Takeaways

The first thing that I took away as being very important was the idea of narrowing down to one behavior you want to change, and focusing on that behavior throughout the marketing process.  To me, this is similar to the planning stage of the systems development lifecycle.  If the planning is done properly, and the plan isn’t strictly adhered to throughout the development cycle, the end result isn’t what was expected or anticipated.  Similarly, if the behavior you are trying to change isn’t specifically defined from the beginning, and nobody sticks to that behavior, you run the potential of losing the target.

The second thing that stuck with me is related to the first, and that is understanding how to deliver the appropriate message to instigate behavior change.  This is again similar to the systems development lifecycle.  If during the modeling stages you don’t consult the customer and determine their exact needs based on the planning done previously, the end result will not be what the customer had in mind, and you lose them.  While planning for one product may be useful for another product, understanding the customer needs is important during the modeling phase.  Using the example given in the article of mammograms for women age 40 to 65, the end result (planning) is the same, but the modeling is different.

The third takeaway for me was the idea of market segmentation.  It should be the first thing done.  Without segmentation there is no behavior to change, nor can there be an understanding of how to deliver.  More specifically, the women closer to 40 with children are part of a different segment than those aged 50 and over who no longer have children in the home and are nearing retirement.