Train Greeter is priming gold

My train station has introduced a Greeter - a person who stands on the platform and greets everyone as they board the train. This has a couple of obvious benefits for the commuters
1. gives us a readily available source of information about schedule changes and
2. assists people who are less familiar with the train travel process

So what's in it for the train company?
I dare say the validation of tickets will increase -  Whilst the Greeter is not there to check every ticket, it is surely harder to avoid the validation process with a smiling Greeter standing in front of you.  The power of shame!

But the beauty of this Greeter is how he is priming commuter behaviour.  He is placing us in a positive frame of mind, forcing us to interact with him in a humanised way.  I'll bet this will reduce the likelihood that we will become angry and resentful of the invariable delays and more forgiving of the train system. Well, a bit anyway!

And the lesson for marketers? Don't underestimate the human experience and how a business/Brand can prime the minds of customers for a better experience, particularly when times are tough.

For more on priming behaviour, check out Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational.

PS The morning after I posted this piece my train was cancelled and the Greeter was nowhere to be seen!  Metro trains have a way to go to make life better for their commuting population,

Yo-Yo 2: Crazes come in two forms: Tsunami style and Mexican wave

In the post “Crazes happen because people herd”, I mentioned that fundamentally all crazes are alike in that they compel a group of people to behave a certain way for a certain period of time. Crazes have both a sense of momentum and of conclusion.  Think about Yo-Yos as they completely take over every recess and lunch time in the school yard, before being quickly and unceremoniously replaced by the next big thing,   Same with the Macarena – who can believe it swept the dance floors worldwide before disappearing to the shame file?  

But there are also key differences between crazes.

In some crazes, there is a sense that it has come from nowhere and swept everyone along in its path.  It feels like wherever you turn people are involved. Then, the craze recedes and is replaced by something else.  This is the Yo-Yo type of craze that I refer to as a tsunami or “giant wave”. Giant wave crazes have a sense of singular direction (to the shore ie crashing onto the target market), power (you are decidedly either in or out of the craze) and impermanence (just like the tide, the craze will recede).  I also lump longer term crazes (trends) like polished floorboards in this category. For a number of years now, those in the market to renovate a house/buy a house/sell a house would have seen how floorboards have had the edge over carpet. Ditto for stainless steel appliances over whitegoods. 

In other crazes, there is a sense that the market itself has created the momentum with one group stimulating the craze across another. Instead of a singular direction, these crazes move laterally across a market, more like dominoes, until their momentum finally tapers to nothing.  These crazes I refer to as “Mexican waves” because they are contagious and rely on group perpetuation. An example of this craze would be iPhones where influential early adopters generate the first wave of craze before other segments make the purchase.  I would also classify Zumba the new fitness craze as a Mexican wave because it started in one gym and has gradually spread to your local fitness center. 

Now importantly, whilst you are in the midst of a craze you are probably not aware of it being either a Mexican Wave or Giant Wave style craze because to you and your influential peers, it probably seems all consuming.  When I was learning to Yo-Yo, it seemed my whole world (ie school population) was part of the contagious magic.   

So the distinction between Tsunami and Mexican Wave crazes is probably not important for those involved, but I believe it can be important to marketers.  Why? Because knowing how to stimulate a mass audience to meet your objectives is central to what we do.  And that’s the subject of the third article in this series which focuses on the role of marketing in starting and riding crazes.

The Yo-Yo series

Welcome to the Yo-Yo series, a three part dive into crazes that sweep across the market before disappearing just as quickly.  The first post, "Crazes happen because people herd" looks at herd behaviour and the typical characteristics of crazes.  The second post, "Tsunami style and Mexican wave style crazes" explores two types of crazes and key differences between them.  The third post, "Marketing's role in crazes" brings home the lessons for marketers including creating and riding a craze.

Yo-Yo 1: Crazes happen because people herd

They had us transfixed.  Five of them, head to toe in Coca-Cola tracksuits.  It was lunchtime in the playground and all the kids gathered around these exotic and super cool visitors.  They were there to Yo-Yo.  It was the 80’s and a Yo-Yo craze was just beginning for a new generation. Five years ago Pokemon might have been the Yo-Yo equivalent. Today it is more likely to be Apps.  So why do crazes happen and why was Coke gambling on a toy that our parents had first played with in the 1950s?  Are all crazes all alike, how do they start and as marketers, what’s our role to play?  This is the first of three posts in the Yo-Yo series that will examine these questions.

Let’s start with defining what I mean by a craze.

• Something that sweeps up a mass of the market,
• It’s compelling – something about it is so attractive that you can’t help but join
• Finite – usually short-term, but of course “short-term” is relative

To flesh out the definition with some examples, consider the following crazes that have entertained us over the years; Pokemon, perms, Scrapbooking, knitting, iPhones, Masterchef, fashion, disco/ boot-scootin’/ Macarena,  in-line skating, aerobics/Zumba, polished floorboards, slow cooking, double denim… it’s a long and nostalgic list.

Fundamentally, all crazes are alike in that they compel a group of people to behave a certain way.  This is underpinned by the concept of herding where people tend follow their peers where there is comfort in numbers (James Surowiecki, Wisdom of Crowds). Indeed in an industry where staying out of the herd would seem advantageous, Surowiecki describes herding behaviour amongst money managers.  In this environment, doing what others do is a way to show that investment decisions are not irrational – comfort that financial matters are being handled responsibly. Another example is in restaurant selection – if you see a busy restaurant, logic tells you it must be a good one, and therefore the busy restaurant becomes busier (until of course a new restaurant triggers a new craze, but more on that in post 3). 

In the schoolyard, herd behaviour was definitely on display. There was comfort in being part of the Yo-Yo craze, and in fact it was very uncomfortable if you were unable to participate.  ‘No Dad, the Yo-Yo has to be a Coke one otherwise no-one will like me!’ As adults we are no more immune.  ‘No honey, let’s get polished floorboards so that the house is easier to keep clean/will be better for resale/looks better.’ 

As marketers, we need to understand herding so that we can anticipate market behaviour and gain the scale our businesses require. In theory, herding means that as long as we can influence the pack leader, we can generate mass.    

In Switch, Chip and Dan Heath give a nod to ‘herding’ by noting that behaviour is contagious, where people look to their peers for behavioural cues and tend to follow. If all my friends are getting smartphones, perhaps I should too?  The talk around the office on Mondays is Masterchef, so maybe I should tune in to see what the fuss is about? 

What really interests me about herding is the degree to which behavioural decisions are rational – after all, we are looking at “crazes”.  Whilst each example cited of a craze in this article can be explained rationally– to learn a new, fun trick at school, to improve resale of my property, for the convenience of managing information in a smart phone – it’s more likely that I simply do not want to be left out.   It’s the deep seeded survival mentality kicking in where the risk of being socially ostracised is just as powerful as the attractiveness of the craze itself.

So back to the schoolyard. Why did Coke send its Yo-Yo team to a local primary school? No surprises that it was a Brand identity activity that sought to associate ‘active’, ‘fun’, ‘cool’ with its product amongst a young demographic. But the clever part was the inferred association between being part of the ‘in crowd’ with Coke vs the ostracised, non-Coke, non-Yo-Yoers. Coke was using a toy to leapfrog its Brand to a deep unconscious connection that had a permanence that the toy could never have.  Long after yo-yos had been relegated to the bottom drawer and replaced by Pokemon, the Brand connection of being part of the insider herd remained.

So as marketers, the promise of herding is that we can get mass scale, and the key to engaging the herd may be more emotional than rational. But the beauty of inciting herd behaviour could be the magical long term associations that a craze can create.

But how to influence a herd in the first place, and how can you generate a craze of your own?  Post 2 looks at two different styles of crazes and how they begin, and post 3 examines the role of marketing in creating and riding crazes.

Characteristics of Crazes