Can you tell me how to get… How to get to Sesame Street?
Posted on | May 5, 2009 | 1 Comment
My 14 month old daughter has me watching a lot of Sesame Street lately. I found myself enjoying the clips of Grover waiting on the angry business guy. It is really some smart stuff. Entertaining too! Sesame Street also provides a great lens to think about business, marketing and customer engagement.
I know Sesame Street has been written about by many people in the past but I wanted to touch on some thoughts that I synthesized recently and hopefully provide a quick, easy way to think about how you do business. I tried it out at i.c.stars a non-profit organization I work with and it was received well. (A great organization by the way. Check them out at www.icstars.org).
Do you operate like Sesame Street? If you don’t you better start watching PBS and the Sprout Channel! Here are some things to think about…
1. Why does your young child watch Sesame Street? Is it because they are born with the gene? Do they just know it is on at 7am? I don’t think so. They watch it because someone else turns them on to it. A parent, sibling, grandparent, child care worker, etc… (Word of Mouth POWERHOUSE!)
2. Why do you AUTOMATICALLY turn a child on to Sesame Street? Because you are supposed to? Because it is in the parent manual? Because your Mom or Dad did it for you? Because you need a babysitter in the form of the TV? I say it is all of the above. This is because it is perceived as the thing to do, it has no known negative effect (even though there is a lot of debate about how much TV a child should watch) and they will interact with the “customer” on their terms. i.e. TV, Internet, Toys, Clothing, Live Entertainment, Sesame Street Amusement Park, etc… And finally, they have an AWESOME product!
3. Awesome Product = Deliver Value… Sesame Street is consistent. They deliver value whether real or perceived. As a member of the first Sesame Street Generation I find it amazing that the show follows the same model for the most part that it did when I was young. This is not an accident. I have a Cookie Monster T-shirt that my daughter loves. This is an Adult XL size. Not intended for children at all. Intended for me… The parent to continue the Word of Mouth model and influence model on future customers. My child, grandchildren, her friends, etc… They have also extended this consistency to their other engagement points. Partnership with Fisher Price and other high end toy manufacturers, an excellent web 2.0 type Internet site… blah, blah, blah…
4. Understand your customer, their buying process and how you engage them… As a first generation Sesame Street’er I loved the show as a child. I then went away for about 30 years and jumped back in with my young daughter. I found it amazing as I mentioned that the show was essentially the same. They also continue to integrate “old school” clips from when I was a kid. If you go to the website these clips are labeled as “classic”. This is an outstanding way to keep your passive customer engaged and keep the pump primed for when I am ready to return. I may buy a gift for a friend or a niece or nephew and research it on the web or in a store. When I have my own child however they integrate me right in to the fold without missing a beat, showing me the old clips that make me feel comfortable and bring back childhood memories. OF COURSE I WANT MY CHILD TO SHARE THE SAME MEMORIES WITH ME! Sesame Street knows its customer, its buyer and its influencer very well. They also know how to engage and nurture them through relevant interaction.
5. Building Blocks… Now that I have my own daughter and have integrated her into the Sesame Street World what do you think will happen when she has a child and I am a Grandparent? The influence will be double! This is almost scary and cult like in its development. Think about the power of a brand that continues to layer support on top of support through every generation. This is a concept that you could think about for any consumer product like “My Dad always bought a Chevy”, or “We always vote Republican”… The difference is Sesame Street continues to deliver a consistent product, continues to innovate new engagement points and creates new business models to continually add value while making it relevant to its entire influencer group and new customer group. A very difficult task to cross generations and stay relevant.
In all I hope this generates some thought about how you take your product or service to market and how you engage and understand your customers and clients.
Sunny Days….
Your Friend,
Elmo
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About Coley
Coley Perry is a 15 year veteran of the sales and marketing grind. Most of his experience is in and around the intersection of sales, marketing, change management, technology and business process helping clients solve business problems through innovative solutions and consulting. He has built sales teams, go-to-market strategies, demand generation engines and sustainable revenue streams. Currently his passion is focused on the convergence of sales, marketing and technology. He wrote a lot of checks to Columbia College and Northwestern University but learned the most from The “Second City” Training Center in Chicago where he studied the Art of Improv.
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May 11th, 2009 @ 2:25 pm
This is such a great way to think about business at large. This is also a great checklist, when trying to decipher a sound business idea. Thanks, I also really enjoyed the piece about understanding your customer; such a tuff task but a great way to think about it.