field notes

Anytime you make a decision, or buy something, you travel along what we call “The Journey to Yes”. 

The journey, often subconscious, is both a psychological framework and marketing theory that drives much of our work and the success of our clients. 

You can see that journey below, but the truth is, buying a pack of gum when you’ve chewed gum a thousand times before is very different from buying something that represents a completely different way of doing things. 



While the key steps in the journey stay the same, reaching “Yes” varies for each audience. Bringing a groundbreaking idea to market requires a vastly different approach.

The ironic problem we see is that incredible innovators don’t always recognize that difference. They approach marketing as a generalized discipline rather than a specialized craft, assuming that marketing a lightbulb is the same as marketing an entirely new way to illuminate a room. 

But, when you take that traditional approach, here’s what happens: 

One of my favorite pieces of psych research is a 1999 study by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris. 

Before I explain, you can experience the study by watching this video (it’s only 1 minute, 21 seconds). It’s important you watch before reading on, spoilers below. 

I hear it often in B2B, “we have the hardest time explaining what we do, but as soon as our prospects SEE it, they’re blown away.” The immediate instinct is to push prospects straight to a demo or an in-person meeting. But when 73% of B2B leads are not sales-ready, that’s like going “all-in” before the flop in Texas Hold’em. Your prospects will fold immediately.

If there were one problem I could snap my fingers and fix in healthcare, it would be invisibility.

The patient portal has become the primary consumer access point to a patient’s electronic medical record. Moreover, it is becoming an entirely new channel for the delivery of healthcare – a place where patients schedule online appointments, view messages and lab results, and take advantage of e-health services.  

Fear is a powerful motivator. But as Solis Women’s Health found out, it can also be a powerful demotivator.

Studies prove it: people are incapable of making decisions without a little burst of dopamine – the brain's emotional happy juice. Smart marketers know emotion is the key.

Nerd Alert - Monacle Not Required, But....

Did Someone Just Say - "101 Years of Gamification"?

That's correct. Just like like the shock some of our younger staff members experience when we show them that many common Direct Marketing techniques preceded the internet era, "Gamification" itself is something that preceded the digital era as well. While some might put the start of it all with the Boy Scouts awarding their badges from 1911, we think a more deserving start point would be the introduction of "A Prize in Every Box" of Cracker Jack's in 1912. And as we will show in our next article, pyschology demonstrates how we are wired to respond to these techniques. For today, we will talk a bit about how those techniques have been deployed and mastered over time.