Almost everyone has heard of the “Golden Rule” - “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you!” - the Biblical admonition which seems reasonable enough; or is it?

To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw and his thinking on the matter - “Hang on; the others may have different tastes!” GBS recognised immediately the fatal flaw in the Golden Rule - people are different!

“Do unto others as they would have done to them” - now there’s a thought, a thought that has been developed.

Imagine if you could read people to such a degree that you could adjust your behaviour so that it matched the preferences of the person you were interacting with. Not being subversive or manipulative, or even compromising on “who you are”, but simply behaving in a fashion that was more comfortable to the other.

Everyone has this ability already to a greater or lesser degree, but just think if you could develop this gift further. Consider the impact it might have on your inter-personal relationships in your family, work or social life. What would it be like if people were more engaged, felt more comfortable, and overall were more receptive to you?

How about if others took this approach with you as well, recognising your preferences, and behaving accordingly? How would that likely make you feel towards that person?

This sort of affinity is often referred to as “chemistry”.

Chemistry between people who are alike generally comes naturally. Often in new encounters, people put some effort in to create chemistry to be accepted. Most people can think of situations where this has been true for them, but the truth about humans and our behaviour is that we are atavistic - we usually revert to type. The rub is that it’s not always easy for people to appreciate other “types”.

This brings me on to what happened for Christine and I. As one might assume from our line of work, we are always interested in products, techniques, or insights that help us develop, or to help those who seek our assistance with their own development. When we were investigating a new behavioural assessment tool called “The Platinum Rule” that had been gathering credence in the USA, we had one of those “aha!” moments that gave us some very useful insights into our own interaction.

Actually, it may be wrong to describe this event as a singular “aha”, but rather a series of “ahas” and a growing appreciation for each others differences, and the benefits these differences afford us working as a team. The immediate and subsequent effects have been both positive and dramatic.

Suffice to say “The Platinum Rule” has since become a featured addition to much of the development work we engage in. I have become somewhat evangelical about it’s value to individuals and organisations, such was the power of my personal experience. So, just what is “The Platinum Rule”?
Well, as I mentioned earlier it is a behavioural assessment tool in the same vein as Myers-Briggs, et al., but far simpler and more useful. These sorts of assessments have become very conspicuous in business over the years to aid recruitment and staff development, and it is my belief that “The Platinum Rule” will, over the coming months, set the standard for behavioural assessment in the workplace. Why?

As I stated, it is simpler and more useful. The assessment itself is conducted on-line and features only eighteen questions taking a mere five minutes. Startlingly, those responses will produce a forty page report on the individual, accurately outlining the subject’s preferred behavioural style. This report is valuable to an employer as it can predict an individual’s behaviour given a certain set of circumstances, or in interactions with other behavioural types. This information is clearly useful in the recruitment process, and for evaluating individuals for career or job role development. But it doesn’t end there. What makes “The Platinum Rule” even more useful is the scope it offers as a personal development tool.

In the first instance, the report holds up a mirror to the individual showing them their behavioural style and the styles they adopt when dealing with people within their circle. Useful in itself for self discovery, but the report takes the detail on the assessed several stages further in that it; helps them develop flexibility around their style, opens the door to them recognising the styles of others, highlights areas where their style might create tensions with other styles, helps the individual develop strategies to enhance their impact generally, and specifically with those of different types, and finally, uses plain and positive language throughout the process.

In a word, it’s amazing!

So how excited are we to have a near exclusive on this product in the UK? In a word, very!

So now you know all that, you’ll be delighted to know that we are allowing decision makers within organisations to trial this product. If that’s you, please contact us on 0845 2706520!

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!!

Michael & Christine at the launch of The Platinum Rule …

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I asked Christine how she would describe tactical marketing, and here’s what she said:

“My interpretation of tactical marketing is the planned marketing activity that companies execute.

An example was Hoover setting up the Training and merchandising team and choosing to outsource it.

Companies attending exhibitions demonstrates tactical marketing along with the provision of promotional staff in place to support achieving objectives.

Leaflet drops, advertising, merchandising, direct mail, and other marketing activities are included in tactical marketing.”

James Bell makes a nice comparison between Strategic versus tactical marketing here, and makes an important point:

“Just putting a marketing message in an appropriate medium for John Smith to hear or read is not good enough. The strategy must derive from an understanding of what’s important to John Smith. Otherwise, this tactical part of the marketing process will be much less effective, resulting in ads that under-perform.”

The Times 100 has an article that compares the two, and comes to a slightly different conclusion - that strategic marketing is the overall long term plan of where an organisation wants to be, and tactical marketing involves using the elements of the Marketing Mix to get there.

They also have a great summary of marketing techniques that should give you a better understanding of how you should plan your marketing activity to include research, strategy & tactics.

You can read more about what Christine did with the Hoover team to improve their tactical marketing activities here.

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Field merchandising can take on many forms, but predominantly merchandisers make sure stock is available and well placed on the shop floor for the consumer to see. Merchandisers can check stock levels by checking the store systems, make sure all products are placed out on the shop floor, or by going into the warehouse and unboxing products if necessary. Once the product is on the shop floor, a merchandiser will make sure that the product is placed in the best possible vantage point, make sure all POS is correctly placed and that the product is clean and tidy. So it will be the first product the customer will see when entering the store, and if the product looks good, customers are more likely to buy that product.

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Point of sale can have enormous benefits when designed correctly. If the design is poor and the thought process for designing it minimal it becomes confusing for the customer and can in fact, have the opposite effect.

Here are two examples of how it can differ. Both are designed to advise the customer on an electrical appliance but one is far superior and will inform the customer of the product more effectively.

First of all I want to raise the guidance given to staff by companies, quite rightly they ask them to talk to the customer about how a product will benefit. The benefit tells them what the feature will do for them; a feature may be limited in its ability to educate the customer by revealing its use. Despite this, some retail outlets persist in creating customer information in the form of point of sale which refers only to the feature, totally contradicting the sales training they give to staff.

Consider the picture below, POS for a camera. Unless they have previously completed their own research about the product or have a technical background, would the customer know why they should select a camera with 72 mega pixels as opposed to one with more or less?

Is ‘compatible with PRO Duo’ an important feature? Only the customers that know what ‘PRO Duo’ is would know the answer to that. What about 3x optifocal zoom and 6x digital zoom, will every prospective customer know if they need it? It leads me to ask the question ‘What’s the point’ of point of sale that doesn’t tell the customer anything. Perhaps the thought process is to encourage the customer to ask a member or staff. Easy for the confident customer to do if they can find a member of staff, but what about the unconfident customer who may feel foolish if they admit to having little knowledge about the product.

In my mind the presence of the feature indicates that the author is concluding that the reader should already know the benefit. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news – some don’t and any store displaying such POS could potentially alienate customers and lose sales.

If we compare the POS on the picture below a key feature with its benefits is displayed clearly and boldly. Straight away the customer is informed how the large 1.8” screen and easy to use interface on the MP3 video player will benefit them.
Following on key features are displayed as icons with a simple clear associated benefit.

Reading this information has given me a much greater knowledge of the product. As a customer I can make a more informed decision to buy or decide if the product is suitable or insufficient for my needs without the help of a sales person.

This is a great example of simple and effective point of sale with ‘a point’.

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