Start your Marketing with a User Story

One of the interesting things about Agile Project Management is that you start with creating a user story. In the marketing process, how many times do you start with a customer/prospect telling the marketing department how they use or will use the product or service? I know we interview people or perform won/loss analysis, but I wanted to go an additional step. What if we would paint the picture of how a user will interpret this marketing campaign or for that matter this blog, advertisement, whitepaper, etc? If we would take the time to determine that reaction, would we not create a better product?

The master of telling the story is of course Disney and who better to help than the mouse himself.

Mickey's 10 Commandments:

1. Know your audience: Before creating a setting, obtain a firm understanding of who will be using it.
2. Where your guest shoes: That is, never forget the human factor. Evaluate your setting from the customer's perspective by experiencing it as a customer.
3. Organize the flow of people and ideas: Think of a setting as a story and tell that story is sequenced, organized way. Build the same order and logic into the design of customer involvement.
4. Create a weenie: Borrowed from the slang of the silent film business, a weenie was what Walt Disney called a visual magnet. It means a visual landmark is used to orientate and attract customers.
5. Communicate with visual learners to: Language is not always composed of words. Use the common languages of color, shape, and form to communicate through setting.
6. Avoid-overload - create turn-ons: Do not bombard customers with data. Let them choose the information they want when they want it.
7. Tell one story at a time: Mixing multiple stories in a single setting is confusing. Create one setting for each big idea.
8. Avoid contradictions; maintain identity: Every detail of every setting should support and further your organizational identity and mission.
9. For every ounce of treatment provided a ton of treat: Give your customers the highest value by building an interactive setting that gives them the opportunity to exercise all their senses.
10. Keep it up: Never get complacent and always maintain your setting.

After applying these ten commandments, keep telling the story over and over again. Are you staying on track?

The Ten Commandments were taken from, Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service

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