A few evenings ago, I saw a pair of pre-teen boys come up to each of my colleagues with their hands open, palms facing up, asking for money. They spoke the words "give me money" and made eating gestures by putting their fingers to their lips. Every single person they went to, they repeated this routine, and every single person waved them away.
Upon reading this, your initial thoughts may carry you to a place of sadness, thinking about the harsh realities of the "have nots" in our world; or your thoughts may carry you to memories of annoyance when you've experienced the same situation; or you may have already started to blame the government and education for the sorry state of affairs of the have nots.
But my first thought when watching this unfold on this particular evening was:
"If I could teach these kids some marketing techniques, then they would definitely get more hand outs."
Think about it. The reason these kids are getting turned away by everyone is because they have no unique selling proposition, no benefits exchange, they don't know their target audience, the emotional appeal is not strong enough or unique enough, and the call-to-action is all wrong. A few basic marketing theories put into practice would put far more cash in their hands on a regular basis.
Here's how I would break it down:
Number One. Know your target audience. Since their target consumer is likely to be everyone with a coin, so that would be everyone except other people begging for money. It's too large of a group so we need to segment the audience into some basic groups.
- Segment 1 = Adult women who are likely to be mothers or grandmothers.
- Segment 2 = Adult men who are likely to be fathers and bread-winners.
- Segment 3 = Young Adults who seem responsible and likely have jobs.
- Segment 4 = Elderly that seem to be gentle-hearted [note: stay away from elderly that seem to be angry and bitter. They will never give cash and you'll get a 20 minute lecture instead.]
- Segment 5 = Others. This is basically teenagers and other children, and it's not worth trying to reach this difficult and emotionally unstable group.
Number Two. What's the benefit exchange? This basically means, how does each segment benefit by giving change to the needy. Well essentially, they don't get anything tangible since you've just taken money from them and they get nothing in return. Therefore, we have to determine what else would motivate each segment to part with their hard-earned cash.
For adult women, it's all about appealing to their mothering instincts and the emotional side. Tug at the heart strings. As my colleague stated "use emotional blackmail" so they can't live with themselves if they don't give you money. Adult males are not as easy to win over, so you have to go with the responsible route – especially if you're a male begging for money. Give a short tale of how you're trying to earn on your own since your parents can't support you. Or a pitch about how the money will help you take care of your mom or your grandparents. (Men may seem like hard-asses about kids feeding themselves, but they are softies when you talk about taking care of their own mothers.) And so on with the other segments.
Number Three. Unique Selling Proposition. The benefits exchange is already giving you the angle you need to have a unique selling proposition. You're moving away from "give me money", to providing a story that will motivate different segments of your audience to give you money. But you still need to work on standing out from all the other beggars out there. What's unique about you? Your benefits exchange gets you most of the way there, but now you have to think about delivery, the lead-in, the tone, and the rest of the presentation. Are you going to try to make them laugh? Will you be smooth and casual? Will you have a written sign? Empty cup or open-hand? How will you safely and appropriately overcome the instinct to turn you away?
And lastly, Number Four. A specific call-to-action. Technically, "give me money" is a call to action, but it's not a great one and I don't really know if you mean 1 peso, 10 pesos, 100 pesos, or all the money I have in the world. Let's get specific. A colleague gave an example of "I just need 10 pesos to get home". Boom! Perfect! It's specific. I know exactly how much you're asking for. I am comfortable searching my bag to see if I have 10 pesos, or at least come close to it. And I know why you need it and how you will use it. The more specific you make the "ask", the more real and tangible it becomes to the recipient, and then their thought process is more about "do I have 10 pesos on me?" instead of "should I give this kid anything at all?"
So there you have it. It's not complicated, and I know that it would improve their likelihood of getting more money on a regular basis. Look at the kids in New York City who turned over buckets and started to play the drums. They knew their audience, found a unique selling proposition, gave a benefit of sweet music, and a call to action to help pay for the music to keep playing. They were marketing geniuses and they didn't even know it.
I definitely understand if you've read through this whole blog and have suddenly thought less of me as a person for over-simplifying, and you may feel mocking, the realities of hunger, poverty, and homelessness around the world. I'm not posing this as a solution to end the world's problems. But when I see some kids taking their own initiative to try to solve their own problems, I can't help but think how much more successful they would be with a little help from the world of marketing. This could possibly be a future venture when I'm ready to not get paid to offer marketing advice, and I would call it "marketing for change". Get it??? Change...two types. Coins change. And change change. But this is all just my 2 cents. HEY! More change references!! :-)
