Văn hóa e-mail: Chuyện cũ mà không cũ

Chỉ với một chiếc máy tính nối mạng, người sử dụng có thể trao đổi tức thì với bạn bè, đồng nghiệp và đối tác khắp thế giới. Tuy nhiên, không phải ai cũng sử dụng e-mail đúng cách và hiệu quả.

Nội dung e-mail cũng thể hiện tính cách của người gửi.  Ảnh minh họa: Corbis.

Cùng sự phát triển của Internet, thư điện tử trở thành công cụ giao tiếp phổ biến. Ưu thế của phương tiện này là nhanh gọn, tiện lợi và chi phí thấp. Nhưng tính phổ cập của e-mail làm cho nhiều người cẩu thả hơn và quên mất một số quy tắc xã giao căn bản:

Thiếu hoặc sai tiêu đề

Đây là lỗi tương đối phổ biến, xuất phát từ tính lười biếng và cẩu thả. Thử tưởng tượng mỗi sáng trước cuộc họp, đối tác của bạn nhận được cả chục e-mail, gồm cả thư của bạn, không chứa tiêu đề. Loa ngại thư rác, hoặc bực mình với sự thiếu chuyên nghiệp của người gửi, đối tác đó có thể bỏ qua những e-mail này, hoặc họ sẽ phải mở tất cả để đọc nội dung và xác định vị trí của giao dịch đó trong thứ tự ưu tiên xử lý. Với quỹ thời gian hạn hẹp, sự bất cẩn này sẽ làm cho bạn mất điểm trong mắt đối tác.

Một "bệnh kinh niên" khác là chủ đề và nội dung không ăn nhập với nhau. Hiện tượng này thường xảy ra khi người gửi chọn chế độ trả lời (reply) hoặc trả lời cho tất cả (reply all) từ những e-mail cũ để viết thư với nội dung hoàn toàn mới nhằm tránh mất thời gian nhập lại nhiều địa chỉ nhận thư. Chủ đề không ăn nhập với nội dung thường làm người nhận không quan tâm hoặc cảm thấy bực bội, mất thiện cảm.

Tiêu đề thư cần truyền đạt nội dung chính mà người gửi muốn gây chú ý. Vì vậy, bạn nên kiểm tra trước khi gửi và cũng cần đặt tiêu đề ngắn gọn, rõ ràng, tránh các cụm từ chung chung như "Tin mới", "Xin chào"...

Ngôn ngữ cộc lốc, không có mở đầu hay kết luận

Người sử dụng không nên gửi một e-mail không có lời chào hỏi ở đầu hay lời cảm ơn xã giao ở cuối. Với thư bắt đầu ngay bằng "Tôi muốn…" hoặc "Tôi cần…", người nhận sẽ cho là người viết quá sỗ sàng hoặc thiếu lễ độ và có thể ảnh hưởng đến mối quan hệ đối tác trong kinh doanh. 

Thư điện tử không chỉ là phương thức truyển tải thông tin mà còn là công cụ giao tiếp với các chuẩn mực văn minh nhất định. Bạn nên bắt đầu e-mail bằng câu chào và luôn sử dụng những cụm từ thể hiện sự lịch sự như "Phiền bạn .." hay "Tôi sẽ rất biết ơn nếu…" khi đưa ra yêu cầu, đề nghị. Bạn cũng đừng quên kết thúc thư với ngôn trang trọng như "Kính thư", "Xin chân thành cám ơn!", "Chúc bạn một ngày vui vẻ"... cùng với tên và thông tin liên lạc của bạn. 

Hiện nay, một số sinh viên mới ra trường khi viết e-mail thường đưa ngôn ngữ suồng sã, không chính thống và cả các biểu tượng cảm xúc (emoticon) vào e-mail. Trong trường hợp đó, họ sẽ bị người nhận đánh giá là thiếu sự nghiêm túc và chín chắn.

Quên tệp đính kèm

Quên không đính kèm những văn bản cần thiết sẽ làm phát sinh ít nhất hai e-mail khác: thư nhắc gửi tệp đính kèm và thư gửi lại với lời xin lỗi. Điều này vừa lãng phí thời gian của người gửi, vừa tạo sự khó chịu cho người nhận. Do đó, hãy hình thành thói quen kiểm tra toàn bộ thư trước khi nhấn nút Send/Gửi. Để cụ thể hơn, bạn cũng nên chỉ rõ trong e-mail những tài liệu bạn sẽ gửi kèm và nội dung cơ bản hay mục đích sử dụng của những tài liệu đó. Tên file cũng không nên chung chung như "tailieu.doc" mà cần thể hiện nội dung chính như "Báo cáo doanh thu năm 2010.doc". 

Chân dung và tính cách nghề nghiệp của mỗi người được phản ánh qua từng biểu hiện cụ thể và hãy đừng tạo nên hình ảnh của một nhân viên sao nhãng, cẩu thả qua e-mail.

Độc giả Dương Thu Trang

  

(Nguồn: http://vnexpress.net/gl/vi-tinh/kinh-nghiem/2011/03/van-hoa-e-mail-chuyen-cu-ma-khong-cu/)

Four Reasons Any Action Is Better than None

It's well-known that busy people get the most done. Their secret is simple: They never stop moving. 

Of course, sitting still can be a good thing if it involves renewal, reflection, and focused attention (or having meals with the family). But sitting still can be a bad thing if it involves procrastination, indecision, and passivity.

Companies heading downhill have passive cultures. Unmade decisions pile up. Opportunities are lost. No one wants to risk making a mistake. It becomes easier to sit it out than get into the game. One of my favorite examples involves the backwater bank in which employees would send customers who had complicated problems to the rival bank across the street, rather than try to do anything.

In contrast, in companies with high levels of innovation, people take initiative. They start new things. They don't wait to be told. They get routine work done efficiently in order to free up the time to get involved in something new. Here are some of the reasons.

Small wins matter

Small wins pave the way for bigger wins. A nudge in the right direction, as Cass Sunstein and the new behavioral economists tell us, can lead to major tipping points (per Malcolm Gladwell) when you achieve critical mass. As I saw in my study of business turnarounds and sports teams, confidence — the expectation of a positive outcome that motivates high levels of effort — is built on one win at a time. 

Accomplishments come in pieces 

A journey of a thousand miles is daunting. The single step with which the journey begins is manageable. Every step you take now adds up by getting that much closer to a goal. Busy people in high-productivity environments tend to take just one more action, return one more phone call, set one more thing in motion before calling it quits for the day. By tomorrow, new demands will start piling up. Mental tricks like dividing big tasks into numerous small steps make it possible to identify immediate actions to get big things off the ground. 

Perfection is unattainable anyway 

Forget perfection. Just do it. So what if you're wrong? You can always try again. In an uncertain world of rapid change, business strategy includes room for improvisation. Live by some classic slogans: Best is the enemy of good. (Don't wait for perfect conditions.) Nothing ventured, nothing gained. (It takes a little risk to get rewards.)

Actions produce energy and momentum 

It simply feels better to take action than sitting around navel-gazing and getting sluggish. Overwork can bring stress, but, in fact, many studies show that the important factor in work stress is lack of control. Identifying a positive action is a way to feel in control. Getting moving doesn't drain energy; it tends to build energy. For people trying to solve the national obesity epidemic, or just to lose a few pounds, exercise is more fun than dieting.

These principles represent more than management tips. They reflect a can-do philosophy that is essential for any entrepreneur or any place that wants more entrepreneurs. The only way to activate potential is to support action. 

Sometimes it doesn't seem easy. Organizational cultures, autocratic bosses, uncooperative co-workers, long losing streaks, the uncertainty of shifting industry conditions, and big world events like natural disasters and revolutions can stop people in their tracks. But those who emerge triumphant, and get the most done anyway, are the people who would rather take action, any action, than wait around. 

(Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/kanter/2011/03/four-reasons-any-action-is-bet.html)

Making Sure Your Employees Succeed

It's common knowledge that helping employees set and reach goals is a critical part of every manager's job. Employees want to see how their work contributes to larger corporate objectives, and setting the right targets makes this connection explicit for them, and for you, as their manager. Goal-setting is particularly important as a mechanism for providing ongoing and year-end feedback. By establishing and monitoring targets, you can give your employees real-time input on their performance while motivating them to achieve more. 

What the Experts Say
So, how involved should you be in helping employees establish and achieve their goals? Since failure to meet goals can have consequences for you, your employee, and your team, as well as the broader organization, you need to balance your involvement with the employee's ownership over the process. Linda Hill, the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and co-author of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader, says "A manager's job is to provide 'supportive autonomy' that's appropriate to the person's level of capability." The key is to be hands-on while giving your people the room they need to succeed on their own. Here are some principles to follow as you navigate how to best support your people in reaching their objectives.

Connect employee goals to larger company goals
For goals to be meaningful and effective in motivating employees, they must be tied to larger organizational ambitions. Employees who don't understand the roles they play in company success are more likely to become disengaged. "Achieving goals is often about making tradeoffs when things don't go as planned. [Employees] need to understand the bigger picture to make those tradeoffs when things go wrong," says Hill. No matter what level the employee is at, he should be able to articulate exactly how his efforts feed into the broader company strategy.

Make sure goals are attainable but challenging
Since employees are ultimately responsible for reaching their goals, they need to have a strong voice in setting them. Ask your employee to draft goals that directly contribute to the organization's mission. Once she's suggested initial goals, discuss whether her targets are both realistic and challenging enough. "Stretch targets emerge as a process of negotiation between the employee and the manager," says Srikant M. Datar, the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Accounting at Harvard University and contributor to the Goal Setting module of Harvard ManageMentor. Be careful though: your team members are likely to resent you if you insist on goals that are too challenging to accomplish. At the same time, you don't want to aim too low, either. If you are overly cautious, you will miss opportunities and settle for mediocrity. "When done well, stretch goals create a lot of energy and momentum in an organization," says Datar. But, when done badly, they "do not achieve the goal of motivating employees and helping them achieve better performance as they were designed to do," he adds. Even worse, poorly set goals can be destructive to employees' morale and productivity, and to the organization's performance overall. 

Create a plan for success
Once a goal is set, ask your employee to explain how he plans to meet it. Have him break goals down into tasks and set interim objectives, especially if it's a large or long-term project. Ask your employee: what are the appropriate milestones? What are possible risks and how do you plan to manage them? Because targets are rarely pursued in a vacuum, Hill suggests that you "help your people understand who they are dependent on to achieve those goals." Then problem solve with them on how to best influence those people to get the job done. 

Monitor progress
Staying on top of employee progress will help head off any troubles early on. "We often get problems because we don't signal that we are partners in achieving goals," says Hill. Don't wait for review time or the end of a project to check in. Review both long-term and short-term goals on a weekly basis. Even your high-performing employees need ongoing feedback and coaching. Ask your employee what type of monitoring and feedback would be most helpful to her, especially if the task is particularly challenging or something she is doing for the first time. 

When things go wrong
Very few of us reach our goals without some road bumps along the way. Build relationships with employees so that they feel comfortable coming to you if and when problems arise. If your employee encounters an unforeseen obstacle, the goal may need reworking. First, however, ask him to bring a potential solution to you so you can give him coaching and advice. If his efforts to solve the problem fail, you will need to get further involved. 

What about personal goals?
Some managers neglect to think about what an employee is personally trying to accomplish in the context of work. "If I account for the interests of the whole person, not just the work person, I'm going to get more value from them," says Stewart D. Friedman, Practice Professor of Management at the Wharton School and author of Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life. For example, if your employee has expressed an interest in teaching but that is not part of his job responsibilities, you may be able to find ways to sculpt his job to include opportunities to train peers or less experienced colleagues. 

The first step is for you to understand what these goals are. Ask employees if they have any personal goals they want to share with you. Don't pressure them; they should only share these aspirations if they feel comfortable. Friedman suggests you then ask, 'What adjustments might we try that would help you achieve your goals?" This allows the employee to take ownership over the solution. Just as with work goals, you need to be sure personal goals contribute to your team, unit, or to the company. "It's got to be a shared commitment to experiment and mutual responsibility to check in on how it's going. It's got to be a win for both," says Friedman. 

When goals aren't met
There will be times, even with the best support, when employees fail to meet their targets. "Hold people accountable. You can't say 'Gee, that's too bad.' You need to figure out what went wrong and why," says Hill. Discuss with your employee what happened and what each of you think went wrong. If the problem was within his control, ask him to apply the possible solutions you've discussed, take another stab at reaching the goal, and check in with you more frequently. If it was something that was outside of his power or the goal was too ambitious, acknowledge the disappointment but don't dwell on it. "Do the diagnosis, get the learning, and move on," says Hill.

It's possible that you may have contributed to the problem. Be willing to reflect on your role in the failure. Were you too hands off and failed to check in frequently enough? Did you not review his work in a timely way? Have an open discussion about what you can do next time. "If you don't hold yourself accountable, they're going to have trouble with you," says Hill.

Principles to Remember

Do:

• Connect individuals' goals to broader organization objectives
• Show employees that you are a partner in achieving their goals
• Learn about and incorporate employees' personal interests into their professional goals

Don't:

• Allow employees to set goals alone
• Take a hands-off approach to high performers — they need input and feedback to meet their goals as well
• Ignore failures — be sure people have the opportunity to learn when they don't achieve goals

Case Study #1: Being a partner in goal attainment
Meghan Lantier is known at Bliss PR for being a natural people developer. As the vice president of the firm's financial services practice, Meghan manages several senior account executives, including Shauna Ellerson*. Meghan has overseen Shauna's work since Shauna started at Bliss four and a half years ago. Since the beginning, they have set goals through a collaborative process: Shauna develops draft goals, Meghan comes up with ones she believes Shauna needs to focus on, and then they identify the overlap between them. "I want to make sure they are manageable but stretched too," says Meghan. The two regularly check in on these goals. Meghan takes a hands-on approach, providing Shauna with regular input. They also sit down together at least four times a year to have a more formal discussion about Shauna's ambitions. 

One of Shauna's goals is to become more of a thought leader on one of their largest financial services accounts. She has mastered the day-to-day work of managing the client and now needs to focus on the bigger picture. Shauna has been working on this goal for several months now by speaking up more in client meetings and providing more input into the content, not just the process, of their work. "We don't need a goal review session. I give her constant feedback in the context of the work," says Meghan.

Meghan also knows that ultimately Shauna is responsible for her own achievements. "I'm fully invested in making it work but I realized the limitations I have as a manager to make it happen," she says. It hasn't been necessary to talk about the consequences if Shauna fails to meet the goal — there are natural consequences in Bliss's high-performing culture. If you don't succeed, you don't get the better assignments. 

*Not her real name; changed since publication

Case Study #2: Supporting personal goals
Amy Werner took a job at the New York City-based search firm On-Ramps just over three years ago. Amy joined at an integral time in the firm's growth and quickly became a key asset to the small firm. Sarah Grayson, one of the firm's founding partners, manages Amy and explains, "Amy has a lot of institutional knowledge and is a high performer." When she first began she was working toward a degree in social work but taking classes at nights and on the weekends. A year and a half into the job, Amy's school schedule became more complicated. Her internship requirements made working a traditional, full-time schedule difficult. Because of her star performance, Sarah and her fellow partners were keen to keep her on board while encouraging her to complete her degree. Amy remained full time but now works two days a week in the office, completing the rest of her hours on nights and weekends. As Amy says, "They have been nothing but supportive."

The firm has a semi-annual review process where goals are set and discussed; they also do more frequent check-ins on goals during weekly meetings. Amy and Sarah have talked a lot about how On-Ramps can support Amy not only by providing a flexible schedule but by thinking about the intersection of her studies and her work. They've found that there are lots of transferable skills between her job as a search associate and her work as a social worker, such as interviewing and client management. In explaining why they are so supportive of Amy's educational activities, Sarah says, "We wouldn't have done this for a low performer. We have to ask ourselves, 'What would it take to hire another Amy?'" Amy will be finishing her master's degree in May and she and Sarah have begun to discuss what's next for her. Both hope that there is a way to combine her skills in search and her interest in social work to create a job that is ideal for both her and On-Ramps.

(Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/02/making-sure-your-employees-suc.html)

Where Will You Be in Five Years?

Most people have been asked that perennial, and somewhat annoying, question: "Where do you see yourself in five years?" Of course it is asked most often in a job interview, but it may also come up in a conversation at a networking event or a cocktail party. Knowing and communicating your career goals is challenging for even the most ambitious and focused person. Can you really know what job you'll be doing, or even want to be doing, in five years?

What the Experts Say

In today's work world, careers take numerous twists and turns and the future is often murky. "Five years, in today's environment, is very hard to predict. Most businesses don't even know what's going to be required in two or three years," says Joseph Weintraub, a professor of management and organizational behavior at Babson College and co-author of the book, The Coaching Manager: Developing Top Talent in Business. While it may be difficult to give a direct and honest response to this question, Weintraub and Timothy Butler, a senior fellow and the director of Career Development Programs at Harvard Business School, agree that you need to be prepared to answer it. And you need to treat any conversation like an interview. "Every person you talk to or meet is a potential contact, now or in the future," says Weintraub.

The first step is knowing the answer for yourself. "It's a very profound question. At the heart of it is 'where does meaning reside for me?'" says Butler. You have to clarify for yourself what you aspire to do with your career before you can communicate it confidently to others.

Be introspective

Figuring out the answer to this question is not an easy task. "The real issue is to do your homework. If you're thinking this through in the moment, you're in trouble," says Butler. In his book Getting Unstuck: A Guide to Discovering Your Next Career Path, Butler cautions that you need to be prepared to do some serious introspection and consider parts of your life that you may not regularly think about. "It starts with a reflection on what you are good at and what you are not good at," says Weintraub. Far too many people spend time doing things they are not suited for or enjoy. Weintraub suggests you ask yourself three questions:

1. What are my values?
2. What are my goals?
3. What am I willing to do to get there?

This type of contemplation can help you set a professional vision for the next five years. The challenge is then to articulate that vision in various situations: a meeting with your manager, a networking chat, or a job interview. 

If you don't know, admit it

Even the deepest soul-searching may not yield a definitive plan for you. There are many moving parts in people's career decisions — family, the economy, finances — and you may simply not know what the next five years holds. Some worry that without a polished answer they will appear directionless. This may be true in some situations. "For some people, if you don't have the ambition, you're not taken seriously," says Weintraub. But you shouldn't fake it or make up an answer to satisfy your audience. This can be especially dangerous in a job interview. Saying you want P&L responsibility in five years when you have no such ambitions may land you the job, but ultimately will you be happy? "Remember the goal is to find the right job, not just a job. You don't want to get it just because you were a good interviewee," says Weintraub. 

Know what they're really asking

Butler and Weintraub agree that while the five-year question is not a straightforward one. Butler says that hiring managers rely on it to get at several different pieces of information at once. The interviewer may want to know, Is this person going to be with us in five years? "The cost of turnover is high so one of my biggest concerns as a hiring manager is getting someone who will be around," says Butler. There is another implied question as well: Is the position functionally well-matched for you? The interviewer wants to know if you'll enjoy doing the job. Weintraub points to another possibility: "They are trying to understand someone's goal orientation and aspirational level." In other words, how ambitious are you? Before responding, consider what the asker wants to know. 

Focus on learning and development

You run the risk of coming off as arrogant if you answer this question by saying you hope to take on a specific position in the company, especially if the interviewer is currently in that position. Butler suggests you avoid naming a particular role and answer the question in terms of learning and development: What capabilities will you have wanted to build in five years? For example, "I can't say exactly what I'm going to be doing in five years, but I hope to have further developed my skills as a strategist and people manager." This is a safe way to answer regardless of your age or career stage. "You don't want to ever give the impression that you're done learning," says Weintraub. 

Reframe the question

Research has shown that it's less important that you answer the exact question and more important that you provide a polished answer. Enter the interview knowing what three things you want the interviewer to know about you. Use every question, not just this one, to get those messages across. You can also shorten the timeframe of the question by saying something like, "I don't know where I'll be in five years, but within a year, I hope to land several high-profile clients." You can also use the opportunity to express what excites you most about the job in question. "In any competitive environment, the job is going to go to someone who is genuinely interested and can articulate their interest," says Butler. 

Principles to Remember

Do:

• First, do the contemplative work to develop a personal answer to the question
• Understand what the interviewer is trying to gather from your response
• Shorten the timeframe of the question so you can give a more specific and reasonable reply

Don't:

• Make up an answer you don't believe in
• Provide a specific position or title; instead focus on what you hope to learn
• Feel limited to answering the narrow question asked — broaden it to communicate what you want the hiring manager to know about you

Case Study #1: Know where you thrive

Bob Halsey found out about the opening of associate dean of Babson's undergraduate program the same way everyone else at the school did — through an email announcement. He had been on the faculty as a professor of Accounting for 12 years and recently had taken on the role of chair for that department. Prior to his academic career, he had been in the corporate world, holding a CFO position at a retailing and manufacturing company and working as the vice president and manager of the commercial lending division of a large bank. 

The associate dean job appealed to him because it was similar to the positions in which he'd thrived in the corporate world. Reflecting on his years of experience, Bob knew he most enjoyed being in a supporting role, rather than the top gun. While an associate dean position is often seen as a stepping-stone for those who eventually want to become dean, Bob wasn't interested in that. He didn't want to be the center of attention, now or in the future. 

Plus everyone at the school loved the current dean, Dennis Hanno, and Bob knew it would be unpalatable for him to talk with the nominating committee about eventually unseating Dennis. When asked about his future plans, Bob was clear: "I said, 'I'm not coming in with any designs on becoming dean. And if Dennis leaves, I will keep the train going until we get a new dean. I have always been a terrific number two. I am the person who can make your number one a success.'" Joe Weintraub, the expert from above and a member of the committee, said it was clear that Bob was passionate about the role, and the committee was impressed with his candor. He said that under other circumstances Bob might have appeared to be lacking aspiration, but in this case his response simply told them he was the right person for the job.

"When people really want a job, they tend to overpromise. I figured it doesn't do me any good to get in under false expectations," says Bob. "My motivation in taking this job was to work alongside and learn from Dennis." He has been serving as associate dean for close to a year now and has found the satisfaction he was looking for. 

Case Study #2: Be honest about the future

Three years ago Margaret Quandt was working as an HR generalist at Bristol Myers Squibb when a former colleague who worked at CitiGroup called to ask if she was interested in applying for a generalist job. At the time, Margaret wasn't sure she wanted to continue along the generalist track. She knew she eventually wanted more specialty experience. "I went into HR to be an HR professional, not to be a generalist," she says. But her contact told her there would likely be other more specialized opportunities in the future, so she decided to apply.

During an interview with Brian, the SVP of the division that she would be supporting, he asked her, "Do you want to run HR someday?" Brian was a highly ambitious senior executive; as the SVP of Commercial Payment Solutions, he held full P&L responsibility. Margaret answered, "I don't know." She could see Brian react immediately: "His whole body language changed and he sat back in his chair". She then qualified her response, "Aspirationally yes," she said, "but I also love teaching and research. I'm a young woman in my childbearing years and I've worked with enough women in HR to know that we don't always get to do what we aspire to. It's really hard for me at this point in my career to look more than three years out." Brian paused for a long time and then said, "That's one of the most honest answers I've heard." After the interview, Margaret was concerned she might have blown it, but she was happy with her decision to be honest. "I don't lie in interviews," she says.

Margaret got the job and soon after she was hired Brian confessed that he had been concerned about her answer at first. But as he reflected on it, he realized how much sense it made. It showed him that Margaret was both thoughtful and serious about her career. Margaret was the HR generalist to Brian's division for 17 months; then, as she'd hoped, she was promoted to her current, specialized role managing a global leadership development program for high-performing managers.

(Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/03/where-will-you-be-in-five-year.html )

How to Use Facebook to Drive Higher Sales

As Facebook has grown to more than 600 million users, many companies have been struggling to figure out how to leverage it to help their businesses. 

Most have limited themselves to advertising or establishing company pages on the platform only to discover that while these methods allow them to engage their Facebook fans in a dialogue and increase brand awareness, they do not necessarily lead to increased sales. Some companies have opened up storefronts on Facebook, but these efforts have also met with limited success. 

So what should firms do? I recommend developing a two-part social strategy that is very different from what firms are doing now. First, the strategy needs to build closer relationships among the people on Facebook. Second, it should allow individuals to undertake tasks for free on the company's behalf in the process of becoming closer with their friends. 

If you want to see a good social strategy in action, look at eBay's Group Gifts service, which employs Facebook platform technology.

To use Group Gifts, users log in with their Facebook credentials, which loads up the list of their Facebook friends. The user can then choose the friend for whom she wants to get a gift and then proceed to look for an appropriate item. The site can offer generic gifts, but a savvy user can ask the application to look at the gift recipient's list of Likes on Facebook and recommend a set of items that match the recipient's interests. 

Once the gift is chosen, the user can decide how much to contribute herself and how much to leave for others to chip in. Then, she can automatically post a status update on Facebook that alerts others that they can contribute to that gift. (Facebook privacy controls can skillfully hide the status update from the recipient.) When these friends see the update, they can click on it to go to the Group Gifts site and add their contributions. Once the sum of all contributions equals the purchase price of the gift, the transaction is executed and the recipient receives the gift, a list of all the friends who contributed to it, and brief notes from them.

So what is so amazing about this simple business model? 

It is truly social. It overcomes some real off-line difficulties related to group gift giving — like having to solicit people directly and risking embarrassment when you ask someone to contribute who does not want to do so. The online application simply puts it out there for people to contribute if they wish. Also, it seeks to strengthen relationships between friends. Just imagine getting a $700 iPad from 10 of your friends. Wouldn't you feel grateful? 

It also has real strategic benefits for eBay. The company can sell a greater volume of more expensive items. And since individuals are, in essence, advertising the service to their friends, it lowers eBay's cost of acquiring customers.

In other words, this kind of social strategy produces a win-win for Facebook users and a company. 

What other kinds of social strategies can you envision? Do you have a social strategy? 

(Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/how_to_use_facebook_to_drive_h.html)

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently

Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do. 

1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight," because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers. 

To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., "If it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work.") Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.

3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.

Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking .... well, there's no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.

7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.

To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don't. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur ("If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.

8. Don't tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don't put yourself in harm's way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.

9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won't do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.
If you want change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.

It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.

(Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/nine_things_successful_people.html)

The Downside of Focusing on Women and Girls

Yesterday was International Women's Day and there were many articles and blog posts championing the idea that anti-poverty philanthropy should focus on women and girls (see, for instance, Mary Ellen Iskendarian's post for The Conversation). Like many ideas in poverty alleviation before it, the "women first" approach has been increasingly captured by overly simplistic thinking about the poor and anti-poverty programs — with easily foreseeable, and already evident, negative consequences. 

What could possibly be wrong with focusing aid programs on women and girls? 

First, many of the arguments made in favor of a focus on women and girls — such as the idea that men spend money only on themselves while women spend money on their families — are rooted in the fallacy of essentialism. This fallacy attributes the results of context and culture to the core nature of people. There is a far better explanation for spending patterns of men and women, rooted in understanding how families everywhere negotiate over household income. In most societies men are the primary income earners; they distribute the income to their wives for particular purposes, usually including buying food and caring for children. Being human, the male income earners unsurprisingly feel that they should be able to enjoy some of the fruits of their labor. 

When women become the primary income earners, we should expect to see the same spending patterns evolve over time. And that's exactly what we do see. In India and Cote D'Ivoire, researchers have seen that as women gain control of their income they do indeed spend more on themselves. The Indian study, one of the few high quality studies of microcredit extended to women, found no increase in household spending on clothing, food, or education.

Second, the marketing pitch for focusing on women and girls increasingly is stereotyping men in the effort to combat the stereotyping of women. As Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo write in their forthcoming Poor Economics, if we want to make an impact on global poverty we have to stop painting the poor, women or men, as cartoon characters. The "women first" movement increasingly relies on caricatures of virtuous women and deadbeat dads. I'm especially concerned because the nature of global poverty today means that the men in these caricatures are black and brown, calling to mind racialist theories of the past even if that is by no means intended. 

Consider the undeniable costs of a caricatured bias toward women. David McKenzie's research in Sri Lanka, Mexico, Brazil and Ghana has shown that urban male entrepreneurs typically earn far higher returns from microfinance than women do (in Sri Lanka average returns on capital for women were 0%, for men 10%). If we are trying to fight poverty, shouldn't we at least consider what strategies are most likely to raise household income the most? 

Does that mean that we should not focus on women and girls? Of course not. We should focus on women and girls. But we need to base the focus on the fact that women and girls are marginalized — and therefore empowering them can have significant benefits — not because they are women and girls. That may seem to be just a matter of semantics, but it is far from that. By defining programs in terms of the wrong criteria we create institutional inertia that will inevitably continue to pour resources into an area long after it is no longer appropriate. Just look at affirmative action programs in the United States that continue while a flood of research shows that the important distinction to deal with is class not race (though of course the two do overlap). 

A focus on the marginalized, regardless of their sex, ethnicity, location, or other essential characteristics will do far more to combat poverty than a blind focus on women and girls.

(Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/whats_wrong_with_focusing_on_w.html)

The Right Way to Respond to Failure

My wife Eleanor and I were visiting some friends on a Saturday when their nine-year-old daughter, Dana*, came home. She was close to tears, barely holding it together.

"Oh sweetie," her mom said. "What happened at the swim meet?"

Dana is an excellent swimmer. She trains hard, arriving at swim practice by six most mornings and swimming some afternoons as well. And her efforts are rewarded; she often wins her events, scoring points for her swim team. It is clear she is very proud of these wins.

It isn't like that for all her endeavors. She struggles with some subjects in school, doing extra math homework to keep up with the other kids and getting special help with her reading. But she always works hard.

"I was disqualified," she told us. She swam the race well, but dove in a fraction of a second before the starting gun went off: a false start.

We were in the foyer of the house and she sat down on the bottom stair of the staircase, her swim bag still on her shoulder, staring into space, almost expressionless.

"Honey," her dad said, "there are a lot more swim meets in the season. You'll have other chances to win."

I told her, "The fact that you left the block prematurely means you were at your edge. You're trying not to waste a millisecond in hesitation. That's the right instinct. You misjudged the timing but that's OK. The more you do this, the better you'll get at it."

"Every swimmer on every team has been disqualified at some point," Eleanor said. "It's part of the sport."

"I'm sure your coach will help you practice your starts before the next meet," her mom said, "and you'll figure out exactly when to spring off the block so that you don't waste a second but you don't dive too early either. You'll get it."

Nothing we said seemed to have any impact on her. Nothing changed her expressionless stare. 

Nothing helped.

Then her grandmother Mimi walked over. 

We were all standing over Dana, when Mimi moved through us and sat down next to her. She put her arm around Dana and just sat there quietly. Eventually, Dana leaned her head on Mimi's shoulder. After a few moments of silence Mimi kissed Dana's head and said, "I know how hard you work at this, honey. It's sad to get disqualified."

At that point, Dana began to cry. Mimi continued to sit there, with her arm around Dana, for several minutes, without saying anything.

Eventually Dana looked up at Mimi, wiped her tears, and said, simply, "Thanks Mimi." And I thought, every leader, every manager, every team member, should see this.

All of us except Mimi missed what Dana needed.

We tried to make her feel better by helping her see the advantage of failure, putting the defeat in context, teaching her to draw a lesson from it, and motivating her to work harder and get better so it doesn't happen again.

But she didn't need any of that. She already knew it. And if she didn't, she'd figure it out on her own. The thing she needed, the thing she couldn't give herself, the thing that Mimi reached out and gave her?

Empathy. 

She needed to feel that she wasn't alone, that we all loved her and her failure didn't change that, She needed to know we understood how she was feeling and we had confidence that she would figure it out.

I wanted every leader, manager, and team member to see that, because the empathetic response to failure is not only the most compassionate, it's also the most productive.

Empathy communicates trust. And people perform best when they feel trusted.

When I sit with you in your mistake or failure without trying to change anything, I'm letting you know that you're okay, even when you don't perform. And, counter-intuitively, feeling okay about yourself — when you fail — makes you feel good enough to get up and try again.

Most of us miss that. Typically, when people fail, we blame them. Or teach them. Or try to make them feel better. All of which, paradoxically, makes them feel worse. It also prompts defensiveness as an act of self-preservation. (If I'm not okay after a failure, I'd better figure out how to frame this thing so it's not my failure.)

Our intentions are fine; we want the person to feel better, to learn, to avoid the mistake again. We want to protect our teams and our organizations.

But the learning — the avoidance of future failures — only comes once they feel okay about themselves after failing. And that feeling comes from empathy.

Thankfully, the expression of empathy is fairly simple. When someone has made a mistake or slipped up in some way, just listen to them. Don't interrupt, don't offer advice, don't say that it will be all right. And don't be afraid of silence. Just listen. 

And then, after some time, reflect back what you heard them say, what you feel they're feeling. That's it.

I said simple, not easy. It's hard to just listen and reflect back. It's hard not to give advice or solve a problem. Hard, but worth the effort.

After some time, Dana got up from the stairs, we all had dinner, and then she went to watch some TV.

We were talking in the living room when she came in to say good night.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her.

"OK, I guess." She shrugged. "I'm still bummed."

I almost told her not to worry, that it would be OK, that she would feel better in the morning, that there was always the next race, that she had lots of time to practice. 

Almost.

"I understand," I told her. "It's a bummer."

*Names and some details changed

(Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2011/03/the-right-way-to-respond-to-fa.html)

Nghệ thuật “móc túi” của các marketer

Tại sao cứ vào một trung tâm mua sắm, khi ra, bạn lại mua một món gì đó? Tại sao phụ nữ luôn bị các gian hàng làm cho mê mẩn và không tiếc tiền để mua hàng? Đó chính là nghệ thuật “móc túi” của các marketer.

Phụ nữ thích shopping cũng như đàn ông nghiền xem đá bóng. Tại sao chúng ta thích mua sắm đến thế, nhất là phụ nữ? Vui cũng mua sắm, buồn cũng mua sắm và không vui, không buồn cũng mua sắm luôn. Có rất nhiều lý do khiến phụ nữ bước chân vào các khu trung tâm thương mại. Như một thường lệ, phụ nữ hễ bước chân vào khu mua sắm, khi ra, họ phải cầm theo một món gì trên tay.

Thoạt đầu, mục đích của họ có thể là đi ngắm đồ, nhưng đến khi về lại khệ nệ tay xách nách mang. Chính vì thế, hầu như các quảng cáo trên tạp chí, ngoài trời và trong các trung tâm mua sắm đều tập trung vào đối tượng chính là nữ giới.

Công thức P = (N+F+A) x E2

Các trung tâm thương mại không tiếc tiền vào khoản thiết kế, trưng bày gian hàng cũng như nghiên cứu tâm lý mua hàng của khách hàng. Ngày trước, chất lượng sản phẩm là chính. Ngày nay, với mức độ cạnh tranh khốc liệt trên thương trường cũng như yêu cầu ngày càng cao của khách hàng, một thương hiệu muốn đứng vững càng quan tâm hơn đến tâm lý của các thượng đế.

Pamela N.Danziger, tác giả cuốn sách Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience đã đưa ra công thức để tính khả năng mua hàng của khách: P = (N+F+A) x E2.

P có nghĩa là propensity, thiên hướng mua hàng của khách được quyết định bởi các yếu tố need (nhu cầu), features (kiểu dáng và đặc tính của sản phẩm), affordability (khả năng đáp ứng về mặt giá cả) và cuối cùng là emotion (cảm xúc, tình cảm). Trong khi các yếu tố khác chỉ chiếm một phần, emotion lại nghiễm nhiên nhân bình phương, chứng tỏ mức độ quan trọng của nó.

Mỗi người có một niềm đam mê khó cưỡng lại với mỗi món hàng đặc biệt, hay có thể gọi đó là điểm yếu của chúng ta. Chẳng hạn, các bé gái chết mê chết mệt búp bê Barbie, có bao nhiêu cũng không thấy đủ. Các cậu con trai cứ dính chặt vào các máy chơi điện tử, nào là PSP, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii… Cứ như một thói quen, hễ đi shopping là người ta phải mua về đúng món hàng ấy.

Nói cho dễ hiểu, nếu như bạn là một nhạc sĩ, thế nào bạn cũng bị cuốn hút vào gian hàng bán nhạc cụ hoặc những gì liên quan đến âm nhạc.

Các shopaholic (tín đồ shopping) cũng vậy, mỗi người có một đam mê riêng, như tôi chẳng hạn. Đến khi mua sắm, tôi lại sà vào hàng mỹ phẩm, ngắm tới ngắm lui các màu mắt, màu son hoặc sơn móng tay mới. Dù chỉ thỉnh thoảng mới sơn móng tay hoặc cuối tuần đi chơi, đi tiệc mới trang điểm, nhưng tôi vẫn cứ thích mua thêm về thật nhiều, nhìn cứ như bộ sưu tập.

Tôi còn một niềm đam mê khác nữa là giày. Để giải thích rõ công thức P = (N+F+A) x E2 trên, tôi lý giải việc mua đôi giày bảy phân cổ cao màu đen, dạng gladiator (giày có nhiều dây) đính hạt lấp lánh.

Đầu tiên, xét về mặt nhu cầu, liệu tôi có cần đôi giày này đến mức không thể thiếu nó không? Chắc chắn là không, vì tôi cũng có đôi giày gladiator tương tự, chỉ khác kiểu dây và đính nút sắt thay vì đá lấp lánh. Nếu xếp theo thang điểm, nhu cầu của tôi chắc chắn chỉ bằng 0.

Tuy nhiên, đôi giày nằm kiêu hãnh như một nàng công chúa trên kệ trưng bày của cửa hàng Nine West khiến tôi không thể không dừng bước. Kiểu giày rất tinh tế, ngoài những sợi dây đính đá khéo léo kết lại với nhau, ngay cả phần lưới trên thân giày cũng được dát một lớp đá tấm dạng nhuyễn.

Hơn nữa, kiểu giày hở mũi không quá bó chân này sẽ khiến việc đi lại dễ dàng hơn. Cho dù có đi party, dancing, tôi cũng không phải nhăn nhó, liên tục tháo giày vì đau chân. Từng viên đá bắt sáng lóng lánh dưới ánh đèn khiến tôi lập tức liên tưởng sẽ kết hợp nó với chiếc đầm đen xếp nếp, cổ xẻ sâu và bộ trang sức bằng đá Swarovski mới mua.

Những ý nghĩ đó cứ liên tục nối tiếp nhau khiến tôi bước vào cửa hàng và cầm đôi giày lên như trong vô thức. Đôi giày quá đẹp, không còn chê vào đâu được.

Vấn đề quan trọng bây giờ là phần giá cả. Tôi thầm nghĩ nếu đôi giày này dưới hai triệu đồng, chắc chắn tôi sẽ mua ngay lập tức. Nếu từ hai triệu đến ba triệu đồng, tôi sẽ mang thử và quyết định sau. Còn nếu cao hơn nữa, có lẽ tôi không mua, để dịp khác, bởi vì của đáng tội, tôi mới mua hai đôi giày tuần trước và còn chưa kịp bóc tem.

Cảm xúc, khả năng chi trả và thái độ của nhân viên bán hàng

Có thể thấy nguyên tố quan trọng quyết định việc mua hàng của tôi chính là cảm xúc tôi dành cho nó. Cho nên dù nhu cầu rất thấp, nhưng kiểu dáng của đôi giày đã đẩy cảm giác muốn sở hữu của tôi lên cao.Chỉ số tình cảm tôi dành cho đôi giày khiến trong mắt tôi, những viên đã sang như kim cương, kiểu dáng của nó thêm phần thanh tao và hoàn hảo. Chỉ số tình cảm sẽ đẩy mạnh nhu cầu nếu như sau khi tôi thử đôi giày và thấy nó hoàn toàn khác hẳn những đôi tôi đã có.

Thêm một cú knock-out cuối cùng là tôi đủ khả năng mua đôi giày này. Thú thật, cho dù nếu lúc đó tôi không đủ tiền, đôi giày đẹp ấy sẽ cứ ám ảnh tâm trí tôi mãi, thôi thúc tôi quay trở lại và mua bằng được mới thôi. Đó chính là tâm lý chung của các shopaholic.

Chỉ số tình cảm ở đây còn chịu ảnh hưởng từ thái độ của nhân viên bán hàng. Nếu họ tận tâm và nhiệt tình phục vụ khách hàng hơn. Còn nếu họ tỏ thái độ khinh khỉnh, với kiểu nhìn như đặt câu hỏi: “Có đủ tiền không mà đòi mua hàng?, có lẽ dù thích đến mấy, tôi sẽ bước ngay ra khỏi cửa hàng. May cho tôi (hay là không may?), cô nhân viên có nụ cười dễ mến hôm ấy rất nhiệt tình giúp tôi thử giày. Thế là dĩ nhiên, không còn lý do gì khiến tôi phải chần chừ."

Có thể thấy khi phụ nữ đã bước chân vào cửa hàng mua sắm, những suy nghĩ, tính toán, logic của bán cầu não trái sẽ nhường chỗ hẳn cho nguyên tố chi phối, đó là tình cảm – emotion. Dĩ nhiên, những nguyên tố khác như nhu cầu, kiểu dáng, túi tiền cũng góp phần thêm vào, theo công thức nêu trên: 1+1+1 = 3. Trong khi đó, tình cảm có hiệu quả nhân bình phương: (1+1+1) x 52 = 75.

Đáp ứng và thỏa mãn nhu cầu của tất cả khách hàng

Các trung tâm mua sắm nắm rất rõ những nguyên tố chi phối quyết định mua hàng ngày này của khách. Yếu tố đầu tiên, nhu cầu khách hàng thuộc về mặt Cá nhân của từng người và rất đa dạng. Mỗi người có một nhu cầu khác nhau. Có người muốn mua nữ trang, mỹ phẩm, có người muốn mua vật dụng gia đình, có người cần bộ đầm dạ hội để đi tiệc cưới. Do đó, các marketer rất khó tác động trực tiếp đến nhu cầu.

Tuy nhiên, chính nhu cầu ấy lại là điều kiện kéo khách hàng đến các trung tâm mua sắm. Vì thế, chỉ còn cách là có càng nhiều mặt hàng mua sắm càng tốt, để có thể đáp ứng và thỏa mãn nhu cầu của tất cả khách hàng và nam phụ đến lão ấu.

Chẳng hạn, một gia đình gồm đôi vợ chồng và cô con gái đi mua sắm, mỗi người đều có sở thích riêng. Còn gì bằng nếu cả gia đình đều được thỏa mãn nhu cầu cùng lúc: cô con gái mua búp bê Barbie mới, ông bố tậu chiếc laptop gọn nhẹ, cần thiết cho những công tác xa, còn bà mẹ hoàn toàn hài lòng với chai nước hoa Channel No5 ngọt ngào.

Do đó, các trung tâm mua sắm lớn ở nước ngoài thường chia thành nhiều khu vực như: lady’s wear, kid’s wear, for men, electronic, food court, housewares… với đa dạng sản phẩm để khách hàng có thêm nhiều lựa chọn.

Nghe, nhìn, ngửi và cảm giác

Các marketer chú trọng tập trung vào các giác quan của khách hàng, nhất là thính giác, thị giác, khứu giác, xúc giác. Trước hết, sảnh vào luôn được trang trí bắt mắt từ ngoài vào trong, nhất là vào các dịp lễ. Hệ thống ánh sáng luôn được đầu tư kỹ càng. Cũng cùng một gian hàng, một sản phẩm nhưng thiếu đi hệ thống ánh sáng, giá trị của món hàng sẽ giảm hẳn.

Âm nhạc đóng vai trò quan trọng không kém. Một số nghiên cứu cho rằng thể loại nhạc nhẹ nhàng, vừa phải khiến khách hàng thư thái khi đi shopping và có nhiều thời gian ngắm nhìn, chọn lựa sản phẩm hơn. Do đó, âm thanh được chọn lọc kỹ. Thể loại nhạc nhanh, tiết tấu mạnh phù hợp hơn với những gian hàng dành cho giới trẻ.

Tầng một ở các trung tâm thương mại như Diamond Plaza hoặc Opera View luôn là nơi trưng bày của các thương hiệu thời trang nổi tiếng cao cấp như Salvatore Ferragamo, Furla, Burberry, Cartier, Louis Vuitton… Ngoài ra còn có trang sức và mỹ phẩm với những poster quảng cáo của những cô người mẫu đẹp mê hồn. Những món thuộc hàng xa xỉ phẩm này nâng tầm nhu cầu lên thành một yếu tố tâm lý khác, đó là một thế giới của khát khao và mơ ước.

Tôi muốn sở hữu chiếc túi xách Versace màu đen sang trọng kết hợp với chiếc áo trench coat của Burberry. Tôi ao ước có được vẻ đẹp chết người cả Catherine Zeta-Jones với đôi môi gợi cảm như quảng cáo của Elizabeth Arden. Hương thơm dịu dàng, ngọt như kẹo của Lolita Lempicka hay mùi hoa hồng của BVLGARI, gỗ đàn hương ấm áp của Issey Miyake khiến các shopaholic khó lòng làm ngơ. Những hình ảnh đẹp đẽ và hương thơm quyến rũ ấy kích thích quyết định mua hàng rất cao.

Một người bạn của tôi, khi đi shopping lại rất thích cầm nhiều túi xách to nhỏ mà không chịu để dồn vào chung một túi cho gọn. Lý do của cô là chỉ để mọi người trông thấy mình mua được nhiều món đồ ưng ý như thế nào.

Cô bảo: “Cái cảm giác được mọi người nhìn theo, trầm trồ thật thú vị. Các cô bán hàng dường như cũng hiểu được khả năng shopping của mình nên phần nào đon đả và ngọt ngào hơn. Hơn nữa, các túi xách bây giờ nhìn rất sang chứ không phải túi xốp hay bao giấy như trước đâu mà phải giấu giấu giếm giếm”.

Quà tặng và mua hàng giảm giá

Có thể thấy, kiểu dáng và chất lượng sản phẩm thôi vẫn chưa đủ. Đã đẹp phải đẹp từ trong ra ngoài. Đó cũng là lý do ngày càng nhiều thương hiệu đầu tư vào thiết kế túi đựng hàng mang dấu ấn của riêng mình. Đây cũng là một phương pháp quảng bá thương hiệu có hiệu quả.

Một tuyệt chiêu nữa mà các trung tâm thương mại luôn chú trọng: quà tặng và mua hàng giảm giá. Có người phụ nữ nào không thích được tặng quà? Có người phụ nữ nào không thích được giảm giá? Hễ nghe ở đâu có giảm giá, big sale, thế là một đồn mười, mười đồn trăm, các quý bà quý cô ùn ùn đổ về trung tâm mua sắm như trẩy hội. Những điều kiện như mua hai tặng một, tặng phiếu giảm giá, mua sản phẩm trị giá hơn một triệu đồng sẽ được tặng sản phẩm đi kèm… luôn khiến phụ nữ hào hứng vì mua được món hời.

Cô bạn tôi từng mua hộp kem dưỡng mắt Estee Lauder vì muốn nhận được quà tặng là bộ trang điểm mini và ba chiếc túi nhỏ xinh xắn. Tôi mua thêm hai chiếc áo của Marc by Marc Jacobs chỉ để được tặng chiếc túi vải màu đỏ, trong khi mục đích vào đây là mua một chiếc quần trắng. Vâng, chỉ là một chiếc quần trắng thôi.

Biết bao người như tôi hay bạn tôi, mua thêm sản phẩm vì lời nói ngọt như mía lùi của cô bán hàng: “Chị ơi, chị đã mua được chừng này rồi, chỉ còn một chút xíu nữa là được quà tặng. Quà này là hàng limited item đấy. Hay là chị cứ mua thêm một sản phẩm nữa cho đủ điểm nhé?”. Hai chữ “quà tặng” cứ như một thứ vũ khí mật chuyên dùng để đánh trúng điểm yếu của phái nữ.

Nói đến yếu tố tâm lý khách hàng được các trung tâm mua sắm khai thác thế nào, còn lâu mới kể hết. Họ quan tâm và không tiếc tiền đầu tư từng chi tiết nhỏ, cách phối màu, sắp xếp gian hàng, âm thanh, ánh sáng nhằm thu hút khách mua hàng. Chẳng trách các shopaholic hễ đến các khu thương mại là như bị bỏ bùa mê, cứ việc máy móc cà thẻ hoặc trả tiền một cách không thương tiếc. Đơn giản, mục tiêu của các shopping center là khiến chúng ta “shop till you drop”.

(Nguồn: http://www.saga.vn/Marketing/19338.saga)