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January 28, 2005

“smarter conversations” (cont.)

7 Comments

I pre­dict client requests beco­ming inc­rea­singly more like this one:

Ad Agen­cies:
I want to know 2 things from you: Who’s using my pro­duct, and what they’re saying about it.
If we don’t like either ans­wer, then we got to figure out what we’re going to do to fix it.
Don’t talk to me about chan­ging the customer’s beha­vior. Talk to me about ways to change our behavior.

Having diges­ted shed­loads of adver­ti­sing lingo over the last decade, I’m sud­denly fin­ding that the ans­wers that really reso­nate with me are get­ting sim­pler and sim­pler.
Com­pli­ca­tion is a sign of weak­ness. Com­pli­ca­tion is a sign of mudd­led thought.
“Smar­ter Con­ver­sa­tions” is where it’s at.

7 Responses to ““smarter conversations” (cont.)”

1. Katherine says:

   January 28, 2005 at 2:29 PM

   Com­pli­ca­tion is a sign of someone des­pe­ra­tely trying to jus­tify his fee.
2. Dave Wheeler says:

   January 28, 2005 at 2:43 PM

   Very con­cise and to the point.
   I think you have hit on a key point that many com­pa­nies that are trying to unders­tand “buzz” or “viral mar­ke­ting” or “word of mouth mar­ke­ting” need to learn! As you said, com­pli­ca­tion is mudd­led thought. Sim­ple WORKS! (but too many peo­ple feel they need to jus­tify their exis­tence by over­com­pli­ca­ting things.)
3. mamagiggle says:

   January 28, 2005 at 4:03 PM

   I think the conun­drum is that the things being sold are get­ting more com­pli­ca­ted, how can we talk about those things in sim­ple terms. Yeah a nice tai­lo­red suit, that is sim­ple.
   I like simple.
4. AH says:

   January 28, 2005 at 9:00 PM

   Though clients and their mar­ke­ters NEED to learn to “change our beha­vior” as well as enhance the con­ver­sa­tions, I think you ove­res­ti­mate how ready they are to do so, and unde­res­ti­mate their devo­tion to the idea they (smart) will mani­pu­late the (idiot) consumer.
5. Emergent Strategies says:

   January 28, 2005 at 11:25 PM

   Com­ple­xity and Simplicity

   In my early 20s, I com­ple­ted a Mas­ters the­sis on macro-economic fore­cas­ting and learnt that an eco­nomy is an inc­re­dibly com­plex sys­tem with lags and feed­back loops — even sim­ple models gene­rate com­plex beha­viour.
   In the dozen years since, I’ve als…
6. hugh macleod says:

   January 29, 2005 at 1:30 AM

   Eh, some are more ready than others.
   Time will tell who makes it through the shredder.
7. Jon Husband says:

   January 29, 2005 at 12:04 PM

   Com­pli­ca­tion is a sign of weak­ness. Com­pli­ca­tion is a sign of mudd­led thought
   Often, but not always, imo. Some things are in fact complicated.