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Marketing lessons from my cat
I have been keeping the basement door closed because Pounce de Leon has been highly successful at catching chipmunks (despite a bell on his collar) and bringing them down to his territory to play. Thankfully, I have rescued most of the little critters (which makes Pounce cry as he bemoans the loss of his “playmate”, huh, prey).
That whole saga was a great illustration of the following marketing lessons:
- Be persistent
- Don’t take things personally or mind read; try things and see what impact they have
Pounce has finally stopped bringing in chipmunk after days of finding his territory barred. It took consistency on my part, but we got there.
When he wanted to go downstairs, Pounce had to ask for me to open the door which I did if he wasn’t smuggling in an unwilling cargo. If I was busy and didn’t respond to him right away, he kept asking until I showed up.
He had the right balance of persistence: not too strident to cause a backlash, not too soft to be ignored. And it worked.
Have you ever tried to get mad at a cat to intimidate it into compliance? Good luck! He won’t connect your punishment with his behavior so he won’t learn anything. The only result is that he won’t trust you as much which means you have even less influence on him.
What works is a clear indication of what you want and repetition. I shut the basement door and only opened it if he was chipmunk-less.
On his side, he sat and stared at the door and meowed politely until I showed up to open the door. If that didn’t get my attention, he came to get me and walked back to the door. And he didn’t give up until I complied.
No drama about being ignored, just clear, polite, consistent action.
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Helene,
Love your articles and got a kick out of the photo of your cat. As usual your insight and ability to get to the heart of things is right on! Thanks.
Dolores