Op-ed: Marketing is Simple: Just Tickle ‘Em Pink

To be tickled pink is to be overcome with happiness and/or amusement about something that’s happened or is about to happen. This charming idiom adds a dash of colour to your expressions of glee and delight, proving that the English language, like life itself, can sometimes be rosy. So, the next time you’re beaming with joy, remember, you’re just tickled pink.

Marketing’s job is to tickle their audience pink.

So Marketers, let’s examine your specific activities. If you think about shades of pink, light pink being 1 and bright, happy pink being 5, every marketing tactic has the opportunity to be a 5. To authentically please and delight their prospects and customers. Every channel we use – everything we put out in the marketplace – is an opportunity to cause our audience to be tickled pink.

In my experience, few brands are good at this. Said another way, many brands think they are marketing, but what they have really become is lead generators for the sales team.

Let’s remember, our job is to “tickle ‘em pink” not “chase them down and pound them every chance we get. Not hound them until they buy and even way beyond”. Many digital marketers actually spend money knowing they annoy their prospect or customer, but they rationalize “the click is worth it”. Have we given this the critical thought it deserves?

Email Marketing

Let’s begin with Email Marketing. Blasting them everything that’s going on in your company, across all brands, every single day or multiple times per day. Does that tickle them pink? When they abandon their cart on your eCommerce site does sending them repeated, somewhat desperate emails tickle them pink? When they have already registered for your webinar, does sending them emails to register tickle them pink?

I have dramatically improved my overall health and lost over 40 lbs doing Dr Berg’s Healthy Keto Program. I have bought over $2,000 of his products (supplements and books) during the past 6 months. I should be tickled pink. But some of their marketing tactics are leaving me less than pink. They are annoying bordering on frustrating. It feels like I get 4-5 emails every single day, not including the many that get caught in my Junk folder. I have not actually counted them, but the facts matter less than the feeling I am left with. As a proven customer who is currently purchasing products and services, I feel bombarded by email messages from Dr. Berg.

This in no way infers all Dr. Berg’s messaging is bad. The average consumer would differentiate the “mass” promotion tactics like content on social media. For example, I have watched dozens of educational videos on Healthy Keto issues on their YouTube channel. That feels different from the personalized messaging I get bombarded with via their email tactics. They are all consumer touch-points but at least I have a choice in whether I interact with YouTube or not.

I am tickled pink when I can easily find what I need when I need it and it is presented in a brief but professional way. At the end of each video, Dr. Berg could present a sweet offer for the products or services provided in that particular video – or even up-sell or cross-sell other products. Because this is not directed to me personally (I sought it out) it could be part of leaving me feeling tickled pink if properly executed.

Marketers must think about all consumer touch-points and be sure the customer is tickled pink with the overall brand – across all channels, all campaigns and sometimes across multiple brands. (Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, etc)

Keep in mind, as previously stated, I am very happy (tickled pink) with my results as a result of Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto Program, yet I would hesitate to recommend the program to a friend due to the massive number of emails I get. Add the difficulties in importing (from the U.S.) supplements and paying duties and tariffs to UPS (these are all consumer touch-points) and it tickles me less pink – in fact, it starts to make me red. Think about that for a moment. It has made a huge difference in my life – not just the weight loss but the getting healthy, yet I am not telling everyone I know about it because of some of their marketing tactics. Putting my ad agency owner’s hat on for a moment, if Dr. Berg were a client of mine, I would find a polite, respectful way to tell him to stop that.Digital Marketers should stop spending hard-earned money (promotional dollars) shoving products down my throat and stalking me around the world wide web. Tickle me pink and I will buy more without you having to pound me every day with email after email. Look at what I have bought and what quantity I bought and predict when I will start to run low. Then send me an offer to re-order and you can even add another related upsell. Realize, based on my purchases and actions on the website, where I am at today and make helpful decisions to help me break through to the next level.Most importantly, limit the emails I get, or at least give me a preference centre where I can tell you what I want. Make each one count rather than training me to ignore most of them and eventually unsubscribe.Digital Marketers must start looking through a different filter – “Will this tickle Derek pink?” rather than “How do I get Derek to click on this?” We must stop using a mass marketing mindset to execute personalized marketing. The main KPI in a mass marketing mindset is “# of eyeballs reached”. Each can have a significant impact when used effectively, just as they can do a lot of brand damage when misused. I am suggesting Digital Marketers reconsider changing their primary KPI to “Will this tickle our customers Pink?”Zappos is a brand that got this right from the beginning. Everything they did was designed to tickle their customer pink. Apple as well. Have you noticed every Apple product is designed to tickle you pink – actually using the product or service is a valuable consumer touch-point. I just bought an iPad and the experience of unwrapping the packaging to starting it up for the first time tickled me pink. Almost every time I use it I am tickled pink. Apple manages the entire experience with tremendous thought, care and investment. That’s marketing.

The right tool at the right time

Email is a terrible cold-calling tool, yet it is a great customer retention/growth tool when used effectively. Many organizations insist on cold calling using a barrage of emails. Spray and pray is alive and well in the digital era. We insist on finding new ways to annoy and stalk customers and prospects instead of leaving them tickled pink after every interaction.

My ad agency represented Canon consumer products in Canada. If Canon gets a single complaint about an ad it changes it. At the time we thought it was extreme, but we’ve since learned, that’s what it takes to tickle your customers pink.

One of our Associates here at Newport Thomson made a purchase at The Gap and was asked to provide her email “to send a receipt”. Knowing better, she decided to see what they would actually do with her email address, so she hesitantly gave it to them.

The next 2 weeks she received 7 emails a day from The Gap and other related retail brands, until she finally unsubscribed.

And, while she had only subscribed to The Gap, she had to unsubscribe from each of their sister companies individually. An organization with a clear overall marketing strategy would not do that. This is what privacy professionals call dark patterns. That experience would not tickle anyone pink. She has vowed to never buy anything from that group of retailers again. So the Gap spent money to chase a proven customer away. As a practical marketer that makes no sense to me.

Website Development

Now let’s look at the website.

Does dealing with a Cookie Consent banner every time I come to your site tickle me pink? Do those pop-ups, that are apparently very important to you but very annoying to me, tickle me pink? Does trying to sort through a massive amount of content to discover what I was originally looking for tickle me pink? Does the experience of always feeling like I am being stalked and sold at every turn make me a raving fan?

Most marketers look at the click-through rate and conversions to gauge the success of those pop-ups. I suggest marketers should consider changing the KPIs. Perhaps asking; “Would the experience of rudely interrupting my customer’s personal journey (they came to the site looking for something specific), tickle my customer pink or just annoy them?”. When you can use pop-ups to help them on that journey, the answer may be “yes” and creating a pop-up may be appropriate. But for the most part, if we are really telling the truth, those pop-ups are “all about us and our priorities” and do not further our visitor’s journey. The visitor is left feeling annoyed or at the very least, unheard, rolled over or ignored.

And what about the structure of the website? From what I can see, most websites do not lead their visitor through a well-thought-out and structured story – a purposeful experience designed to enlighten and leave them tickled pink. i.e. finding what they were looking for. Most simply puke everything about the brand, placing it on the site and letting the visitor wade through and find what they need. Even if the visitor is desperate to research and buy your product or service, they will likely move on and continue to conduct their online search. This may help them find a competitor who presents a simple, clear message in a respectful manner. Again, this does not mean all that content should not be on the website, but many pages can be available via internal links rather than being in the navigation menus.

SEO is a critical issue that many brands have simply turned into online lead generation. In fact, it could be a key factor in tickling them pink. When shifting the KPIs from “How many clicks or leads did it generate” to “Did we provide the right information at the right time resulting in providing exactly what they were looking for and tickling them pink?” we could dramatically transform our business results.

Re-Marketing

And then there is re-marketing. My wife hates going into a high-end ladies fashion boutique where the sales clerks are paid by commission. And she can tell immediately. There is no attempt to tickle her pink. She is greeted at the door by whichever clerk is not busy “serving” another customer. The conversation is something like this: “May I help you?”, to which my wife replies “No thank you, I am just looking”. This is a very clear opportunity for the clerk to say “Let me know if I can help in any way” and give my wife some room to browse. After all, she made it clear what would tickle her pink, if the sales clerk was listening.

Two minutes later she finds a grey suit she seems to be interested in and sure enough, out from behind another rack of clothes jumps the sales clerk saying “We have that in your size. What size are you? We also have it in navy blue.” My wife hung the grey suit back on the rack and said “No thanks” and headed straight for the door. In her eagerness to close the sale, the sales clerk lost a customer for that purchase and perhaps many more. She did not listen and wait for the signals or cues.

From what I can see many marketers are making that same mistake with their digital marketing activities. Because they can (technology allows for it), they do. And our job as marketers is to build a relationship with prospects and customers – to tickle ‘em pink.

Left alone as she had asked, my wife is very capable of looking for her size or colour. And if she cannot find what she needs she could flag the clerk down and ask for assistance. In this case, she was left feeling stalked rather than tickled pink.

Many Digital Marketers forgot (or never knew) that people like to buy rather than be sold something. Great salespeople understand this and wait for signals and cues (they actually listen to the person) before they attempt to close a sale. My observation of a lot of Digital Marketing is it is always desperately trying to “close the sale”. Like the sales clerk in the ladies fashion boutique, more often than not they invested significant key resources to drive a customer away. This is the opposite of marketing.

In October last year, I looked online for a new pair of sturdy winter boots. Part of my journey included looking at DSW’s website. Was that a mistake! I still get (6 months later) flashing pop-up ads when I view some news websites, offering me the same boot I looked at or other similar products. I can’t even read a news article I was trying to get to because these ads keep flashing and completely distracting me. My experience with Forbes Magazine is so bad I don’t click on headlines from Forbes anymore. All parties lose in this one. I leave the news website I went to and I am not likely to return. As a result of this experience, I am determined to buy my next pair of winter boots anywhere but DSW!

I ask: Were the dollars invested in this re-marketing campaign well invested? Or did DSW actually spend their hard-earned dollars to have me never buy from them again? I am pretty sure that was not their intent, yet here we are. I am certain these tactics or channels have a role in the marketing mix. Yes – all marketing is designed to sell more stuff. The way to sell more stuff is to leave your prospect tickled pink. People are smart and know how to find brands that tickle them pink. They are the only brands they tell their friends about. These become the brands they look to first when looking to buy something in that category.As a Digital Marketer do you do things you know many of your prospects may find annoying? Why?Do you allow your customer to buy or do you stalk them across the internet and beyond? Why?Is your customer “tickled pink” after every interaction with your brand? Why not?This shift will not likely happen all at once, but it starts somewhere. What single marketing tactic could you change today that would leave your customer and/or prospect feeling tickled pink?

Derek Lackey, CIPM is the Managing Director of Newport Thomson, a Privacy Agency helping marketers implement Privacy-First marketing practices that are compliant with Data Protection and Privacy laws around the world. He is also Chairman of the Response Marketing Association (formerly the Direct Marketing Association of Canada, helping great marketers be better marketers. You can follow him on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dereklackey/ or at X - @blazononline. You can email him at derekl@responsema.org.