“When you walk with someone, something unspoken happens. Either you match their pace or they match yours.”

— Sidney Poitier, American-Bahamian actor, film director

That’s a good quote from Sir Sidney. It got me thinking about this marketing-communications business I’m in. Maybe you do some marcom too, either on your own or with an agency?

The parallelism between walking and communicating, I think, comes in the unspoken part inherent in both activities — it’s an implied contract if you will. Poitier saw it in a stroll. I now see it in the negotiated meaning that is communication. 

Essentially, is there an alignment between the marketing communications being produced and the way they are subsequently consumed? 

When the sender aligns with the receiver, that’s when we get the “aha moments,” light bulbs go on, and minds are moved to either buy or, in the absence of alignment, reject the marketer’s latest communiqué. As a message sender, either we match the receiver’s pace and headspace or we don’t. In the marketing and advertising “dance,” the onus of making that match resides squarely on the shoulders of the sender. 

So, fellow communicators, here are a handful of key questions we should be asking ourselves before we even put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

1. What is the message we’re trying to convey?

Advertising 101 says it better be about a benefit and not a feature. An ad should show how the product or service will make life better, rather than list a bunch of attributes or facts. Facts are fine, make no mistake. But benefits are better.

2. What is the proper pace of the message? 

Do we really want to be spewing words as fast as we can? Yes, we are often limited to 30 or even fewer seconds, 280 characters, or other such throttles. But might the product, say a $40,000 car or other sizable investment, be better represented by a slower, more thoughtful, and deliberate delivery?

3. Is our audience receiving the message in the way we intended?

These days, I watch a lot of video with the sound turned off. I might be chatting with someone or listening to music. If I’m doing that, chances are others are too. Maybe a lower third of the screen should be used for subtitles. It has worked for foreign movies all these years. Why not in marketing, too?

4. Are we even on the same page with our audience?

Have we talked — recently — to enough of our customers to know what drives them? What keeps them up at night? Or what their buy-buttons are? Market research is a great way to find out. Profile past customers, survey prospective buyers, or convene a focus group of both. It costs less to find out the answers up front than it does not to know. Undoing and redoing an entire marketing campaign is never cost effective.

5. Does our product or service walk our talk?

If the performance does not match the promise, everyone will be disappointed. Think about how that last online shopping experience went. If we order large and receive medium, sure, it’s easy enough to go through the return process. But we’ll certainly think twice now before ordering from that company again. Especially when the competition is just a click away. Or what about that new-to-town, unscrupulous health-care provider whose marketing is better than its medicine. Or whose bedside manner is worse yet. We all have choices. Today’s patients don’t have patience.

My marketing-communications tip of the day: Take a long walk with a good agency and see if its pace matches up well with yours.      

Steve Johnson is managing partner of Riger Marketing Communications in Binghamton. Contact him at sdjohnson@riger.com

It makes business more interesting when there are a few contrarians around. For example, a Jeff Bezos, a Steve Jobs, or an Elon Musk, those who challenge commonly accepted assumptions. They stir our placid mental waters to get the creative juices flowing.

As it turns out, the start of a new decade is a good time for a little contrarian thought —for looking at things differently. In fact, it may be helpful since we’re entering a period that will present us with far-reaching changes and daunting challenges. In other words, a time when we can benefit from getting tougher with ourselves.

Here are four contrarian thoughts about taken-for-granted ideas that may be tried but, as it turns out, are not necessarily true.

1. Keep your head down and go with the flow

Never raise your hand. Don’t do anything to call attention to yourself. Keep a low profile. Go along to get along. Whatever else may be said about the need for new ideas, these remain the mantras for success. Those who dare to wander off the path do so at their own peril.

All of it may have worked when the goal was having managers lead organizations. Their mission was to make sure things ran like well-oiled machines. It’s no surprise that surveys indicate that a high percentage of employees (one puts it as high as 83 percent) are bored, want new challenges, and are actively looking for new jobs.

Today, the term manager is fading and being replaced by leader, someone who is charged with the responsibility of assuring an enterprise meets challenges by helping people succeed.

2. Everything’s going down the drain

In spite of an abundance of bad news and unspeakable horrors, nothing seems to stop us from hitching our wagons to a star, as the saying goes. Even though we’re faced with mountainous problems, nothing seems to curtail optimism, that tomorrow will be a better day. 

To be sure, there are good reasons why the idea of progress holds sway over us. Indicators over the last two centuries paint a bright picture of the future — improved health, longer lives, technological advancements, a better-educated citizenry, income growth, and dozens more.

All this is wonderful, except it’s not always the way it plays out in our individual lives: loved ones die, promises are broken, jobs are lost, and dreams don’t come true, even when we work hard. As someone has said, “Bad things happen to good people.” They do, so it’s easy to be bitter, angry, and just plain negative.

Not long ago, I spoke with a man receiving palliative care after surgery for stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which was discovered weeks after his long-anticipated retirement. To keep busy following surgery, he took a part-time job. After a few minutes on the phone, he told me he needed to get ready for work, and added, “I love it!” That’s when I came to understand the awesomeness of resilience and optimism.

3. Don’t sweat the small stuff

This is good advice since our lives seem to be plagued with endless amounts of irritating, time-consuming, and inexcusable stuff that drives us crazy. This is why it’s helpful to take a “water off a duck’s back” approach as a way to keep our sanity.

But (and here it comes), not about everything. In a client memo, an attorney used “onerous” (it means burdensome) instead of “onus” (it means responsibility or duty), small stuff? Just a mistake. Perhaps, but when you’re preparing a legal document that impacts someone’s life, it can be a big deal. 

This is why a “Don’t worry about it” attitude simply won’t cut it in a business environment, one that requires (and rewards) accuracy, clarity, and focus. Vocabulary may not save the world, but it may save your next sale, deal, or even your job.

4. I’m a good judge of people

Most of us take pride in being good at figuring out others. If asked, we would probably say, “I sure like to think I’m a good judge of character.” But, if you’re like me, it’s easy to forget about the times you were wrong about someone when it came to telling the truth. Then, we wonder why we missed it. But it still doesn’t stop us from thinking we’re a pretty good judge of people.

This is more than a personal issue, since it has implications in business for hiring, selecting people for promotions, and evaluating written communications and presentations, as well as working with consultants, vendors, and co-workers.

Yet, I struggled with why it’s so hard to know when someone is lying. I found the answer when reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Talking to Strangers.” He discussed the “Theory of Truth Default,” a concept developed by communications researcher Timothy R. Levine, Ph.D. We’ve all criticized others for failing to spot a liar, even though there were plenty of reasons or “red flags” to alert us to a problem. But, as Gladwell says, we should be asking something else — “The right question is: were there enough red flags to push you over the threshold of belief? If there weren’t, then by defaulting to truth, you were only being human.”

Here is an example. A board of realtors hired a marketing consultant to help with announcing the hiring of a new president, who was set to arrive shortly from another state. That was even though at the last minute, several executive board members expressed concerns about the individual’s qualifications at a meeting.

Sensing the situation, the consultant asked if he could be of help. The board agreed. Within 36 hours, he turned up sufficient negative information to push the executive committee over the edge of belief. The employment offer was withdrawn, avoiding a potentially disruptive situation.

Dr. Levine holds that defaulting to truth is human, which can be the easy way out. So, when we have doubts, it’s not time to remain silent but to dig deeper.

While some contrarian thinking can be damaging, it can also be helpful in clarifying thinking and making better decisions.      

John Graham of GrahamComm is a marketing and sales strategy consultant and business writer. He is the creator of “Magnet Marketing,” and publishes a free monthly eBulletin, “No Nonsense Marketing & Sales Ideas.” Contact him at jgraham@grahamcomm.com or johnrgraham.com