January 28, 2005
“smarter conversations” (cont.)
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.
Complication is a sign of someone desperately trying to justify his fee.
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.)
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.
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.
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…
Eh, some are more ready than others.
Time will tell who makes it through the shredder.
Complication is a sign of weakness. Complication is a sign of muddled thought
Often, but not always, imo. Some things are in fact complicated.