Unorthodoxy: Combating brand indifference & active avoidance

A lot has been written about the importance of gathering, analysing and using data to give the customer exactly what she wants. And rightly so. This approach allows marketers to understand the customer better, add value to her life and efficiently drive audiences down a purchase funnel. However, a maniacal focus on the data alone is leading to us forget about the human at the end of those programmatically served eye balls.

Primary marketing challenge

This is important, because our primary marketing challenge is to tackle one thing and one thing alone: mass indifference. Assuming people are open to being converted assumes people are open to our messages; they’re not. They go about their lives pursuing what matters. And what matters today has always mattered: the basics of the Maslovian hierarchy — food, shelter, finances, family, friends, social mobility and self-worth [don’t forget internet access these days— ed-at-large]. Brands won’t matter unless they help people realise these hopes and dreams.

Don’t kid yourself that people care about your brand. Here’s a simple test: If Apple somehow fell prey to an Enron-esque scandal and foreclosed tomorrow, would the millions of fanboys go back to writing with a pen and a paper? Would they mourn the loss of a fantastic, creative company like the loss of a family member? Or would they would simply move on with their lives? Studies by the Ehrenberg Bass institute also show that, despite $billions invested to develop a differentiated positioning, people don’t see it, and feel that brands are substitutable.

Read the full article on Mark Lives.