor. They didn’t know what to send out to their clients and prospects that would get their attention. After finding out their strengths, we went about creating a series of 6 direct mail pieces that highlighted both their products and their services.

It was a huge hit because the pieces were noticed and remembered. And many folks were looking forward to the next one in the series. That is what you want in your marekting: images that evoke a response on both an intellectual and emotion level.

(BTW, no produce was harmed in the creation of these marketing materials.)

Why? Because you can hardly get by one day without some kind of rationalization.

It’s proven that people decide by emotion, then rationalize to justify whatever they feel strongly about buying (which is why so many people drive BMWs and Mercedes instead of Hondas).

It’s the same process people go through in any buying situation: people feel before they think. And that’s why you must make your marketing appeal to your buyer’s intellectual and emotional side. To see some examples of what we mean, check out the ads at http://www.sevell.com/portfolio/3/homebuilders.

There’s a new book called Buyology (by Martin Lindstrom http://www.martinlindstrom.com), which documents a 3-year, 2,000-person, $7 million study. Through MRIs, the results show a positive increase in many people’s “emotional center” brain activity when they were shown images of things they liked, such as The Virgin Mary, iPods and Harley Davidsons.

His conclusion: people lie (or should we say: rationalize?!?).  It takes MRI brain scans to really show what people are thinking. Now we can really talk about marketing “getting inside your head.”

When you’re working with email marketing, you can send your communications 2,000 miles in no time. However keep in mind, the most important part of the trip is the last 20 inches of that journey. That’s the distance between the monitor… and the mind of your prospect.

The “problem” with email marketing

Unfortunately, email marketing is suffering from the same effects desktop publishing had before the 21st century. And of course, the same ‘problems’ web design had. Just because an administrative assistant or IT person can create and send email blasts, doesn’t mean they should.

It’s our experience that most IT folks (and administrative assistants) are notoriously poor at crafting marketing messages. Since you really need the last 20 inches your message travels to matter, you should invest in creating that message by professional marketers — as you would any of your marketing.

I’ve heard from lots of business owners saying their email marketing (or advertising, direct mail, etc) “just doesn’t work.” So they chalk it up to the medium, when in fact, the problem lies in the message. They created communications in-house, by whomever had a “passion” for it, and it sucked.

What really matters in email marketing

The success of your email blasts rests on two cornerstones: the quality of your list, and the effectiveness of your message. And that old saying “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” is still true. Send a crappy email, and you can bet the next one you send to that person will never be opened.

There’s been lots of talk about streetcars in Columbus. This is a case where the romanticism of streetcars isn’t so practical in today’s world.

I read a letter in The Dispatch from someone who was around when the last streetcars were in town, and he rattled off all kinds of practical problems for electric streetcars today’s cities, especially in the Short North and OSU campus where the first streetcars would run. He noted streetcars:

• take up critical lanes of traffic,
• cut down on the very limited parking we have,
• rails are dangerous for bicycle tires and women’s heels,
• the overhead electric wires they run on are exceptionally ugly,
• the 2.8 mile stretch of track, costing $103 million dollars, is outrageous, and
• they can only run on expensive tracks limiting their growth, routes and destinations.

So when you think about it, streetcars aren’t nearly as cool as they might seem at first.

Electric buses can be way cooler

The problem seems to be that folks aren’t thinking out of the box on this. If we considered the next generation of futuristic-looking electric buses, we could acheive all of the good with none of the bad. At Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, they’ve designed the “Superbus,” which looks like something Batman would take to work (if he had to use public transportation). Being on wheels, it can be driven on streets in the city and/or a dedicated infrastructure between downtown and the suburbs, or between cities.

Columbus can finally be a role model

How about instead of us being like other cities with streetcars, let’s be different. Let’s be better! Let’s use our public funds wisely and at the same time, achieve the “cool factor” that we’ve been striving for so desperately. I’d bet that putting something like the Superbus on our streets would increase ridership tremendously, too.

How about it Columbus? How ’bout we ride into the 21st century with some new sets of wheels, and set a new standard for what’s cool in transportation? It might also get us on the radar of the rest of the country, and create some critical business interest in Columbus.

But of course, I could be wrong…