The best marketers are hiding in plain sight
Travelling on the London Underground, you'll be exposed to around 100 adverts but on a recent journey I experienced something different, something much more memorable.
As I was sat on the District Line, a beggar walked up the carriage asking for change - his clothes were dirty, his hair long and greasy and his voice quiet, but firm. So far, nothing new or unusual. There was one thing that was unexpected, however, the man had no shoes on. Completely barefoot. On the Underground. The first time in my life I had ever seen that.
You can imagine the state of the man's feet, blackened with dirt and calloused. His bare feet communicated a story more powerful than any words he could have said and it got me thinking, could this man, in his own way, have mastered a kind of intuitive marketing?
Now don't get me wrong, this isn't a blog about the rights or wrongs of begging - I can't imagine the hard life circumstances that lead someone to that point, and I am in no position to judge whatsoever. I really believe they should be offered help, support and care and I'm not interested in how those people will spend the money they raise.
This blog post is just about how - seemingly intuitively - beggars are probably some of the best marketers around. Take the man with no shoes on the tube. Had he tested various approaches, and realised that discarding his shoes actually led to an increase in his donations?
Who knows, but think about it: you have a limited time on the carriage with those people and you need to maximise your return - why wouldn't you experiment and want to maximise your effectiveness? After all the stakes could not be higher, the less time it takes you to raise money, the more time you can enjoy in a warm hostel.
Then you have the words the homeless person uses, or the 'copy' in marketing speak. What works best to persuade people to donate? The same with the sign people hold up, what text is most effective? For example, are references to being an army veteran the best converters?
I'm not suggesting that beggars do this cynically - the words they use and their shoeless state can be absolutely genuine, but in their day-to-day life it may be they A/B test different approaches to land on the most effective.
But maybe the most important point that this beggar on the tube had figured out was: marketing is about connection, urgency, and making an impact in the fleeting moments we have someone’s attention.
[To support an end to homelessness please visit: https://www.crisis.org.uk/]