October 20, 2004
what people are saying, how often, and why
REGARDING A SPECIFIC, WORK-RELATED PROBLEM I’M CURRENTLY HAVING:
Dear Mr Brand Manager,
You’ve been talking to me this last while, going “The Brand this, The Brand that, yak yak yak yak…” And I’ve been pretending to pay attention because hey, I like money.
We need to start over.
Instead of talking about “The Brand” in terms of metaphor micro-tweaking (“The Essential Dog Food Experience! No, the TOTAL Essential Dog Food Experience!”), can we not talk about who is talking about your product, what they are saying about your product and how often they’re having the conversation?
Can we not just try to improve the quality, quantity and frequency of the conversation? 3 little things? Would that not raise your sales curve?
Would it not be easier to put your product on a beermat and get people in bars yakking about your product? Would they not be surprised to see your product on a beermat? Would it not throw a few people for a loop? Can we not put a few young, smart types in the field and get them observing people’s behavior around the beermats?
The answer is not in what you think you are. The answer is in what people are saying, how often, and why.
[UPDATE:] Adpulp [Caveat: cites this website *Ahem!*] makes the UTTERLY BRILLIANT point that when advertising goes from an “EGO-logy” model to an “ECO-logy” model, it turns from a mainly VISUAL medium into a mainly VERBAL medium. Wonderful!
This is great, but will they listen? It’s a big switch to move from “transmit” to “receive”. You need to rewire the place and add a plug for “in” instead of just “out”. But if they don’t get it, evolution will take care of the rest. Keep those gems coming Hugh!
Chris, I’m assuming that most won’t listen. I’m assuming most will die, squealing like little piggies.
And best of all, I have ring-side seats
I tend to agree with most of the sentiments on here but as a programmer Id like to quote an old adage — “If it aint broke, dont fix it”… meaning you may have to somehow prove that their existing marketing model /is/ broken.