Now we have a dog: lessons in marketing from a 9 year old
I spent about 8 years of my career working for creative agencies, executing digital campaigns for well-known brands like Outback Steakhouse and Coca-Cola. I often represented my agency when discussing technical execution and trade-offs with our marketing clients. Through this experience, I gained a great appreciation for marketing as a discipline: the blend of art, analytics, and psychology. But, I never really picked up on the broader mechanics of marketing since I was involved in a more tactical role, focused on digital delivery.
My 9 year-old daughter’s recent campaign to acquire a family dog has taught me a few things about marketing fundamentals.
The strategy
AJ had a strategy:
- Pitch her parents and her little brother to influence them towards accepting a dog into the family.
- Do a follow-up survey to gauge the effectiveness of her pitch.
- Adjust the messaging for the next pitch accordingly, and survey again.
- Blanket the house with images of cute dogs to reinforce awareness.
The execution
AJ’s first pitch focused on the positive traits of dogs: they’re cute, they’re friendly, etc. Her first survey results were mixed: she and her brother (“I”) were 10/10 while her mom was 7/10 and her dad a lowly 1/10.
AJ knew she had more work to do to get her holdout dad on board. She adjusted her pitch to focus on the positive outcomes that dog ownership would bestow on the family, with a particular focus on the benefits to the children. This message was tailor-made to the interests of her dad.
I was won over, particularly with the lessons in responsibility that helping out with a dog would provide. On her second survey, I jokingly said I was now a “2” — AJ responded: “Great! I only have to do this 8 more times to get you to a 10!”
The results
Lessons learned
Make a plan
AJ’s plan centered on multiple pitches and follow-up surveys to measure their effectiveness, in addition to saturating the house with images of cute dogs that she cut out from magazines.
Adjust your pitch according to the data
Having surveyed her audience and finding some low results, AJ switched the perspective of her pitch from “dogs are cute” to “here’s how your life will be better with a dog.” A follow-up survey validated the change in messaging.
Play the long game
AJ was ready to pursue multiple iterations of pitching and surveys, engaging her audience repeatedly to optimize her survey results and find the message that would finally win them over.
What do you think, marketers, is she a natural?
