For some time now, Epson has been taking your printing needs into the realm of personality with these campaign designed to help their consumers “find the one Epson inkjet to fulfill your inner printing needs.”  Though it may seem a bit silly, they are taking a direct approach to what has become one of the most common practices in marketing technology … creating a more human connection through using images of real people and promoting the emotional benefits of a product as much as the functional ones.

As time goes on, we’ll see more and more brands starting to tap this idea of their customer’s personality to promote their brands.  I can’t help but wonder in looking at this campaign how Epson might describe their own “epsonality.” Or, more accurately, the personality of their brand behind this campaign that people might connect with.  Unfortunately, if you visit the main campaign website, you are presented with a slightly more highly designed interactive product feature selector.  It’s a missed opportunity to carry through the humananity of the campaign idea into implementation.

Instead, what if they had certain types of personalities such as “Album Alice” (the mom who prints photos at home) or “Legal Larry” who prints lots of legal documents in text and doesn’t need photo capabilities or color printing? Then they could have allowed people to select their own “epsonality” that matched these personas to weave the product into the choice in a more human way.  The point is, it’s not enough to say that you’re focusing on your customer’s personality. You need to follow through.

Gary Vaynerchuck is the wildly successful entrepreneur behind WineLibrary.TV and speaks often about using social media tools to promote your business. He also runs a wine community called Cork’d which was recently hacked.  Below is a video where he admits his mistake and uses the lessons of “Fallibility Marketing” (explained on Page 217 of PNI) to not only deal with the PR crisis, but also promote his brand at the same time.  A great PR and marketing lesson from an emerging master:

An inside look at how I wrote Personality Not Included:

I love books. Not just for the power of conveying an idea through a printed form, but also for the emotional significance of actually holding a book in your hands. More and more recently I have been books become a brilliant marketing tool for everyone, from political candidates to technology companies. Along the way, there are several ideas that I have collected for how using a book could be an effective part of a marketing strategy. Here are a few:

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