Pull vs. Push Strategies - Uwe Hook

A few days ago, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, promised "500 new features" for the Windows Phone 7.

That's a lot of features. Pretty impressive.

Too bad nobody cares.

Remember the iPhone advertising? Have they ever talked about features, the chip or the technology?

Not once.

Instead, they are showing things people love to do. Things that add value to your life. Things that make you go "Wow". Things that are fun.

500 features are not fun. They are scary.

Microsoft is stuck in the old world of push-thinking.

Just look at the majority of the products. The Office suite has so many functions and features, humans in the year 4034 will discover the last 2%. It has so many features, nobody every uses.

That's what happens when you're stuck in the push-thinking paradigm: You give more and more. And you don't understand why people want you less.

This is a problem for many brands: They rattle down features and think that people. Will buy them. People don't buy features. They buy awesomeness.

Pull-Thinking equals awesomeness.

Instead of nagging people constantly to use/buy/try your product, show them something that people love to do. Make me want the product because it fills a need. I'm sure a few of these 500 features fit into that category.

When your company culture is rooted in a push-thinking paradigm, you better have a big, big wallet. People will not talk about you, they won't spread the word for you. You have to carpet bomb the media landscape with your marketing communication to get any attention.

Pull-thinking company cultures need much less media investment. Whenever somebody says "Wow" seeing their product, they save the enterprise tons of marketing dollars. Or when they experience the value it adds to their lives. Every time a valuable iPhone app gets downloaded, a few marketing dollars are deducted from Apple's media budget. It keeps the customers closer to the brand, delights them.

Don't tell me.

Show me.

Uwe Hook is the CEO and Co-Founder of BatesHook, Inc. (www.bateshook.com) and a veteran of the advertising and marketing industry with the goal of building connections between people and brands. Uwe can be reached at uwe@bateshook.com.

Read all Uwe's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Subversions.

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