Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been chatting with friends about pick-up lines we see in our regions. Here are a few:
DC – Hey Baby, I work on the Hill.
MN – Hey Baby, I just bought a house.
NY – Hey Baby, I don’t live with my mom in the Bronx.
With each of these lines, you realize that they’ve been modified for the appropriate audience. If you’re in DC, one automatically assumes you’re involved in politics, even if you aren’t. In MN, I’ve noticed that talking about anything that makes you marriage material is considered catnip for single women. And well, in NY, living on your own (or only with 3 roommates) means you’re doing pretty well for yourself.
Knowing your audience is Marketing, Selling, and Performing 101. We probably learned the basic concept in kindergarten, especially when trying to figure out ways to influence those around us. We needed to make sure we always got the best juice box, right?
What we may not learn, as is evidenced by pick-up lines, is that your “audience” is a generalization, and you may encounter outliers. For example, try to talk politics to me, and my eyes glaze over. Messaging should be built to meet the needs of the mass audience, but you should also include flexibility as part of your pitch. This is why a campaign might have a few varying degrees of illustration for a message. It’s an attempt at wrangling in a few of those outliers.
So, put your marketing knowledge to work in your everyday life. Think about not only the majority for whom your message might be appropriate, but ways you can flex it to meet a few more of the outliers.
Hey Baby, I’m a blogger 😉
The views expressed in my blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
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