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It’s snowing today. It’s been snowing all day, in fact. That fact won’t mean much to the folks up North, but in Central Texas a snow day this close to March merits a raised eyebrow or two. I’ve spotted a couple of people just standing out on the sidewalk, staring up into the sky, dumbfounded. Others have clearly opted not to leave their homes today because of the deadly white stuff on the ground. Mostly, though, people seem genuinely pleased to see the snow here.

Why? What’s so interesting about a simple, explainable meteorological phenomenon? Our reactions will vary, depending on our past experiences with it, but here are some reasons to like snow:

It’s festive. We associate snow with the holiday season, even if we live in a part of the world that rarely sees the stuff. Who doesn’t know the words to “White Christmas” or “Let it Snow?” We’ve associated certain happy feelings with the sight of snow in the air or on the ground. Never mind the fact that the car door is frozen shut and everyone in the house has pneumonia — it’s snowing!

It’s kid stuff. That first snowfall was an event, wasn’t it? Snowmen, snow angels, snowball fights — a good solid snow forms the basis of a child’s version of the Winter Olympics. Snow can return us to childhood, especially if we grew up with it on a yearly basis, by hardwiring itself into early, formative emotional memories.

It’s rare. I’m speaking as a native Texan, of course. Talk to somebody up in Minnesota about snow and see how excited they get. “Jingle Bells” or no “Jingle Bells,” if you see enough snow on the ground, month after monotonous month, not only will you end up half-blind but you’ll also come to hate snow. That guy will be the one who gets excited about a hundred-degree day — like we get down here all summer long. Whoopee.

The three properties that I just touched on have one thing in common — they’re all emotional triggers. They manage, often subconsciously, to evoke feelings and responses. Sights, sounds, smells can all cause us to react in a (mostly) predictable way.

Our marketing content must pull those exact same triggers. That doesn’t necessarily mean you should add snowdrifts and fresh-baked bread and raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens into everything you write, but it does mean that you have to consider what images will work most effectively on the particular audience you’re addressing. Just as a snowy landscape does nothing for the guy who has to shovel his way out of the garage every morning, any given word can fall on a deaf ear unless you know who you’re talking to and what words they want to hear.

Oh, it’s lightening up now. Sniff.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.”

When you hear that phrase issuing forth from your radio or TV, you can be sure of a couple of things. First, the President is about to speak. Second, on any channel you switch to, any station you can tune in, in any market, in any part of the nation — the President is about to speak. The same goes for any big national or international breaking news. Whatever channel you’re watching or listening to, the message will be the same.

What happens as a result? We all the get same information, at the same time. A few different flavors of it, perhaps, depending on the individual source, but the same essential statement comes over the airwaves. Good news or bad, welcome or not, we’re all clued into the same data in more or less the same way.

Imagine what would happen if, instead of everyone experiencing the same live press conference, different audiences got totally different pre-recorded statements, all emphasizing different points and delivered in different tones. In the end, no one would know the whole story. Chaos.

So why do we let it happen in our marketing?

You’ve seen this phenomenon yourself. A company’s website conveys a slightly different marketing message than its Facebook page, which conveys a different message than its official blog, which conveys a slightly different message than its Twitter campaign, et cetera. The disconnect can be as subtle as a web page that expresses one feeling visually and another feeling verbally. The resulting contradictory statements tend to cancel each other out, leaving the impression that nothing much has been expressed at all, or at least not in a way that made an impact.

Marketing is all about making an impact on the emotions and decision-making triggers of your audience. But emotional impact, like physical impact, depends on congruent, massive action. You can’t knock somebody out by punching them with five fingers, one at a time — you have to curl all five into a fist and throw them all at once. A marketing campaign must use the same unity of action across all its “fingers” — the many channels, spread across many media, that project a company’s brand. Not “brands.” Brand. Yes, little variations add freshness and help you get the most out of each channel’s individual strengths, but across all channels the core message must prevail.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and of course you know what that means — dating advice plastered all over the Web.

People have offered solicited and unsolicited advice about dating since the practice first began. Through the years, certain basic rules have taken hold as common wisdom. One oft-repeated maxim: It’s not about you.”

Examples of a lousy date frequently include participants who talk nonstop about themselves, rarely hold eye contact, fail to show interest when their date speaks, check for phone messages, or perform other blatant acts of disregard. Good dates, we’re told, pay rapt attention, maintain consistent (but not creepy) eye contact, ignore distractions, and communicate their total fascination with and enjoyment of the conversation.

We’re naturally flattered when someone finds us interesting and genuinely wants to know more. And when we send out that new marketing campaign, of course we’re delighted when the requests for more info come in. But if you’re getting nothing but nothing, it’s time to ask yourself — what about your partner in this conversation? Have you been a “good date” for your reader?

When we view marketing, most of us don’t particularly like to be talked to. We want to enter into a kind of dialogue. We want to be asked how we feel.

“Are you tired of that thing that really irritates you?” Why, yes I am, thank you for asking.

“Wouldn’t you love an easy, affordable solution?” Well, sure.

“Did you know that Whiz-O can solve your problem and give you a better lifestyle for much less than the other brand?” REALLY? Tell me more.

“If you’d like more information, let us know and we’ll be glad to talk to you about it.” You want to talk to me? Wow, what a nice company. I wouldn’t mind seeing them again….

Is it silly to equate dating with marketing? I don’t think so. Good marketing creates a relationship between buyer and seller based on trust, respect, and emotional satisfaction. Anyway, we market ourselves to each other every day — not in a manner that would get us thrown in jail by the vice squad, hopefully, but in the sense that we strive to look and behave a certain way so that people will want to be around us and listen to what we have to say.

So, Happy Valentine’s Day, marketers, and good luck in wooing your audience. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

“Hi, honey. Look what I got free at the checkout. It’s a Chef’s Pal! It’s a dicer-grater-peeler all in one! Never needs sharpening, dishwasher safe!”

If that line sounds like an ad, well, it is. It’s also part of a real-life conversation — or so it seems to Truman.

In the film The Truman Show, Jim Carrey plays a man whose life is completely enmeshed in television. The school he attended, the woman he married, the job he goes to every day, the friends he’s hung around with since childhood — they’re all faked. The truth, hidden from him since birth, is that Truman’s life is a reality-TV show. His entire hometown is a collection of sets, props, actors and extras, all covered by armies of unseen cameras. Even the sky overhead is nothing but a blue dome.

Truman suspects something is up — literally, in the case of a lamp-powered “star” that accidentally drops from the “sky” and almost decapitates him. He wants answers, but of course the actors paid to be his wife and best friend aren’t helping — at least not until he notices an odd trait in his wife’s behavior. She seems determined to soothe his worries with various foods, drinks, or consumer products, blurting out excited pitches for these products almost at random. Carrey finally can’t take it anymore and yells, “Who are you talking to??”

These odd little inserted sales pitches take their cue from the old live commercials of TV’s Golden Age, when ads for the show’s sponsor were cleverly (or not-so-cleverly) worked into the scripts: “Bob, I know your wife’s death has got you down. Here, have a cigarette. You’ll really like these new Salems — they’re filter-tipped for a smoother, more satisfying smoke.”

Believe it or not, people still use this ham-handed marketing technique. How many times have you gotten interested in an informational article, only to realize before the end that it’s just a sales pitch for a product or service? Ever feel gratified to the author for that little walk down the primrose path? Or were you more likely to want that last few minutes of your life back?

Context matters in marketing. So does honesty. If you’re selling something, sell it, and make it clear to us that you’re selling it. Otherwise, any good will you’ve bought from us toward the beginning of that “special report” or “informative study” will just turn to hard feelings by the end when we realize we’ve been had. Sure, you’ll catch a few enthralled buyers, but keep in mind that bad impressions make more waves than good ones.

Don’t make your readers feel the betrayal, hurt, and anger Truman feels when he touches the sky and realizes it’s a backdrop.