Finding Inspiration - a personal story

My husband's cousin's son (got it?) graduated from college recently and on Saturday they had some friends and family over for a traditional Puerto Rican pig roast.  I haven't met some of his family and I'm not Hispanic so there were two things I knew I was going to have to overcome: I don't speak Spanish and I'm not 20-something years old.

I feared about how I'd engage with people who don't speak English as a first language and what could I possibly offer to this new crowd of college graduates?  I can't really talk student loans or internships any more, and I'm fighting for my next job just as hard as some of them.

It was a lot to handle at one time.

Amazingly, neither of those things mattered because what I learned from those 20-something year olds is that they are paying it forward.  They are motivated. They are inspired.  They wear their causes on their hats, their T-shirts and their rubber wristbands.  They are laughing hard, playing hard, and willing to talk about dreams and goals.

I listened in part English, part Spanish to their parents talk about raising children, finding jobs, serving in the military, and overcoming addiction.  They never complained. They tried their best to communicate with me and every single one put their hand out to shake mine or give me a hug as a welcome.

I don't think I realized driving to this celebration how impressed I was going to be by the conversations I was about to have.  I sat on a folded chair, in a modest backyard, among 99% Latino men and women playing dominoes and listening to Spanish music among Brazilian neighbors and Caucasian neighbors only a handshake away and I didn't want to leave.  No judging. No ego-trips about their job titles or how much revenue their companies made last quarter.  Just family, friends and talk about how to make it better for the next generation and wondering if they can make a change.

And it was so damn refreshing.

Stop sending me diapers. Marketing to the person.

Some of my most recent marketing experience is born out of the direct marketing world. I worked for a company that sells predictive modeling solutions to companies and non-profits looking to improve their list returns.  You can find them here now as they have re-branded and are continuing to evolve.

What I liked about their approach was that it was trying to get the right message to the right person (an overused analogy if you ask me, but true) by identifying "likenesses" between people.  If Joe Smith is your top customer, find other people that look like Joe and market to them.

Think about it.  We are inundated with messages on an ongoing basis.  We receive mail pieces - both postal and email - in addition to online banners, buttons, videos, text, images and logos, all trying to grab our attention and get us to buy.

I was perusing the bookstore shelves today and noticed book after book on Facebook marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, inbound marketing, Twitter marketing, and video marketing.  I think all of that can be helpful, but at the end of the day what I really want is for companies to communicate with me - not at me. If you know something about me wouldn't that make it easier to talk to me?

For example, on a regular basis I receive sample diapers in the mail. My kids are 5 and 7 years old. Thankfully, neither of them is still in diapers.  And, 9 out of 10 times, the diapers are wrapped in advertising copy written in Spanish.  I married a Latino man, but can't read or speak a stitch of the language.  It proves they know nothing about me except the "child" column must be checked in their database.

Without getting into the argument over privacy and such, I do think channels and networks like Facebook SHOULD do a better job at targeting my likes and dislikes seeing as I use their network, for free, to store all of my personal information.  It's basically my auto-biography online, and if that will stop the diapers from showing up in my mailbox and gets them to the Hispanic woman who can really use them - I think I'm on board with that advertising model.

What do you think?  Would you rather stay anonymous and provide gender only and hope the marketers get it right? Or would you rather open up the lines of communication and get what could benefit you?

Tough one, I know.