Mystery Marketing from Apple

It's almost time for the start of the busiest shopping season of the year. I've been seeing lots of ads on TV as well as catalogues appearing in my mailbox.

Today I noticed a slightly different approach from electronics maker, Apple. The company sent me an email that told me that this Friday it's having a special one day shopping event. This for both the online and the physical stores. There is no mention of any specific sales prices or hot merchandise like computers or iPods. It's as if the company is saying, "We've got good stuff that you'll like. Come shop with us and the prices will be good."

This is in contrast to the heavily promoted loss leaders you see with many stores. I'm not sure if this is because Apple customers know what they want before they shop or if the company doesn't want people coming with the idea of buying one heavily promoted sale item.

At a time when some fear electronic sales may be sluggish due to the economy, this may be a strategy worth watching.

Attention is a Hot Commodity in Communication

In the past, getting time with someone has been seen as a path to success. You want five minutes with the boss or a prospective customer. You'd have the person's full attention and hopefully achieve your objective.

In today's world, you have a lot of factors competing for your target's attention. Sure, you may have a five minute meeting with the boss but is he or she looking at their email, answering cell phone calls, or typing on their Blackberry? Multi-tasking can become an addiction and you need to keep in mind that you may only have a slice of someone's focus. This can be especially bad when you're having a phone conversation. And how many companies have lost money because of a misunderstanding, especially those that can be traced back to poor communication?

When making your pitch, you need to make it shorter and more powerful to hold your prospect's attention. State what you want and why it is important. Do this right away. Ask questions to keep the other person engaged in the conversation. And above all, do not just talk and talk and talk. The more you speak, the easier it is for your subject to have their attention wander. If you have a history of getting to the point, then it's more likely that you'll be heard.