Green Eggs and Ham anyone?

Like many parents, I occasionally go through old toys and children's books which have fallen into disuse or are outgrown.  Usually it involves making comments like 'ah, remember when' and 'not sure I can get rid of this', especially if both you and your spouse are attempting the clearing out task.  With a 10 year old, sadly many of the Dr. Seuss books have given way to more challenging material involving fewer pictures, more words, and no rhymes.  One such book, 'Green Eggs and Ham', was one of my personal favorites and on re-reading it last weekend, it became clear that there's a few lessons we marketers could benefit from courtesy of Dr. Seuss.

I won't repeat the entirety of the tale in this posting but suffice to say it is about an effort by one character, 'Sam I Am', to get another unnamed character to taste something new, and the often absurd extremes Sam goes to in order to entice a tasting.

If we think about conventional marketing of a product or service, the approach is often similar to that taken by Sam I Am.  We describe the product and ask the customer to try it.  If that doesn't work, we try different circumstances to drive the initial trial.  Maybe we don't opt to put the product on a boat or with a mouse, but we still try to find alternative ways to influence perceptions through changing the positioning, conjuring up new campaigns, endorsements or sponsorships, or various other initiatives aimed at inducing trial.  And marketers sometimes spend vast fortunes bludgeoning customers into surrender - especially political candidate marketers, if my experience in the swing state of Virginia is anything to go by.

For many products or services, once the initial trial is obtained, the customer is sold.  Hence the efforts auto manufacturers and dealers go to to gain the crucial test drive of a new vehicle, or the millions spent on sampling at grocery.  Yet is the 'Sam I Am' approach to marketing the best way?  Does constant repetition and adaptation of a core product/service message really the best way to gain trial?

In the social world that we inhabit, I'd argue that while components of the 'old way' of positioning and gaining trial still work, it would behoove Sam I Am to undertake a few other tactics in his effort to secure trial of the green eggs and ham, namely:

1.  Basic data interrogation -  Of course, learning primary data, ie the character's name, is vital to ever gaining an element of trust, so clearly Sam I Am had some data interrogation to do with his prospect green eggs and ham list before approaching with the offer of trial.  He might have also checked his records regarding previous egg and ham campaigns, to see if his unnamed prospect had been approached, how many times, with what message combination or offer, etc.  And if the prospect had indeed been a customer who had lapsed, maybe check with his customer service data to see any complaints raised about the eggs or ham - perhaps the previous color for the eggs was red, so green might be a product innovation that could re-gain a lapsed customer?  Using a decent CRM system linked to a customer service platform, Sam I Am might have armed himself better for his initial foray.
2.  Social listening - Sam I Am could have determined the unnamed characters preferences or  what has been termed 'secondary data'  - ie interests, goals and motivations - through social listening using tools like Radian6.  This might have helped him refine the selection of use occasions or participants to offer - instead of on a boat, maybe a kayak if the unnamed character was a regular REI fan and blogged about his kayaking?  It may have uncovered a vast group of prospective green egg and ham users, who perhaps had preferences that could have honed down the rather haphazard food and location pairings Sam I Am attempted.
3.  Influencer marketing - Sam I Am could have sought expert recommendations on the quality of his green eggs and ham from noted experts or foodie bloggers, and ensured the unnamed character saw said recommendations prior to initiating trial efforts.  This may have softened resistance to the notion, although the unnamed character does go to great lengths to say he does not like green eggs and ham, suggesting an unsatisfactory prior experience with the 'brand' that an influencer may not overcome.
4.  WOM - There's little doubt that if Sam I Am had trust to begin with, he would not have needed such extreme lengths and effectively gain 'surrender' for the trial.  Yet many customers do not trust the brand owner, and are more likely to believe a friend.  So perhaps Sam I Am could have cultivated some known advocates with a word of mouth marketing program to encourage sampling and trial by their friends, in the hopes that trusted friends may have induced the trial.



In the end, of course, the green eggs and ham is liked, no matter the physical circumstances or who the meal is presented with.  The unnamed character becomes a joyous advocate for green eggs and ham.  And Sam I Am tried to win an Addy for his "out of the box, hit them with rocks, put on white socks" thinking.