110 Degrees With the Top Down

So, we're driving down the freeway in Hell... I mean, Phoenix. It's 6:45 p.m., and the outside temperature is still registering 110 -- a meteorological phenomena in many places, but here it just means it's July.

The post-rush hour traffic is back to normal – that is to say most drivers are pushing 15-20 miles an hour over the posted speed limit and yakking away with their Lt. Uhura look-alike Bluetooth devices crammed in their ear. The occasional old-fashioned exception being the "old" guy who’s talking or texting into some ancient handheld relic.

Anyway, out of the blue – or maybe it was a dust devil – appears a shiny jewel of a BMW driven by a young, professional-looking business woman – hair up, glasses, intelligent-looking and talking on the phone of course – but the difference is, she’s driving a convertible – and the top is down. And it’s 110 degrees outside.

For anyone who’s never lived in the desert, let’s get something straight. 110 degrees is HOT. Nasty hot. And no amount of moving that hot air around is going to change that or make it seem cooler. Even with her German-engineered air-conditioning futilely cranked up to high, it’s still like sitting in a blast furnace with an ice cube and a fan blowing on you. I don’t know – maybe her toes were reaping some benefits, and she was practicing some kind of Zen yoga concentration that focused on the coolness of the Little-Piggy-Who-Went-To-Market.

I’m almost immediately doubting the Zen theory, though – as she starts tailgating the Ford Fiesta in front of her in an attempt to inch up enough to make her (no doubt) 19th unsafe lane change of the evening by cutting off my poor wife who’s also now taken notice of her, and tapped on the accelerator ever-so-slightly to thwart our new nemesis’ plan.

Glancing over at our topless friend again, I try to figure out if there’s actually a reason for what seems to be aggressiveness. Bad hair day? That would do it for me. And her hair is pinned up. Bad day at the office and bad hair day, maybe? Hmm, she doesn’t look annoyed, nor does she seem panicked – like she’s GOT to get home in a hurry because little Johnny swallowed the new goldfish... again.

No – she seems totally unaware of anything around her. On her cell phone, she’s completely removed from where she is, and oblivious to the fact that she’s doing anything wrong.

So, she’s just a bad driver.

I’m not dismissing it or excusing her. But let’s face it – there are so many of them out on the road these days, the term “defensive driving” has never been more important. Get out of her way and hope she doesn’t take someone with her when it finally catches up to her.

But the convertible thing is another matter. Think about it – she actually took the time to put the top down before she got into the car. It was a conscious decision she probably made while standing outdoors in 110 degrees. What was her motivation?

You can make all the humorous or snide assumptions in the world (believe me – my wife and I did), but until we know her – it’s just dumbass guessing, and the behavior doesn’t really make sense.

Motivation is a strange thing. It doesn’t always make sense.

Which is why getting to know what motivates your audience or customers in any B2B or B2C marketing is critical.

Consumer (or client) behavior is sometimes like driving down the freeway in 110 degrees with the top down. It doesn’t makes sense – until it does. And when it does, you can start effective communication.