How To Market To A Dissatisfied Crowd or Why Satisfying The Dissatisfied Is Satisfying

Well, if you haven’t noticed, the mood of Americans has grown sour and is getting crankier by the minute. In fact a recent Gallup poll found that “satisfaction with the way things are going” has fallen to a 35 year low – with just 11% of Americans feeling good about the way things are generally going. And if we look back 35+ years we can find that it’s a different type of dissatisfaction now than during the mid 70’s. When the economy went bad in 1974, there was definitely an anger out there but it was much more about inflation, than unemployment.

This mood certainly creates difficult times for coming up with new, creative and persuasive creative marketing. So, what does “dissatisfaction” mean to a branding and marketing strategy? At Boyd we believe there are keys to maintaining an effective strategy during sour times.

An upset audience is different – fundamentally different - and are on a completely different value curve than your normal audience. So, you’ve got to adapt your marketing strategy accordingly.
Don’t make the mistake that many marketers make of thinking that trying to “close” an dissatisfied person will make them happy. It won’t – it just makes them angry. Instead, start adapting your communication to acknowledge their dissatisfaction – and work to make it go away. Then, and only then can you move to convert them. It’s time to be empathetic and “feel their pain”.

Whether customers are mad at you – or just mad in general – now is the time for “flexibility” to be the mantra for all marketing and communications. But now, especially when people are sensitive to the ineffectiveness of their institutions – anything that is not directed toward immediate satisfaction of the customer should be avoided. One solution is to give employees the ability to use sound judgments to make smart decisions. This will almost always leads to the opportunity for better and relevant communications.

One of the keys to remember when dealing with people is that dissatisfaction, unlike sadness, is an emotion that tells us we need fast, immediate action. When we get upset we tend to use mental shortcuts to tell us when to move to the next step (positive or negative). This is why it’s always good advice to NOT make an important decision while you’re upset.
When people make those shortcuts any misstep you make here will be amplified tenfold. Additionally, your company may be “lumped in” stereotypically with others in your industry.

Thus, from an satisfaction perspective it’s a good idea to be aware of what’s going on in your industry and with your customers as you get ready to roll out new marketing and communications. If you have an amazing idea for a new campaign – but your competitor has just made consumers frothing-at-the-mouth angry – you may want to quickly review how your new communication may be received.

Like all emotions, this dissatisfaction will ultimately pass. Ultimately, the country will vent, the economy will improve and we will become happy again. Working on our techniques for communicating with dissatisfied people is a great skill – and can be a great differentiator. So many times when things are “bad”, marketing and communications budgets tend to be cut – and we crawl inside our boxes waiting for things to blow over. But if we can differentiate ourselves by communicating and solving problems for people, we can take advantage of this bad mood and transform them into loyal, happy customers.