Quitting smoking is strongly influenced by friends and spouses. A spouse who quits smoking makes one 67% less likely to smoke. A friend’s quitting decreases one’s chances of smoking by 36% … Over the past 35 years smokers didn’t make the decision to quit individually, the study found. Instead, large groups of friends all quit together, like the ‘schooling of fish or the flocking of birds.’ – Keith J. Winstein, The Wall Street Journal May 22, 2008

 • • •

As marketers, we are in the business of influence, and the way influence works in our society is changing. Immunity to our traditional marketing grows. We all see the signs but that does not mean that we have fully addressed the strategic shift. Perhaps it is a good time to ask the question: How is the basic structure of influence changing in our society?

For starters institutions are losing their ability to attract and influence. Mike Malone (The Next American Frontier, The Wall Street Journal May 19, 2008) reports: Half of all new college graduates now believe that self-employment is more secure than a full-time job… 18 to 24-year-olds are starting companies at a faster rate than 35 to 44-year-olds … 70% of today’s high schoolers intend to start their own companies … An upcoming wave of new workers in our society will never work for an established company if they can help it. To them, having a traditional job is one of the biggest career failures they can imagine.

It is not just that they don’t believe our corporate messages including our ads, they are repelled by the whole idea of the corporation – large, distant, unresponsive and self-focused. It is not just corporations, it is also political parties, government entities and religious institutions.Over 80 percent of us believe the country is on the wrong track. An unpopular Republican President and an unpopular Democrat-controlled Congress are in a race to the bottom with the lowest approval ratings in recent history. Since 1987 the proportion of voters who do not identify themselves with either political party is up 50 percent and the number of people who never attend church is at an all time high. No matter how powerful the marketing message most are turned off by its source – the large institution.

As institutional messages are losing ground, the influence exerted by friends, colleagues and family members – members of our local community – are gaining influence. As Peter Block says (Community – The Structure of Belonging): “Small groups are the unit of transformation.” Remember the recent study that showed people’s weight is heavily influenced by the weight of their friends? Their weight loss or gain is likely to influence yours. Based on the emerging research from the field of social networks – there is a new ‘influence’ sheriff in town: our circle of friends, family and colleagues.

This shift in influence is a core marketing issue. Marketing has attempted to address this reality with viral marketing, customer-created advertising, poking fun at institutions all the while trying to sell from an institutional platform that is increasingly damaged.

Our model for influence is broken because the market place has come to dis-believe and dis-trust us. What we say about ourselves has never mattered less and what others say about us has never mattered more. Putting more lipstick on the pig won’t do it.

If you disagree – market on. If, however, you agree, then it means altering your marketing model and practices. How?

First, if you want to be more influential, become a part of your customers’ smaller community of influence. Think and act more in terms of groups, not just individuals. This means either being so connected to them personally that they usher you into their sphere of influence or else being connected to something that is personal to them: home, school, children, church, civic group or something that ties you to them and ties them to those they influence. The center of influence has shifted to the small, local group. Winning will mean being more valued in your groups than your competition is in theirs.

Second, to win the favor of social networks, focus your sales and marketing model and practices first on building relationships – not products, selling and servicing. We often use the words relationships building, sales and service somewhat interchangeably but in reality they are very different. In fact, true relationship building will preclude any attempt to initiate the harvest of short-term gain that elicits distrust and resistance – it hampers the relationship building. It is hard to imagine how we could have designed systems more corrosive to relationships building if we had tried. Emphasis on pushy cross-sale transactions, non-human channels, centralized customer service delivered impersonally from afar, emphasis on efficiency – these moves have their purposes, but have not and will not influence the recommendations of group members.

The model for winning local customers may more nearly resemble Weight Watchers or Alcoholic Anonymous – winning members of small groups who influence each other. Those with the most group advocates, wins. School up and flock on.

(Column appeared originally in ABA Bank Marketing magazine – July-August 2008)

By ROBERT E. HALL

Not to be reproduced without written permission. All rights reserved. © Copyright Robert E. Hall 2008