Generalize This

If you’ve been following The Front Line, you know I believe in common sense. I've believed in it since long before it was placed on the Endangered Species list. Because I'm a believer in common sense, I find this blog post from Abbie Lundberg (@abbielundberg) accessible and appealing. It’s a wonderful slice of communicative common sense, as rare as it is informative and unassuming.

Contrast: Because believers in common sense tend to have abnormally acute Malarkey Meters, mine went off shrilly when I read this article by Rodney Mason about this book by Oren Klaff. If the substance of either one’s writing weren’t so troubling, I might have taken issue with the fact that they’re crowding the joint with authors. But it is. So, I didn't. But let's not call The Front Line Center for the Relief of Authorial Claustrophobia just yet. Instead, let's see if we can't blow away some smoke and shatter a few mirrors.

Trouble Brewing

For openers, the substance is troubling because Mason’s first observation is this:

Like it or not, every day you and the brands you market are engaged in a never-ending pitch. That's because, according to … Klaff, pitching is a direct result of our basic quest for acceptance and survival.

Wait. Field of Dreams doesn’t apply to business? If we build it, they won’t come? To be or not to be is NOT the question? Seriously. If we weren’t capable of recognizing that, would we be allowed beyond our front doors without adult supervision, let alone to be in business? (Spoiler alert: Klaff’s next books are about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny. Discretion is advised for younger readers.)

Secondly, the substance is troubling because Mason’s second observation is that Klaff has branded his own technique (the marketing equivalent of reading his own press releases). In the immortal words of Adam West, “Stand clear, Robin”:

Klaff, an investment banker who has raised hundreds of millions of dollars by applying neuroeconomics, contends that we have highly evolved brains and very sophisticated thoughts. What makes pitches fail is that we misunderstand how people receive, process and interpret them.

“Applying neuroconomics.” I love that. He’s not just making it up, by golly. He’s applying it. No mere communicator, this Oren Klaff. He’s not stooping to anything so meager or mundane as common sense and simple, engagingly persuasive storytelling. No, sir. And why should he? He, after all, has neuroeconomics. (That buckling sensation you’re feeling is your knees giving way under the enormity of the concept. Who in their right minds would even think of competing with neuroeconomics? Egad!)

And for strike three, the substance is troubling because:

Klaff believes that instead of just thinking about the end of the pitch, it is far more effective to focus on commanding the audience's attention first, then proceed to the details. Not because it's creative and different, but because it's literally how the brain works. This is an extremely compelling idea for anyone in marketing, since it essentially mirrors what marketing itself has evolved into: a mixture of science and salesmanship that work together to stir and move an audience to action.

No. You mean that blurting out, "Buy this!" before you've told the story that will help your audience members understand what you're selling and why it's meaningful to them might not be the way to go? Have the marketing and sales worlds really been doing it wrong for all this time? Oh, the humanity! (Bubble buster: that’s not neuroeconomics or any other faux-scientific/pseudo-intellectual buzzword. It’s common sense, self-faith, and simple, effective storytelling.)

The Pitch for the Pitch

In case you haven't yet gone for Klaff's thesis — and on the off chance that you might not have begun applying neuroeconomics right off the bat (or better yet, clicked through to buy Klaff's book on Amazon) — Mason winds up and delivers a meatball in the hope that you'll swing for the fences:

This is an extremely compelling idea for anyone in marketing, since it essentially mirrors what marketing itself has evolved into: a mixture of science and salesmanship that work together to stir and move an audience to action.

"Extremely compelling idea" is Mason's substitute for another favorite tactic of would-be promotional writing — using all capital letters. Translation: "YO! NUMBSKULL! GO BUY KLAFF'S BOOK BECAUSE I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT! AND WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, DON'T BE OFFENDED BY THE FACT THAT I'VE JUST REDUCED THE EVOLUTION OF MARKETING TO JUNK SCIENCE AND HUCKSTERING!" (Note: When writing in all caps, exclamation points at the end of every word, phrase, and sentence are optional. They can be used at the author's discretion because authors who write in all caps are, of course, nothing if not discreet. If authors think so little of their readers that the combination of capital letters and exclamation points still won't convince the poor ninnies of what's really important, they may combine all caps with BOLD TYPE to bludgeon the point home.)

But even after his display of authorial restraint (nary a capital nor bold letter in sight), Mason still fears he may not have sealed the deal. So, after an appeal to our vanity (authority, power, status), he plays the neuroecomics card one last time:

In some ways, Mr. Klaff believes that "setting the frame" is the most important part of this process, because it's how you package your authority, power and status. Own the frame and you win the game, because you have captivated the croc brain … where messages are first received and filtered before moving on to other more highly evolved parts of the brain. It has very little capacity for reasoning and thinks in basic "fight or flight" terms. Fail to satisfy your audience's croc brain, and you're done before you've even begun.

Non Compos Mentis

Yes, folks. The neuro in neuroeconomics relates to the brain. More important, we are given to understand that parts of the brains of your audience members are like those of crocodiles — primitive, defensive, uncomprehending, and maybe even dangerous. Call me jaundiced. But that's a croc. And representing your brand in such terms, to say nothing of positioning your marketing to condescend to your target audience in such terms, is as insulting as it is absurd and uncalled for.

The best we can hope for Klaff and Mason is that they read a little more Lundberg. This might be as good a place as any for them to start:

You will never get your message across – and you certainly won’t be able to influence anyone – if you don’t have their attention. Period. And guess what: A person’s attention is not something that is yours by right; it is something you earn – by being genuine, relevant and focused.

I suspect that if Abbie Lundberg knew me, she’d have plenty to say about my reptilian nature. But unlike Oren Klaff, she is gracious and authorially decorous enough not to generalize about it. And unlike Rodney Mason, she didn’t fall for such generalization. Neither should you.