“It’s just a 7 minute walk from the station…”

Why is it that when you talk to an estate agent, no let me rephrase that… when an estate agent lies to you, telling you a flat you are interested in renting, is just a “5 minute walk away from the tube”… You weigh up the property, pointing out the walk is clearly more than a 5 minute commute, more like a 10 minute power-walk, but on the whole, the place is a steal and you put pen to paper…

But then something strange happens… once contracts exchanged etc and the paperwork is complete, you suddenly become very protective of that walk, describing it to visiting friends as just a 7 minute stroll from the station (I sometimes find I’ll come out and meet them half way to soften the lie I’ve just told them)… and it really is very convenient promptly realing off all the god things that you can do in that 7 minute walk (listen to XFM before getting on the tube, bit of exercise, wake up walk blah blah yada yada).

There is a point in here somewhere for marketing folk… give our target audience something to possess and something to own. If we involved them a bit more in our own marketing strategies, people are much more likely to become advocates for the project or campaign that we involve them with. It moves campaigns away from a push comms strategy and starts by listening to the conversations that are going on around the brand or sector, we can identify who to invite in on such ideas. I think this approach has particular traction online where word of mouth can spread so much more easily, but more fundamentally, it’s kinda cool, having companies want to involve their customers in campaign/product design/strategy development etc and as a consequence by giving consumers ownership over a particular aspect of a programme, much like I’m likely to big up the location of the flat I rent, I’m more than likely to promote the campaign I’m working on as a consumer. Some cracking examples are Dell IdeaStorm-here, Starbucks- here and NikeID- here.

P.s My flat mate Sam who has been watching over my shoulder whilst writing this, has just reminded me to also reinforce the point, that estate agents, “without exception” are all tossers. Thanks Sam.