The way we communicate

imagesourse "found in moms basement"

We all communicate very differently and we all have different opinions on what makes a good communicator. American psychologist Bruce Christopher gives us an entry point to the subject:

Great communicators are people who change their approach based upon the person they are talking too.

Does this sounds like a reasonable thing to you? Is it something we can agree on? If so, keep on reading.

We have applied this within advertisement. We spend a lot of time and money on sorting people into target groups and even more money on understanding those target groups. We differentiate people based on gender, age, race, location, weight... The list grows long pretty quickly.

We choose to communicate with these target groups saying different things, and approach them in different media. We pretty much have it down.
Does this makes us good communicators?
No.
Why?

Men and women communicate differently. The list of research on the fact grows longer by the hour and we still don't differentiate the way we communicate. We say different things, in different media, but we don't actively differentiate how we say it.
This is an exiting time we have ahead of us. The last ten years have given us so much new research on how men and women communicate. Now its up to us to use that information to make us better communicators.


Related links:
The power of the purse A book by Fara Warner.
Rethink pink - Marketing to women portal
Marketing to women online - A blog by Holly Buchanan.
Wonderbranding - A blog by Michele Miller