HiPPO dodging for marketers

Have you ever been in a position where someone more senior than you has a really strong opinion on a campaign you are running, a branding decision or a piece of copy that you know to be wrong?  Avinash Kaushik coined the term HiPPO for this, or Highest Paid Person’s Opinion, which can, at best, make concrete decisions really difficult and, at worst, derail whole campaigns and strategies.

I’ve had a few HiPPO moments throughout all stages of my career, in fact I’ve been guilty of instigating a few myself when I’ve been a stressed-out founder or CMO. People don’t do it on purpose. Humans have a tendency to lean on cognitive biases, or shortcuts in the brain, in order to help with planning and decision making. One aspect of HiPPO-ing is to do with the authority bias, which means going along with the person who has the most power. I would argue there is something else going on when it happens to marketing decisions. Senior executives who have HiPPO moments with marketers are likely using an availability heuristic to make the best decision with the information they have to hand. They’ve seen ads, used Google and received promotional emails personally, so they think they understand the job in hand and want to see the kind of marketing that would connect with them the most. When I’ve been guilty of it, it’s because I’ve found an idea personally attention grabbing, and of course that’s what we’re looking for as marketers. That didn’t stop me being wrong.

You only have one way out of this situation where everyone leaves happy and better educated. That is, ask the customer.

The CEO wants a font change? Draw up three versions and user-test them. Your boss doesn’t know why you are advertising in a certain location? Use your customer and prospect data to explain why the choice is right. Whole campaigns can, and should be road-tested to give them best chance of success once live. This approach will not only diffuse the situation, but it will make you a better marketer and your business will thrive. As much as their opinion isn’t valid, neither is yours. Without data and research, you’d be as guilty as they are if you just pushed your agenda.

Your marketing activity is then designed and planned to appeal to desired audience - your customer - and not the tastes of the board room. Campaigns will perform better and on seeing the results maybe HiPPOS can be extinct for good.

[I feel guilty about that last joke and so have donated to this hippo conservation charity. Link below for you to do the same!]

https://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/hippopotamus

Startups, Micro-conversions and Consistency

I recently spoke at the Natwest Startup Accelerator event. At the start, the founders in the room were asked to list what their biggest marketing challenges were. The most prominent were questions like “which channels work” and “how can I make my budgets work”. To answer these questions we have to first unpack what we mean by “work”.

Really, people mean sales. Transactions. Dollars.

When it comes to marketing, that’s like saying you need your car to go from one to 100 without accelerating. You can’t just start at 100.

In my talk which I loftily titled “Consistency and Micro-conversions” I pointed the entrepreneurs in the direction of Robert Cialdini’s Influence, the Principles of Persuasion. Written back in 1984, it’s as valid today as it was then because it talks to our fundamental human drives.

Of the six principles listed (reciprocity, commitment/consistency, social proof, authority, liking and scarcity) I believe consistency to be the most under-rated and under-used by marketers.

Cialdini says of consistency:

“Once people make a decision, take a stand or perform an action, they will face an interpersonal pressure to behave in a consistent manner with what they have said or done previously”

People don’t want to say one thing and do another. The social, and therefore internal, pressure is real.  

Asking for a small commitment can increase your chances of someone completing the larger action later on. In one study in California, researchers found that not many people were willing to put a billboard up in their front yard urging people to drive slowly. However in another part of the neighbourhood, the amount of people who said yes to the ugly large sign increased by fourfold. The reason? A number of days beforehand they had been asked to place a small card in their window supporting driving safely. That smaller ask triggered a commitment in the homeowner which then led to the 400% increase in uptake of the bigger request.

If you ask for the postcard not the billboard, and weave your story for the potential buyer rather than going from hello to BUY right away you will have more success. You change up through the gears rather than trying to do 100mph in first. You’ll have to redefine what “works” means to you as each gear change (step in your prospect funnel) might require a different success metric, but ultimately it will lead to more purchases.

It’s a double win as the prospect feels more connected to your brand and wants to act in a consistent way with their first action and secondly, through these smaller “micro-conversions” you can really start to learn about your customer and make sure you are solving a problem for them with your product or service.

So when it comes to answering the question “what works?” - there would be no one size answer in a room full of startups that ranged from running content programmes to potty training clothing. One thing that will be consistent, is that prospects will consistently seek to be consistent with their own actions, that’s something you can depend on.