if you have been reading my blog you know that one of my fundamental beliefs is that there is much that we can learn about how to approach marketing from life and vice versa.  i call them lifemark principles. well, three weekends ago i got engaged and what better time to apply everything i learned from marketing, right?  after all, much of what we do is about tapping into someone’s emotions so you can motivate them to take your desired action?  so today i thought it would be fun to outline how marketing help me get the girl i love.

the objective. get the girl (for the rest of my life).

as with all good marketing it starts with the customer; and more specifically, you must have a deep, actionable consumer insight to jump off of.

the insight. tanya sees me as her best friend.  and, as her best friend, she wants to know that i know everything about her – the good, the bad, and the ugly.  it is then and only then that she feels like my love for her can be real.  in short, to tanya, to know me is to love me.

so i began thinking of ways to show her that i really, really know her and love all that i have discovered.  after spinning it around for a little while i came up with a simple idea.

the idea. “a night of everything she loves;” i identified the things that make tanya happiest (thus proving i know her) and gave it all to her in one night.  though this would be a one night thing, the theme would, of course, be true for eternity.

the execution. i sent tanya a text asking her to “get fly” because we were hitting the town that night.  after she agreed, i sent her a checklist of all of the things she loves.  the list included everything from some of her favorite dishes to her most loved drinks to God anded end with “me.”  immediately after shooting her the list i received the perfect response from her, “this is a great list. it seems like u kno me so well!” check!  exactly what we were hoping for (this again shows you how having a deep, actionable insight can help you create ideas that deliver results).

so we hit nyc and proceeded to check off the list: we drank reisling, we ate ahi tuna, we downed mango margaritas, we crushed wasabi mashed potatoes, we prayed together.  we did it all and, at 11:15pm, we ended up at kanvas.  it was at kanvas, back in 2007, that tanya and i decided to stop playing cat and mouse, admit that we liked each other, and decided to date.  in short, it is the place that it all began.  and it was there that i would get on one knee, outside in the cold, acknowledge this as our start point, and request that we stop dating and spend our life together.  it was her ‘yes’ that was needed to mark the final check box on the list of things she loved; i wanted to give her “me…” for life.  she said yes, and a weekend of celebration began.

that’s it.  that’s the story.  so did years of marketing enable me to have a successful proposal?  absolutely.  now i wonder if it can help me have a lifetime of a successful marriage.  ;-)

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