Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They...

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 240 pages
• Published by: Thomas Nelson; Har/Com edition June 13, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0785218971
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0785218975
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 1 pounds

From Publishers Weekly
The Eisenberg brothers (Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results) dub the guiding principles behind their marketing consultancy "Persuasion Architecture," but their methods have more in common with Hollywood screenwriting. Observing that one message no longer fits every audience, they create "personas" representing broad consumer patterns, based on the types identified in the Keirsey personality tests, renamed here as "methodical," "spontaneous," "humanistic" and "competitive" shoppers. Then the authors "storyboard" marketing scenarios guiding each type to the point of sale. Although 20th-century advertising was based on the Pavlovian model of instilling a desired reaction to stimuli, like the dog that expected dinner whenever a bell rang, the Eisenbergs say that increasing media fragmentation prevents advertisers from creating that sort of conditioned response. Anyway, they add, people have always been more like cats, occasionally distractable but for the most part independent-minded. Their solution—developing interactive relationships—is fairly standard in contemporary marketing circles, but by keeping the message simple, with short chapters low on jargon and high on real-world examples, the Eisenbergs just may push themselves to the front of the crowd. (June 13)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description


Good marketers know that customer-centered marketing is mandatory. However, we are not the customer. What the customer perceives as relevant is the thing successful marketers must anticipate, plan, and deliver on. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing offers Persuasion Architecture, a proven Persona-based methodology. Persuasion Architecture enables marketers to anticipate different angles from which customers frame their questions and then coordinate messaging across multiple channels so that marketers can create predictive models of customer behavior. Don't miss out on learning about this six-sigma marketing approach that can skyrocket the effectiveness of your interactive marketing.

"There's some big thinking going on here-thinking you will need if you want to take your work to the next level. 'Typical, not average' is just one of the ideas inside that will change the way you think about marketing."-Seth Godin, Author, All Marketers Are Liars

"Are your clients coming to you armed with more product information than you or your sales team know? You need to read Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? to learn how people are buying in the post-Internet age so you can learn how to sell to them."-Tom Hopkins, Master Sales Trainer and Author, How to Master the Art of Selling

"These guys really 'get it.' In a world of know-it-all marketing hypesters, these guys realize that it takes work to persuade people who aren't listening. They've connected a lot of the pieces that we all already know-plus a lot that we don't. It's a rare approach that recognizes that the customer is in charge and must be encouraged and engaged on his/her own terms, not the sellers. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? takes apart the persuasion process, breaks down the steps and gives practical ways to tailor your approaches to your varying real customers in the real world. This book is at a high level that marketers better hope their competitors will be too lazy to implement."-George Silverman, Author, The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth

"We often hear that the current marketing model is broken-meaning the changes in customers, media, distribution, and even the flatness of the world make current practices no longer relevant. Yet few have offered a solution. This book recognizes the new reality in which we operate and provides a path for moving forward. The authors do an outstanding job of using metaphors to help make Persuasion Architecture clear and real-life examples to make it come alive. Finally, someone has offered direction for how to market in this new era where the customer is in control."-David J. Reibstein, William Stewart Woodside Professor, Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania and former Executive Director, Marketing Science Institute

"If you want to learn persistence, get a cat. If you want to learn marketing, get this book. It's purrfect."-Jeffrey Gitomer, Author, The Little Red Book of Selling

"In 1999, the Wachowski brothers revolutionized moviemaking with stunning new angles and special effects revealed in The Matrix. Now the 'Eisenbrothers' have done the same for business in Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? Stunning new angles! Techniques that will be copied for decades. Cat is sure to be remembered as the genesis of an important new direction in marketing."-Roy H. Williams, New York Times Best-Selling Author, The Wizard of Ads Trilogy

"The Web is a democratizing force as the world's largest global brain. It educates everyone on the pros and cons of every product, service, and even person. An educated human being doesn't react well to the traditional 'art of manipulation' that most marketers attempt to employ in their campaigns. As a matter of fact, it makes them angry and defensive-like a cat backed into a corner. No one understands this new world of marketing better than the Eisenbergs. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? is the marketing manifesto of our generation. Read it, weep, and then go do something about it." -Brett Hurt, Founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice, Founder of Coremetrics, and Shop.org Board Director

"It is easy to buy traffic but persuading that traffic to buy, subscribe, or otherwise take a profitable action is essential. Persuasion Architecture provides a framework for companies to better understand and reach customers with more relevant messages that increase the probability of acquiring and serving customers. Traffic cost inflation is a real problem, and this book not only tells you how to allow customers to buy the way they want to buy but makes the entire process accountable. I'll be encouraging the companies I invest in to read it." -Tod Francis, Managing Partner, Shasta Ventures

"Who's buying? How are they buying? And why do they buy from you? Consumers have been turning away from old media channels and even most methods of advertising to embrace new media. The Eisenbergs have developed a proven methodology for selling in this new environment where the old marketing rules no longer apply. This book will change how you think about marketing. It may even change how you think."-Rebecca Lieb, Executive Editor, The ClickZ Network

"This book lays out a powerful and fresh way of thinking about personas, persuasion, and marketing in today's increasingly fragmented media environment. If you want a practical guidebook for successfully marketing to today's consumer, then this is a must-read."-Mark Kingdon, CEO, Organic, Inc.

"Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? systematically covers every aspect of critical thinking about customers and prospects a marketer could need in today's complex business world. This is a book you'll reach for every time you begin your strategic planning."-Susan Bratton, CEO, Cendara, Inc., and Executive Chair ad:tech Conferences

"With Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?, the Eisenbergs have shown us the power of persuasion for marketing. They back up their positions with compelling case studies and great firsthand experience that is priceless. This is a must-read for all marketing professionals and is on my desk."-Rand Schulman, Chief Active Marketing Officer, WebSideStory

"The Brothers Eisenberg usher us out of the 20th-century age of media and into the 21st-century age of optimization. They show us step-by-step how to leave behind the diminished returns and false expectations of quantity, and how to replace them instead with the more universal appeal and profitability of quality."-Jeff Einstein, Media Pioneer and Social Critic

"The Eisenberg brothers have done it again! Hot on the heels of their best-selling Call to Action, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? is a guide to the use of personas and Persuasion Architecture that will force readers to reconsider all of their marketing efforts. Chock full of 'big picture' thinking and great strategic advice, the chapters 'Choosing Personas' and 'Bringing Personas to Life' are must-reads for anyone serious about marketing. Jeffrey and Bryan force us to rehumanize our audience in a way that drives measurement and forces accountability."-Eric Peterson, Author, Web Analytics Demystified and Web Site Measurement Hacks

"Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? is a awesome read. It has fresh ideas and practical solutions for persuading customers to act. I highly recommend this book."-Ivan R. Misner, PhD, New York Times Best-Selling Author and Founder of BNI

Reader Reviews
Customers drive marketing, not the other way around. No longer do customers accept products as designed. They expect and demand products to be molded to their needs. Just like you can't turn a cat into a dog; marketers can't turn a customer into a buyer by convincing them that they need product or service `as is.' "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark" is a fitting title for this book. Cats tend to see the world revolve around them while dogs are eager to please their masters by doing whatever they want. Today's customers are in charge-much like cats. "As is" might work in the bargain bin, but not in the majority of today's markets. The authors guide the reader in reaching the audience, persuading them to take the right action and feeling confident about that action, and giving the audience results that match their demanding expectations. Those growing expectations come from the Web reaching new levels. You may have heard a lot of talk about Web 2.0. No matter how anyone feels about the term, one thing it is clear -- the Web has reached a new stage: interactivity. Users do something, and the Web page immediately reacts to the user's commands. It's also about creating online experiences, which often represent site's brand. All of this together adds to users' increasing expectations when they're online. Marketers can lend a hand to their sites' visitors with persuasion architecture, a concept the Eisenbergs developed. Fancy words, perhaps, but the only words that will do. Before starting any marketing effort, the authors recommend asking three questions: * who is it you want to persuade? * what action do we want them to take? * what information is needed to motivate them to take that action? Building effective persuasion architecture requires more than knowing who your audience is -- but who they represent. The authors show how to create audience personas and weave the persuasion architecture to satisfy the different personas' needs. The first chapters dig into the changes in the marketing world; how and why marketing has changed. The middle chapters uncover the minds of customers and why they've changed as they respond to products and services. The latter part the book enlightens the reader on persuasion architecture and how to use it to influence customers. The book closes with a chapter on getting started with persuasion architecture, which, in practice, shrinks the gap between customer and marketer. What differentiates the authors and the book from others is their treatment of marketing and the Web as one? Too often, marketing and Web design teams don't work as a unified group and end up banging their heads. Organizations that plan to use the Web to market products or services stand to reap rewards in terms of user actions and higher profits with the advice from the book. The book comes with a CD containing eighty minutes of the authors in a question and answer session (here's a clip), the full-text of the book in PDF format, online sales and marketing reports from Shop.org and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), and a $50 credit on Yahoo! Sponsored Search (for new users only). You can read an excerpt from the book. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? is the right length (240 pages) and avoids heavy-duty or textbook language, which makes for a smooth and easy read. The authors have hit their stride with this one. Those who haven't read any of the Eisenbergs' books should start with this one and if there's room for another, check out Call to Action. Comment | | (Report this)