Posted on: September 7th, 2009 by Reuben Turner

 

Here’s a small and, perhaps, useful piece of insight for you. People don’t always answer questions just because you need to know the answer.

But if there’s an emotional benefit for them, they might. I often think that one of the best things a good creative can be is the consumer’s champion. When everyone is trying to get the consumer to do something they haven’t done before, wouldn’t normally do or perhaps even don’t want to do, we need to ask – what’s in it for them?

The objective shouldn’t be a 13% response rate. It should be to convince 13% of people (and they are people) to respond.

One small example that recently fell out of this way of thinking – we’ve been dealing with the age-old issue of legacy pledging.

Should we ask people whether they’ve left a gift to a charity in their will? It’s great for legacy managers – it’s often the one piece of evidence they can use to justify their hard work (and their budget). Especially when the results of their work won’t bear fruit until years, even decades after they’ve left the building.

But what’s in it for the pledger? Answering the legacy pledge question turns a meaningful, personal decision –one that says something about the significance of your total life’s work – into a tick box on a form.

So rather than asking whether, we’ve been testing asking ‘why’. Giving people the time and space to tell us about that life’s work. To go into the personal reasons behind their decision. The length and passion of the responses we’ve seen indicate that it’s often the first time they’ve been asked anything at all about their motivations for supporting X cause.

I’m not saying you should do this. Or that if you do, it will work. I’m saying it’s an example of how life changes when you think like a consumer.

Image sourced from Flickr, courtesy of enjoi_yourpanda5