Today, my talk is about...

I was first introduced to public speaking in high school. Through two public speaking classes and active involvement in FFA, I had the opportunity to engage in impromptu, extemporaneous and prepared public speaking opportunities. Of these, impromptu was my favorite. In competition, the judges would give the speaker a topic. Within 15 seconds, the speaker organized their thoughts and began a three-minute or less speech on the given subject.

I also enjoyed the prepared category. This category included prose, persuasive and demonstration sub categories. I remember giving a number of demonstration speeches, from how to build an electric motor to proper lawn mowing technique (yes, my inner nerd is showing again).

Demonstration speeches achieved something persuasive speeches often could not. Demonstration speeches had the power to alter behavior, while persuasive speeches were designed to alter perceptions.

Advertising is typically designed to alter a perception. Direct marketing is typically better at altering behavior. Direct marketing gives the advertiser more room to tell the complete story. It gives them the opportunity to demonstrate the features and benefits of the product. Direct usually engages people a little bit further down the purchase decision pyramid. Due to segmentation through profiling, direct marketers can easily identify their potential customers. Direct marketers can often bypass the need to alter perceptions (through advertising) and move straight to helping the consumer make a choice between two products the they are already considering.

And just so impromptu and extemporaneous don't feel left out, those are left to the sales people. Those feet on the street warriors who (hopefully) listen carefully to the potential customer and then deftly provide thoughtful answers to their questions without having to recant a prepared sales pitch.

Who knew all that stuff we learned in high school would matter?