engineering consensus - the syntax of consumerism (c) astralcom 2012

Engineering Consensus: The Syntax of Consumerism

Presented by:

ASTRALCOM, LLC Winter/Spring 2011

A Practical Ethos for Marketing, Advertising and Messaging

Effectively in the 21st Century

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Preface

The purpose of this document is to demonstrate a fundamental process in how humans receive, perceive and react to marketing and advertising messages in today's consumer market place. The document further illustrates the dire straights that businesses find themselves in when faced with deciding where, when and how to promote and adver-tise themselves today. Herein is a proven methodology for creating marketing and advertising campaigns that capi-talize on this process and deliver higher returns on marketing investments.

From individual, personalized emails to web, print, mobile, social and other media; success begins at the root of any and all messages you use in your marketing and advertising. If getting and maintaining customers is important to your business, understanding how to connect with them, across all media platforms and applying these principles in your efforts will deliver results.

The contents of this document, the corporate names ASTRALCOM, ASTRALCOM Mobile, ASTRALCOM M, ASTRALCOM SL, Adlibria and Quantum Messaging Dynamics and their respective logos and icons are the property of ASTRALCOM, LLC © 2011. All other trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. Use or disclosure of data contained herein is not permitted without written approval from ASTRALCOM, LLC in advance and is protected by copyright laws.



Where Should Your Business Put its Advertising Dollars? Deciding where to put advertising dollars depends on the objectives of your business. It depends on the demograph-ics of your customer base. Some might say, specifically, one medium is better than the other. Really, it’s like any other business undertaking: you have to depend on the expertise and knowledge of your market-ing and/or advertising person or agency. After all, that is why you hired them. Today, though, with 35,000 options for reaching consumers, how does anyone know which medium is best? When it comes to focusing your advertising dollars, there is a method to the madness.

35,000 Opportunities to Reach Consumers

Not so long ago, businesses basically had three ways by which to reach consumers en masse: TV, radio and print. In those days, it was easier to focus marketing and advertising messages than it currently is. Back then, businesses often created radio and/or TV commercials that pointed to newspaper and magazine ads, which then encouraged consumers to visit a brick-and-mortar location to purchase the item advertised. Pretty simple, right?

Today, by contrast, businesses have more than 35,000 unique op-portunities to reach consumers.

This doesn’t even include printed journals and periodicals, bill-boards (traditional and electronic), video and online gaming, thea-ter screens, mobile applications, web portals, podcasts, RSS and XML syndicated feeds, sporting and other event-based advertising

opportunities not noted here.

Not to mention the 22.6 million active blogs in the US, many of which offer advertising options. With so many op-tions by which to reach consumers, which ones are the best for your business? Can you do a little bit of each one? How do you decide?

Total daily newspapers: 1,456* Social Media – 215^ Search Engines – 5 (top, by market share) ' Magazines - 20,590 l Radio – 11,915 f TV/Cable/Satellite - 118.6

d*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper ^http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

'http://www.hitwise.com/us/datacenter/main/dashboard-10133.html lhttp://www.magazine.org/ASME/EDITORIAL_TRENDS/1093.aspx

fhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_in_the_United_States

dhttp://www.marketingcharts.com/television/us-homes-receive-a-record-1186-tv-channels-on-average-4929



A Schizophrenic Market? Currently, the advertising/marketing method-du-jour is so-cial media, but experts are already predicting that 2011 will be the year of advertising and messaging to consumers on their mobile devices. Won’t this just add yet another layer onto an already fractured and confused marketplace of op-portunities?

With so many options, advertising has become schizo-phrenic. Businesses are pointing consumers to their You-Tube, Twitter, Blogger, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Sec-ond Life and a plethora of other destinations that divert visi-tors away from their main websites, which are designed to help them sell, right? Pointing to these destinations are various print ads without a call-to-action and clever commercials that don’t generate measurable results. In most cases, these secondary social media and mobile sites are just repurposed versions of the company’s main website. Why send shoppers to external destinations to begin with? Businesses spend considerable amounts of time and money to move shoppers from one medium to another; en-couraging them to be distracted or otherwise once-removed from the sales cycle. So, what’s the answer?

The Syntax of Consumerism

Each advertising and marketing medium has its proper place in the messaging mix. There is a right time and a right place for print, social and mobile messaging. These media should be considered as tools to complete the job, but not considered as the job itself. You will need the right tool for the right job. The challenge is to figure out where, ex-actly, in the mix each one fits? It’s like a recipe for preparing a meal: add the wrong ingredient at the wrong time, skip a step in the process, or keep the flame too high and your dinner is ruined. Likewise with tools: you wouldn’t use a screwdriver to loosen a bolt. The concept is similar to creating a sentence: Put the wrong words in the wrong place and you’re what understood to say be trying won’t – or, what you’re trying to say won’t be under-stood. Everything has a recipe – even disaster. Advertising and messaging are no different. It all has to do with syntax.

The sequence of words in your message, the sequence of media in which customers experience your messaging, and the order in which each message is experienced, makes all the difference in the success of your advertising and messaging efforts.




The Syntax of Consumerism, [continued] These sequences effect the overall processing in consumers’ minds. Since consumers are human beings, we call this a human process syntax – how the brain deciphers and de-cides how to react to incoming messages, like advertise-ments. Since this is indeed a human process, there are only three fundamental aspects to (and which effect) human process syntax: Human Process Syntax (horizontal)

Base Emotional Values Base Intellectual Values Base Integrated Values

These values are essentially the pathways that your message uses to appeal to your audience – through emotions, through intellect, or through a combination of both. Emotional appeals, intellectual propositions and their hybrids are what lay the foundation of how messages attract consumers. This is one element of syntax. So, when creating the foundation of any messaging campaign, what then is the starting the point: emotions, or intel-lect? It depends on several factors, including your product, service, audience and the media in which you will be commu-nicating. Let’s presume that we have a client that sells honey and wants to increase the effectiveness of its Valentine's Day promotions in print media. The current root message says:

“Don’t Forget Valentine's Day. We have Delicious Honey at Great Prices” This is an intellectual appeal, because it incorporates a price-message. Additionally, this message has two negative elements in the words <don't> and <forget>. The word <price> can also produce a negative tone in consumers' minds, even when predicated by the word <great>; as this sometimes infers lesser quality or service to compensate for the "great price" you're getting. Finally, this message uses an "omega" tone which employs mental states of avoidance. Since we're dealing with an emotional event (Valentine's Day), we'll change this root message to have a base emo-tional value for greater impact;

“Remember Your Honey on Valentine's Day. Nature's Nectar for Your Sweetheart” Both messages are about the same length of characters and both are comprised of two statements. But here's the real difference; The new message changes-out the previous two negative words and in their place, uses the positive word <remember>. The words <honey>, <nature>, <nectar> and <sweetheart> all have a positive valence: having an in-trinsically positive effect in peoples' minds. This is an imperceptible, but critical aspect of syntax that aids in mes-sage uptake. This message also employs an "alpha" tone of mental states of approach and acceptance.





The Syntax of Consumerism, [continued] When creating messages, valenced words within the emotional appeal or intellectual proposition possess inherent attractiveness to us as human beings. Thus, word valence and overall message valence hierarchy plays an impor-tant role in framing your appeal and/or proposition more favorably throughout the human process syntax. Subsequent messaging in other media like search or banner ads, instead, might employ an intellectually-based price appeal. Then, when consumers end-up on your company website, the syntax of the message might change to the base emotional message, in order to support the initial intellectual call-to-action that brought them to the site. In this manner, using human process syntax and message valence hierarchy, we are moving consumers along a line; from point-to-point, toward a final call-to-action.

Once the desired messaging syntax and valence is achieved, the graphical elements can be integrated, with proper syntax, of course. For example, will the advertisement read from top-to-bottom? From left-to-right? Where should the headline go? The company logo? These decisions can be contingent upon the media and platforms to be used in getting the proper message out. Now that a proper marketing message and/or advertising campaign element has been created, what do we do with it? The next task is to decide which media to use and how they will relate, support (or potentially undermine) the other elements and media used in this overall syntax arrangement – which is your message and its effect.




The Taxonomy of Society In order to properly disseminate a message, it is critical to have a clear understanding of the target market and how the product or service being advertised fits within the target demographic. When engineering consensus, the market is categorized as follows;

Societal Taxonomy (vertical) Masses Groups Cliques Individuals

These are all classifications for varying quantities of individuals, from the largest (masses) to the smallest (individual). The messaging techniques that will be used for communicating to each of these classifications will vary in context, content, syntax and calls-to-action. For example, you probably wouldn’t greet a crowd of people by inviting them into your home without knowing some-thing about them first. Similarly, you wouldn’t say “Hello, everyone!” when addressing an individual. The point here is that what your message says at the mass level will be different than what it says at the group, the clique and the individual levels. You might need to tweak the message for each medium, or alter the human process syntax for specific media based on societal taxonomy. In this manner, societal taxonomy can be viewed as a funnel: with masses at the large end of the funnel and individual at the small end.

The messaging at one level is designed to move consumers to the next level. At each level, consumers build rapport with your brand, product or service based on the root messaging and related human process syntax. For example, your website communicates certain messages that, perhaps, create a sense of credibility and exper-tise. While your social media efforts on Facebook help demonstrate customer loyalty and your Twitter efforts help prove solid service and support. You might have a print advertising campaign to create regional brand awareness, search marketing campaign to drive targeted traffic and an email or direct marketing program to help foster individ-ual relationships. In each of these media or platforms, your messaging will be different – and to be effective – it should be.




The Taxonomy of Society, [continued] In the example above we have covered varying taxonomies:

Mass: Web, print, search Group: Facebook Clique: Twitter Individual: Email/direct marketing program

You could certainly use each of these media to leverage one another. That’s why you’ll often see print ads pointing to web destinations. But is there a difference in pointing to your Facebook page vs. your website or Twitter account? Absolutely. It has to do with the example of inviting a crowd into your home on first meeting; or, addressing individuals as group members, not individuals. You may not think there is a difference, but your audience does – and it will be reflected in your sales figures. What you say at the mass level, must change syntax and emotional/intellectual value at the group, clique and indi-vidual levels. This is important because both syntax and taxonomy ultimately form a customer conversion process that addresses varying degrees of emotions, feelings and intellect in consumers. This process is literally the heart of the psychologi-cal aspects that typical consumers use during any given purchasing process’ All sorts of things that consumers experience—or not experience—affects how they feel about your product or ser-vice. This relationship starts with the messaging used to attract and engage consumers. Most prominently are a handful of properties inherent in all communications, both business and personal. These include; Relevance, Value, Motivation, Friction, Anxiety, Urgency and Distractions. In fact, there is a syntactical formula for this process that says: Conversion = R x (V + M) – (F + A) + U – D. Another conversion formula, which has gained strong support among advanced marketing professionals, attaches value denominations to each of the factors in the syntactic formula, like so: Conversion = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) – 2a© *

Where <i> in this formula stands for incentive, this is similar to <u> for urgency in the formula noted previously. With that very thought in mind, consider the practical application of conversion formulas for your messaging strate-gies. To convert customers, in order of importance, ensure that your messaging incorporate these five aspects, ac-cordingly:

1. Target your efforts to consumers ready to take action and whose motivation aligns well with your offer. 2. Ensure that the value of your offer is extremely clear and attractive. 3. Create a powerful of incentive to help convert motivated buyers. 4. Remove any friction points in your customer experience process (poor design, long forms, etc.) 5. Remove any anxiety about converting (reassure data is private, no spam, solid reputation, etc.)

When you create a strong value proposition for a targeted market — when your message is relevant — it provides value and is created in a way that builds trust and confidence. It incorporates a sense of genuine incentive while addressing fundamental human needs. Your message will resonate with your audience and they will become your customers.




Engineering Consensus Depending on what is being sold and to whom, masses, by their na-ture are not typically logical. Therefore, using an emotional value as an entrée works better. As your message begins to attract groups from within the mass, you might switch the message to incorporate a secondary, intellectual proposition that supports your emotional ap-peal. As group members respond to your messaging, you attract a smaller clique of consumers and should employ either a hybrid value or, perhaps, stay with the primary emotional appeal. Finally, at the individual level, an intellectual proposition and an emotionally-based call-to-action could bring closure to the process resulting in a new customer. In this manner, using human process syntax and valenced messaging within societal taxonomies helps ensure maxi-mum uptake of messaging. This creates a fluid, engaging and “feel-good” experience for consumers which ulti-mately lead to sales. The more this successful pattern repeats itself, the more of an overall consensus you build back up the taxonomy chain, where you have mass awareness and the resulting sales that are born of demand. Here is a representation of this entire process in outline format:

Societal Taxonomy (vertical) Mass Group Clique Individual

Human Process Syntax (horizontal) Base Emotional Value Base Intellectual Value Base Integrated Value

Valence Messaging Hierarchy (horizontal) Emotional Appeal Intellectual Proposition Integrated Emo/Intel

Platform Distribution (integrated) Print Web Press Mobile Radio TV Etc…

Example of Possible Campaign Scenario:

Societal Taxonomy (vertical) Mass

Print Search Press

Human Process Syntax (horizontal) Base Emotional Value: Acceptance

Valence Messaging Hierarchy (horizontal) Emotional Appeal Intellectual Proposition Integrated Call-to-action

Platform Distribution (integrated) Print

Social Intelligence Messaging-based customer engagement scenario (print-to-web).

Press Alpha strategy-based press release (attraction

scenario). Web

Call-to-action conversion scenario




Engineering Consensus

Spider chart format:

Line graph format:




Summary Marketing, advertising and information campaigns based on

fundamentally sound messaging practices help to create mu-

tual value propositions for both the advertiser and the audi-

ence. Creating a socially intelligent human process syntax

within societal taxonomies and across appropriate media,

helps ensure effective message uptake and establishes an

engaging customer experience throughout the pre-sales and

sales cycle aspects of all efforts.

From individual, personalized emails to social media, web,

mobile, print and other media; if getting and maintaining cus-

tomers is important to your business, then applying these principles in your efforts will deliver results.

Additional information on subjects contained herein can be found in these places: Psychology of Advertising, Bob Michael Fennis, Wolfgang Stroebe Social Psychology of Consumer Behavior, Michaela Wanke Syntactic Structures, Noam Chomsky How to Do Things with Words, J. L. Austin, J. O. Urmson, Marina Sbisa The Construction of Social Reality, John Searle Affective Norms for English Words, MM Bradley, PJ Lang Determining Mood for a Blog by Combining Multiple Sources of Evidence, Y. Jung Cognitive Map Dimensions of the Human Value System Extracted from Natural Language, Alexei V. Samsonovich and Giorgio A. Ascoli Lyric-based Song Emotion Detection with Affective Lexicon and Fuzzy Clustering Method, Yajie Hu, Xiaoou Chen and Deshun Yang


When it comes to securing consistent and measurable returns from consumer media channels, ASTRALCOM has a proven track record for delivering results across the spectrum. For more than 15 years, we’ve helped clients achieve their business development objectives via messaging, marketing, search, social, mobile and print tactics. Simply put, we create and devise effective pre-sales instances and customer touchpoint experiences that drive consumers to clients’ businesses both on and off the web and help them to succeed in the market place.

To learn more about connecting your business to consumers across all media channels, or for more information on ASTRALCOM, LLC, contact: ASTRALCOM Digital Business Solutions 800.536.6637 Richard Bergér, VP of E-Business [email protected] http://www.IncreaseYourBusinessWith.us

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