Push me/pull you

There is a way of thinking about how we influence people that distills styles of influence into “push” influence and “pull” influence. Push influence, either through straight assertion or logical argument, tends to be focused on telling people what to do. Although it can have success in the short term, over time consistently pushing people around tends to demotivate and build resentment.

Pull influence is more subtle, and tends to be a longer game. Either through empathetic open questioning or painting a vision, pull tends to lead the influencee to make up their own mind about things.

It occured to me this morning that whilst most of the world of advertising and marketing rides on the world of pull influence, delivering aspirational imagery of designer living, the world of IT advertising is pretty much caught in the world of push. No where is this better exemplified that in the Dell mini-catalogues that seems to plop out of the colour supplements at the weekend. The Dell mini-catalogue, computer sales made as uninteresting as possible, features and benefits, facts and figures without a sheen of marketing BS, is so far away from the consumer world of Apple or even heavy industrial manufacturers like the automotive companies (as an aside: when did you see a car advert that really represented the daily experience of traffic-jam motoring?).

There is a block of apartments that is being constructed at the moment on the banks of the River Thames at Kew Bridge. On the side of the site, on a massive hoarding, is an artist’s impression of what one of these residences will look like: a beautiful view over the river and on to the back of the World Heritage site of Kew Gardens; sleek, modernist black leather and chrome sofas, aside an elegant glass-topped coffee table; a copy of Wallpaper magazine; and an iPhone.

When a technology gadget is being used as a totem for elegant, modern living, it’s a very different world to an office supply being used to perform some work. The consumerisation of IT is making for a very broad spectrum of marketing styles…