Are "learning styles" relevant to the marketing mix?

Bear with me here, as I have a theory that helps us to understand why there should always be a "mix" of marketing activity rather than focusing on just one method. That "one" method might work of course, but what could you be missing if you don't think about how different members of your target audience react to marketing media?

Children are now taught in school to recognise their 'learning style', usually based on a model proposed by Fleming. Here's a Wikipedia definition of learning styles but you do have to stick with it to get to the bit I'm talking about (you wouldn't believe how many learning styles there are out there). Anyway, Fleming's is based on three main ways in which we respond to stimuli:

1. Visual (seeing, using pictures in your head)
   
2. Auditory (listening, discussing)
   
3. Kinaesthetic (doing, touching/feeling, practising)

That's a very simplistic description, but helps to make my point. If we learn that way, then we probably approach the rest of the world in a similar way. In actual fact, most of us use a mixture of learning styles but you usually mainly relate to one of them (I also learnt).

So, back to marketing, before I wander dangerously into an area I know little else about. If we're putting together a marketing plan then we want to reach as many of our identified target audience as possible. Online we have a number of brilliant ways now of doing this with internet marketing. We can use websites, advertising, blogging, social networking and video (visual) and podcast (auditory) as marketing tools, all of which help us to fulfill different preferences. And branding experts will tell you (read James Hammond, he talks an awful lot of sense on this subject) that engaging with the five different senses is key to developing a connection with your audience.

But we get a bit stuck online with the whole smell, taste, touch thing - so far anyway. Which means that in my view, there's often still a case for offline marketing so your customer can engage with you using a sense other than visual. When you think of how many visual messages we're bombarded with every day, it's no wonder some of us prefer something different. So back to flyers, "try before you buy", giveways and other tangible marketing activity to mop up those who didn't see us online. Ever wondered why so many "e-commerce" retailers who sell mainly online, still send out paper catalogues?

I know I'm a stickler for a tactile object or shiny piece of literature every time. I always thought I was a bit strange, but I'm happily reassured now that I just approach some things kinaesthetically. See - perfectly normal!


Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk



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