Consumer Behaviour

There’s no escaping the fact that Tiger Woods’ personal life has become very public in the last couple of  days.

But what, you may well ask, could his “transgressions” possibly have to do with consumer behaviour or market research?

The answer is in Tiger’s statement after his private life became monumentally public.  Here’s what he said on his website:

“I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves.”

Now none of us can say whether this is what Tiger Woods really feels, or whether this is just the best thing he can think to say in the position he has found himself.  But for the purposes of this post, let’s take Tiger at his word.

He has not been true to his values.

Market research is frequently preoccupied with asking people what they think.  What are their attitudes (something very closely linked to their values)?

And here is classic example of something we all are manifestly capable of: our behaviour not matching our values.  Our attitudes and values are what we like to tell ourselves about how we are; our behaviour is how we actually are.

When it comes to understanding consumers what would you rather know?  What people like to tell themselves or what they really do?  I promise you there is, more often than not, a world of difference between the two.

I believe it’s a very important distinction.  I suspect Tiger Woods’ wife might be struggling to reconcile the two because most people like to think that there is a strong connection between values, attitudes and behaviour.

I’m not criticising Tiger Woods’ actions because I have no idea what he did or what circumstances surrounded it (and, frankly, it’s none of my business), but if Mrs Woods wants to know what Tiger’s values are she will find out from his behaviour not his words.

Philip Graves

Philip Graves consumer behaviour, consumer research consumer behaviour, market research, Tiger Woods, Transgressions

I was working at a client’s store, watching customers for a few hours as I do, but I wished I had been watching my car instead.

It was parked just outside the store, but whilst I was figuring out what was going on in the minds of people looking at products on the shelves, some thieving so-and-so was helping themself to the wing mirror from my car.

My first reaction on seeing part of my car missing was to imagine what would have happened had I seen the thief at work on my car: for a moment I saw myself running across, tapping him on the shoulder and then beating his skull on the side of my vehicle.

However, this fantasy was soon interrupted by a dose of healthy pragmatism: I’m not that brave, I haven’t assaulted anyone since I was in a playground fight at the age of ten and given the way of the world it’s perfectly possible that the person who thought nothing of stealing part of my car would have thought equally little of hurting me.  On reflection it was for the best that I didn’t see the act in progress.

But the loss of my wing mirror did give me a fascinating insight into human behaviour.  I occupy a strange world where, because I spend so much time analysing the consumer psychology I’m observing, I can sometimes analyse my own unconscious behaviour by observing my own actions and reactions.

So what did I learn and how might it be useful in terms of consumer behaviour?

1. Old (unconsciously programmed) habits die hard.

I had to drive an hour home with no wing mirror.  I knew that I didn’t have one – it was a source of considerable annoyance.  Had anyone asked me if I knew my wing mirror was missing I would probably have directed some of my anger at the thief at them.  But… did that stop me looking at the space where it used to be every time I changed lanes? Of course not.

Similarly, where consumer behaviour is established through repeated actions it will take a huge intervention to change it.

2. Fear is a Great Motivator

With my mirror gone I needed a new strategy for changing lanes.  I realised that I usually used a combination of the rear view mirror and wing mirror when looking for a gap in the traffic.  With the wing mirror gone it was feasible to only use the rear view mirror: by looking for a space behind I could see the gap and extrapolate accurately where it would be when I changed lanes.  However, I needed the reassurance of seeing there was nothing in the space I was moving into: so every time I was about to change I had to look over my shoulder before I could make the progress I wanted to on my journey. 

In the same way, consumers need to get past any fears their unconscious mind throws up before they can get to the pleasurable part of buying.

3. Familiar Wins Over Better

Whilst this blind-spot-free method of looking over my shoulder should have been more reassuring I was cursing the fact that I had to do it each time; partly because I was cursing the fact that some git had pinched my mirror.  But what really irked me was that the good (i.e. safe, dependable and efficient) means of checking that I’d been using for over twenty years was no longer available.   [I should point out that my car's mirror did have a blind-spot eliminator - although these still leave a small blind-spot.]

Often companies will get frustrated that a customer won’t buy their product when they ‘know’ it is better than the competitors’: it’s important to factor in how familiar an alternative product is too.

So there you have it; I managed to find some useful reminders from an annoying situation.  I also managed to find a new replacement mirror and fit it myself for £22.00 (rather than the £150 that BMW wanted to do the job).

So if I do find someone helping themselves to part of my car again it may simplest for all concerned if I give them the money… then whilst they’re surprised I can smash their head against the side of my car

Philip Graves

Philip Graves consumer behaviour BMW, consumer behaviour

Getting a book published shouldn’t be like going to the doctors, but it is.

You know how it is; something doesn’t seem right so you go to the doctor and part of you thinks, “I’ll ask him (or her) what’s wrong and then I’ll know.”

But of course that isn’t what happens.

The doctor isn’t sure. So you get sent for tests.

“When I get the test results I’ll know…”

Except the test results are inconclusive, or else they point to something that there isn’t really anything they can give you.

And so it goes on.

There I was thinking there would be a “we love your book” moment from a publisher and a big party, but it hasn’t worked out that way.

Instead I got a very nice email saying that a publisher would like to discuss my book with me.

Don’t get me wrong, this is GREAT NEWS, but it’s not a ‘moment’ of revelation.

So having met them and discussed the book they’ve asked me to consider putting a slightly different slant on it.  It would mean more writing, but I happen to think this publisher is right, the changes would make for a better book.

I need to work on a revised submission.

That moment isn’t here yet, but it could just be a little bit closer!

Philip Graves

Philip Graves Getting a Book Published

Last night I watched Channel 4′s documentary in which American school teacher Jane Elliot conducted a demonstration of how racism feels by dividing a group of volunteers along lines of eye colour and discriminating against the blue-eyed group.

From the outset the blue-eyed group were treated badly by Ms Elliot, being put down and ridiculed by the fierce moderator herself, segregated into an uncomfortable room for two hours, before being put with the brown-eyed group who she had attempted to prime to treat the blue-eyed group as inferior.

Her original aim had been to demonstrate to her own class of all white children how it felt to be discrminated against for something as arbitrary as eye-colour is unfair and illogical.  She described that in her original exercise… “I watched how what had been marvelous, wonderful, thoughtful, co-operative children turn into nasty, viscous, discriminating little third-graders.” 

Leaving aside how unethical her experiment with the school children placed in her care may have been psychologically, the programme provided a fascinating insight into human behaviour, though to my eyes not the one Jane Elliot intended.

The difficulty is that confirmation bias is part of the human condition.  One of the brown-eyed group who contained a number of non-white people who were very sensitive to the focal issue of the exercise, explained to the blue-eyed group that they could have no idea what it would feel like to be standing at a shop counter, next in line, and be ignored in deference to someone else who was behind you in the queue because of the colour of your skin.

[It's probably fair to say that the exercise was compromised by the fact that the blue-eyed group was all white and the brown-eyed group predominantly non-white.]

Of course, most people have been over-looked in a queue whatever the colour of their skin; the issue is to what one attributes the event and what significance one attaches to it.  I’m not saying it doesn’t happen as a result of racism, or in any way excusing something so abhorrent, but the issue is as much one of racial sensitivity in the part of the ‘victim’ as it is racism on the part of the ‘perpetrator’.

For me the programme was much more interesting as an exercise in group behaviour; all of the problems that make market research focus group were in evidence: polarised opinions, people moderating their position before becoming more extreme when they felt support existed for their stance, and so on.

The most positive aspect of the exercise were the people who refused to be drawn into it.  One of the blue-eyed group stood up to the bullying Ms Elliot and was made to leave so as to enable the exercise to continue.  His willingness to stand up to authority in an environment in which someone else was clearly controlling and authoritative is what gives me hope for society.

Most impressive of all was Wanda Summers, a brown-eyed shop manager who despite staying with the process for the duration of the exercise found it so unpleasant, upsetting and unjust that, after battling with her conscience for several hours elegantly undermined the exercise by revealing to the whole group that the brown-eyed people had been given the answers to a test in advance.

Here was someone who couldn’t and wouldn’t sit silently by when injustice was taking place.

She was, in the edit of the programme shown, the only one of the brown-eyed group to do this, but even so it was enormously heartening to see.

Society hasn’t come anywhere near to resolving the problems of racial divide and, given that we humans have a long and lousy history of fear and abuse towards other races, nations and creeds, it’s inevitably going to take some time. 

But I can’t help believing that what the world needs is more Wanda Summers, not more Jane Elliots.  Is there an exercise someone can design to create more people like her, I wonder?

Philip Graves

Philip Graves Uncategorized Channel 4, group behaviour, How Racist Are You, human behaviour, Jane Elliot, racism, Wanda Summers

OK, I’ve used a little hyperbole in the title of this blog, I’ll admit.  There is no perfect submission letter because each submission you send is going in front of a different pair of eyes.

But I think there are some very important points to consider and at the end I’ll tell you my own idea of what might help tip the balance when you send your dream off to a publisher.

Firstly, and most importantly, check whether the publisher you are writing to has a preference for what a submission contains.  Many of them do.  Of course, you don’t have to follow it slavishly, but you need to work within their parameters and find a way to stand out without appearing to have ignored their wishes.  When you get published you’ll be working with your publisher and demonstrating you can’t pay attention to their needs isn’t a recipe for success.

Next make sure the working title is clearly stated.  I suggest describing it as a ‘working title’; if someone has a better one you should be open to it even if it does feel like the equivalent of renaming your child.

Then say how long the book will be (A4 double spaced pages and word count) and whether or not it is finished yet.

Your synopsis should be short; think in terms of the back cover of a book.  If you can’t wrap it up succinctly perhaps it isn’t clear enough.  You need to get the idea over in a paragraph or two – no more.

It might also be helpful to say why the world needs your book – what will it do.

Make it clear who the book is targeting and be clear in your own mind how attractive a market this is likely to be to your publisher.  Look at the titles they currently publish and who they are targeted at.  Hopefully the fit is good, otherwise expect a rejection letter: publishers like to play to their strengths (a sensible approach if you think about it).

Don’t be afraid to point out your books competitors.  In the world of publishing competing titles are often a good thing rather than a bad one.  They show that there is a market for the subject matter and publishers, like the rest of us, are fundamentally risk averse.  Of course it will be helpful to point out why your book is adding something new or different.  But be warned, even if your breaking new ground, saying that there are no other books out there isn’t as an appealing proposition for a publisher as you might think.

Outline your credentials for writing the book.  This is no time for false modesty.  If you’ve written the book you will, by definition, know a fair amount more than the average person about your subject.

Finally, and arguably most importantly, explain what you can and will do to market your book.  Imagine you’re a publisher reading a submission.  You want to be interested in it yourself, you want to feel you know the market (it’s an area you have experience of publishing before) and someone says “I will market the heck out of this”.  There is a very good chance they can feel confident about selling most of the first print run. 

That probably doesn’t mean they break even, but it’s a good step in the right direction.

The internet provides countless opportunities for marketing your book:
- through your blog and /or website
- through twitter
- through other peoples ezines
- through article marketing
- by emailing everyone you’ve ever met (who are currently clogging up your Microsoft Office contacts)
- LinkedIn contacts and groups

But what about going a step beyond these?  After all these are mostly time-based rather than cost-based.

My top tip is to put your money where your mouth is.  Decide how much you are prepared to invest in marketing your own book and include some examples:
- placing a full page ad in a relevant trade journal or two
- sending the book to key individuals at your own expense
- even undertaking your own PR work (via a specialist book PR company)

Clearly you need to be careful that you don’t commit to something without having a clear idea of the costs involved: do that research first!

Then get a good quality envelope, print your book’s first 30 pages (or whatever is required) on good quality paper, and put a couple of drops of lemon oil in the envelope just before you close it (heck, you didn’t expect me not to leverage appealing subliminal associations did you?).

I’ll let you know how I get on…

Philip Graves

Philip Graves Getting a Book Published book, Marketing

Make no mistake, getting a book published is tough.  Some of that is for the right reasons; after all there are a zillion people who would like the idea of having a book published and there isn’t a market for that many books – it’s no bad thing that the publishers and literary agents of this world act as something of a buffer between all the prospective junk and the ones that make it into print.  And, of course, lots of those won’t sell particularly well.

But some of the reasons getting your book published is tough aren’t good ones.

One publisher that I sent my book to took twelve weeks to reply (and only then after I had called to enquire about its progress, which is something they say you shouldn’t do).

In fact, I would agree that you shouldn’t do it.  I happen to know that the rejection I received was simply a way of getting me off the phone.  Because two weeks later I received a letter that also rejected my book, but for an entirely different reason.

This was the same publisher who, when I was speaking to someone to ask how long they were taking to review submissions said, “We’ve got a lot backing up at the moment, but we have someone coming in next week to go through them all.”

Now, they probably meant they were employing an experienced freelance submission reviewer (or whatever they are called) but it had the air of, “We’ve got this kid coming in from the temp agency for a couple of days just to get the rejection letters sent out.”

I remember reading an interview with a publisher who was asked why they never gave writers much by way of feedback when they were rejecting their work.  The answer was extremely honest: he explained that if you give feedback you risk the writer thinking that they can get into a dialogue with you or, worse still, making the changes they think you want and expecting you to read it again and say ‘yes’. 

The implication is that, if a publisher thinks a book has sufficient merit, they will commission it and work on it with the writer.

One of the many advantages of having Francis on my side is that when he has spoken to someone about my book they are responding to their relationship with him, not to some complete stranger.

He spoke to someone he used to work with who is now the sales director of a medium-sized publisher and she said she would pass my book on to the managing editor; that’s particularly handy when you’re dealing with a publisher who doesn’t invite unsolicited submissions.

It was, regrettably, another rejection.

But not only did I receive an explanation of why - my book just wasn’t a strong fit with the titles they publish – I also received a suggestion of a publisher who she thought would be interested in my book.

That means I have a pretty good idea that the publisher fit is strong, so what this publisher thinks really matters.  If they reject it I will need to reconsider things because they should be interested in the subject matter.

I’m going to review my submission carefully, tune it up so that it gives my book the best possible chance and write the most important letter so far.

It just goes to show… having a Francis is immeasurably helpful for all sorts of direct (advice) and indirect (relationships with the industry) reasons.  It also shows how difficult it can be to pinpoint the publishers who will be most interested in your work. 

Next time I’ll tell you more about what I’m putting in this submission.

Philip Graves

Philip Graves Getting a Book Published book, published, publishers

Forgive the provocative title, I’m sure your book is wonderful, but I’m guessing that the self-doubt the writing process is riddled with isn’t something only I have experienced!

In fact, Francis, my ‘fairy book father’ (I really must find a better way of describing him) reassures me that self-doubt is pretty much inevitable.

The process of writing is, for the most part, a solitary pursuit.  Every now and then some clever soul conspires a way of writing that involves other people; co-writing, basing a book on interviews or… well there must be a third way that escapes me now (and writing being what it is, there’s no one here to ask).  Even these people will be faced with a fair amount of editing or compiling that is shared only with the computer keyboard.

And it’s hard to sustain that initial resolve that you have something to say 100% of the time.  Sometimes, when you get stuck, you find yourself questioning whether that’s because you’re just a bit stuck or because you’ve completely lost your way. 

The good news is that, provided you keep on keeping on, you’ll get to the end eventually (and if you’re like me you’ll find the habit of writing kicks in and then you accelerate towards the end rather than stutter and stall).

But then the nature of the submission process rears its head and if you were anything less than certain about your work before there’s every chance the spectre of doubt will reappear.

Of course it’s perfectly possible that your book will be rejected because it’s a bit less than good, or possibly entirely awful.  On the other hand there are a myriad of other possibilities.

Think about it from the other end.  In order to be taken on by a publisher or literary agent the following events must conspire in your favour:

• The postal service do what they should and deliver your submission (some kind of tracking is advisable to mitigate against this).
• Someone actually reads your submission (I’m not suggesting anything else would ever happen, well, OK, I know this does happen).
• It fits with the type of book they are interested in publishing.
• The person reading it likes it.
• The person reading it believes there is a market for it.
• That person doesn’t have another book or books that they are fully occupied with so, much as yours looks interesting, they’re already committed elsewhere.
• That person hasn’t just read another book that they find fractionally more interesting than yours (most things are relative after all) and to which they’ve just committed themselves.
• That person isn’t having a bad day that means, despite meeting all of the above criteria, they’re too grumpy to say yes.

So when the first rejection drops on your mat there’s no reason to be disheartened after all.  That’s what I’m telling myself and Francis agrees.  He’s swiftly directed me towards another publishing contact and the journey continues…

Philip Graves

Philip Graves Getting a Book Published book, publishing, writing a book

With my adviser Francis to guide me I’m feeling a lot more comfortable about navigating my way through the world of publishing – not that that’s any guarantee of success – and I will try and share as much as I can from my “industry angel” as I like to think of him.

I sent my proposed submission to Francis to give him a better idea of the sort of book I’m writing, to get some suggestions about what I might do to make it more attractive and to seek his view on whether or not I should try to get a literary agent.

Firstly, he was very complementary about my opening chapter; thus far the few people I’ve shared it with have been very positive about it.  Of course, I know enough about the dangers of the research process so I’m not reading too much into this; nevertheless a little encouragement doesn’t hurt!

Francis advised me to open the summary I was planning to send with maximum impact; the aim is to grab the recipient’s attention and, in the case of a non-fiction book like mine, show them that there is something new being said.

He recommended including a brief outline of my background and professional profile (the point being to show that, since I work with several well-known corporations, I have some gravity in the field I’m writing about).  He also suggested including a reference to any recent books that compete with mine and explaining how my own sits in relation to them.

His advice was to try and secure a literary agent initially.  I get the impression that, in many ways, getting a literary agent interested in your work is a similar challenge to getting a publisher interested.  Here are people who receive thousands of submissions and have simply their own commercial judgment and personal areas of interest to guide them in their selections of who they will represent.

The upside with a literary agent is that they have established relationships with publishers.  “Philip who…?” ringing a publisher is going to result in a very short conversation ending with them asking me to send in whatever they ask everyone else to send them.  A literary agent calling someone he or she has worked with before is likely to result in a much more constructive conversation.

The process is helped (enormously) by the fact that Francis is happy for me to mention him when I contact the agent he has suggested might be a good starting point.  It is, of course, no guarantee of success, but I know enough about the power of testimonials and primed thinking to be grateful of the chance to include a familiar name and recommendation in my opening paragraph.

One note I would add (at the risk of stating the obvious): even if you are fortunate enough to have a contact like Francis, take the time to read the literary agent (or publisher’s) website to see if they have any specific guidelines for submissions.  If they’ve taken the time to say that they want things a particular way why risk irritating them?

So my submission has been dispatched (by recorded mail because I would hate to be sitting here assuming it’s arrived safely) and all I can do is look at the phone and monitor my letter box in the hope that the person Francis thinks might be interested likes what I’ve done.

I’m not expecting to be lucky first time… but it would be nice!

Philip Graves

Philip Graves Uncategorized

Last time I promised I would explain more about Francis and so I will (although a little later than I’d planned because of a very pleasant summer holiday in France).

Having finished my book and received some truly excellent advice on how to approach publishers from the course I took with Kevin Hogan, I still found myself with something of a problem

The publishing world is large.  It’s more than large.  It’s massive.  And it’s not just a matter of there being companies that publish books, there are also literary agents to consider.

Do I need a literary agent?  Good question (and one I’ll answer further next time). 

I have discovered that many publishers won’t accept an unsolicited manuscript.  This, it seems, is their way of telling you not to bother.  They presumably work on the basis that if your book was any good then a literary agent would want to represent you and they prefer to deal with them. 

This is understandable, I suppose. With all the books that are published representing just a tiny fraction of those that are written, publishers need to find some way of stemming the tide of manuscripts dropping through their letter boxes.

On the subject of the number of books written I discovered something that surprised me.  Apparently – and I should point out this is from Wikipedia so, you know… – the United Kingdom tops the list for the most numbers of books publisher (over 200,000 in 2005).   The US is in second or third… China were ahead in 1996 but no statistics have been produced more recently.

Even though the population is only one fifth of America’s the UK publish more books!  So if you’re an aspiring writer in the US perhaps you should consider moving to the UK to improve your chances.

Of course, this also means that I’m living in the country that, when population is taken into consideration, gives me the best chance of getting published, which is good news.  But if I fail it will have been at the lowest hurdle (gulp)!

Be grateful you’re not trying to become a writer in Oman.  Admittedly they only have a population of three million people, but according to the Wikipedia article (which sites UNESCO as its source) they managed to publish just seven books in 1996.  Blimey!

All of which brings me, in a round about kind of a way, to Francis.

You see as I sat there with my manuscript, an envelope and a handful of stamps I didn’t have the foggiest idea where to start.  Who should I send my book to first?  A publisher or an agent?  Which publisher or agent?  Should I carpet bomb the publishing world with my book?

In a moment of what I’m immodestly prepared to acknowledge was complete genius I decided I would ask people I know if they knew anyone who could help point me in the right direction.

A couple of potentially promising leads eventually led nowhere but then my mother-in-law, who it has to be said seems to know someone in every walk of life, mentioned an acquaintance of hers called Francis.  He was, she told me, a writer and thoroughly nice man, and provided me with his phone number.

She was wrong about him.  Not the ‘thoroughly nice man part’ that was, if anything, an understatement, but about the writer part. 

Francis isn’t just a writer.

He is a publisher author, who used to own a publishing firm, and who was managing director of a company that developed the book reference system that is used throughout the publishing world to provide details on available books.  He is also a respected industry figure who chairs literary panels and advises university writing courses.  I’ve probably not covered everything that he is or has been involved in of a literary nature, but you get the idea.

And when I called Francis and explained about my book and what I wanted to do he said he would be delighted to help me.

Things are looking up.

Philip Graves

Philip Graves Getting a Book Published writing

As readers of my previous blogs will know, I’m condensing the first part of my journey in trying to get my book published because some stages have taken weeks, during which all I’ve been doing is waiting for replies.

This raises a really important point: how do you find the energy to keep plugging away when things get tough, either when writing or when attempting to get published?

My solution is to keep half an eye out for inspiration all the time.   I received a signed photograph of my favourite guitar player (Eric Clapton) for Christmas and, remarkably, a Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilt Clapton Stratocaster from my family and friends for my 40th birthday.

The presence of both of these in my office inspire me.

Clapton is a genius in my mind, but that genius was achieved by him playing guitar for hours because it was something he was passionate about.  These symbols of him are reminders about what can be achieved through passion and perseverance.

On Sunday I found another source of inspiration; the documentary ‘Man on Wire’.

It’s the astounding, moving and poignant story of Philippe Petit’s attempt to put a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center and walk across.

The documentary has no footage of his incredible walk; instead (and I think the documentary is enhanced by this) we have the photographs taken by Jean Louis Blondeau, a photographer and friend of Philippe who did a whole lot more than simply take photographs (but I’ll let the documentary tell you that story).

After a mistake by Philippe, Jean Louis spent seven hours hauling the very heavy cable up into position on the second tower – a task one of the others in the group had given up on because he thought it was impossible.  When it came to taking the photographs he was exhausted and barely able to operate the camera from his exertions with the cable and yet he still managed to document this incredible feat.

I can’t begin to relate to what Philippe did – the thought terrifies me beyond words.  Nor can I appreciate what drove Jean Louis Blondeau to bear what he did to make the tightrope walk possible and document it afterwards.  But I can be inspired by the passion and perseverance that drove these men to do what they did.

If you have a moment, take a look at some of the images of the Man on Wire walking between the Twin Towers at Jean’s site here.  Who knows, perhaps it will inspire you too.

Philip Graves
P.S.  I know I said I would tell you about Francis next time I posted; sorry I got swept along by this post.  I promise I’ll tell you about him next time!

Philip Graves Getting a Book Published Jean Louis Blondeau, Man on Wire, Philippe Petit, photographs, World Trade Center