If someone is interested in going where you are going, you don’t have to hustle them, you don’t have to say this is where we are going. For example, you don’t need persuade people who you think might want to go to Cape Verde. What you need is to find the people who want to go to Cape Verde and then let them know, that’s where you are going.
Going against the grain
Advertising has been around for millions of years old and nowadays people use advertising as a heuristic for knowing whom to trust. I think that innovation tends to happen around the edges as if you design for the middle market you’ll end up in an overcrowded field. We don’t get an endorphin rush from mid-market retail. The people who successfully innovate are the people who actually understand that there is a margin and there is an extravagant treat.
By modelling social science on physics, we think that being scientific means that there is a right answer and a wrong answer. In marketing, the rules of the game aren’t constant, and you can re-write them, for example, by changing the context you can change what good means. The first assumption of science is that magic is impossible, which is absolutely true in physics but not true in psychology. Magic is possible in psychology, for example, you can make something worth 10 times as much simply by tweaking with the brain and not the thing itself.
The way to solve a problem may be trivial and silly, and our attempts in business to make ourselves look serious and important by always talking about higher order may also make us look stupid. Sometimes all you have to do is implement a very small “butterfly effect change” and actually you can. Big inputs can have small effects and small inputs can have big effects, that’s why human behaviour, I mean complex behaviour is not like high-school science.
Advertising works best when it is specific
Image via Kimberly Amici
I am a father, son, little brother, big brother, uncle, friend, leader, manager, mentor, coach and role model. I’m noticing this thing, here’s how I think it works and here’s how I think it may help you make things better. Would you pay me for that advice?
I made a great product, delivered wow and waited for them to tell other people. What I realised is that they will only tell other people if it will helps them, they will not tell other people if it only helps me. In order for other people to share your story, it must help their status, authority or life and then they will be more or likely to do it.
How to get our attention?
c/o British Vogue
A vision usually comes from an individual. An entrepreneur. They make their companies and the whole world share the values to which they are attached. Luciano Benetton had a clear image of a world without interracial hatred.
Back in the days the “United Colours of Benetton” campaigns were groundbreaking. AIDS, racism, homosexuality and religion were important issues and Benetton was the brand that provoked the establishment. It’s a real shame that their voice has gone flat.
c/o Wallpaper
I think that when you close your eyes, you see your inner world and when you open them, you see the outside world as it presents itself. If you keep one eye open and the other one closed, your sight is blurred, but you find your vision. Remember that when you look through a telescope, you have to close one eye if you want to see farther!
Do Loyal Customers Still Exist?
Everything we know about shopping – how, where, when and even why we shop is changing radically. I believe that there is still something physical about retail, as we still want to be social and have interactions with other human-beings in a fun and entertaining way. For today's retailer connecting with consumers' through every channel is essential if they are to remain relevant in an ever-changing world. According to Frost & Sullivan, OMNI-CHANNEL is defined as a "seamless and effortless, high-quality customer experiences that occur within and between contact channels". For example, physical stores, smart mobiles, websites, gaming consoles, computers, kiosks, social media (SoMe), online catalogues, etc.
In the past, the consumer saw an advert and if the advertising agency made a good job of telling the brand story, the advert would create product interest and drive consumers along a very linear path which led to purchasing. And if it was a good advert, the consumer would repeat the process and continue to buy in the traditional way - "get me excited about your product, which is available at these fine retailers!" Nowadays you hear about a brand from everywhere (see image) and if you are curious, this will usually lead you to the brands SoMe, app, website or store. Maybe you buy from the brand or one of their affiliate sellers, maybe not, media is no longer the vehicle to push me to a store, it is rapidly becoming the store!
The internet has collaborated our expectations of every purchasing decision that we make. How many of you would book a hotel room without looking at the number of stars or reading reviews? In my opinion, experiences will ultimately be the only differentiator that one retailer has over another in the long term. The days of "stack it high and watch it fly" mentality is over! There are some big questions that brands are going to have to ask, e.g. "What can we use in the way of new technology to gauge the level of engagement the consumer has whilst in-store? How can we create the perfect blend between content and commerce by channel? How to collect, leverage and apply omnichannel data across the various touch points?" It's not just about data, as I'm sure most brands have loads of data – it's about what you do with the data and how you use it.
The aim will always to engage the consumer, but also to drive your business with increased revenue. The big challenge is to find the balance to give your consumer content when they want it, where they want it and how they want it.
