January 10, 2018
I often dream of the simple days as a young marketer when decisions about how I communicate with my consumer were so easy, effectively through one of four or five choices of media and even less of channels. Today the ease of how we talk with the mass of consumers is clearly a thing of the past.
Today as brand builders, we are faced with tens of thousands of choices of new media, traditional media and media that are yet to arrive. Keeping up with the development of technology is mind numbing at the very least and it is no surprise that most of us retreat to the tried and true methods of TV, radio and paper (although we might easily adapt ourselves to online news and videos as it’s wonderfully familiar in its layout).
The danger is that by doing so we have effectively excluded the majority of our consumers, who might and will be consuming information in many other ways. The frightening reality is the more choices we have, the less we understand and the more we waste our communication budgets, delivering diminishing returns on the investments that we make communicating through our brands.
I believe that we are at a tipping point, where our consumer’s attention is being stretched to the physiological limit, where with so many distractions that they consume even less quality information as their patience is reduced to milliseconds. We have, as brand builders, less and less opportunity to grab their attention so that we can make our case. This minutiae sliver of time that we have is almost too fast for the Human brain to rationally take in information, compute as to its relevance and result in an action or further thought about considering or buying. This means that our messages have to touch the subconscious, the emotional, the limbic brain, which works on sensation and feeling. This is the most powerful part of our physiology when it comes to the most fundamental decisions that we take as Human beings.
Brands who attempt to set a rational argumentation will not necessarily succeed as they don’t connect fast enough for the hyper speed new consumer. Brands that ‘feel’ right are those that will triumph. This is not just one clever message or inspiring image but the result of multiple messages through video, visuals, symbols, through value laden words, through relevant benefits. Messages that seamlessly come together to build an image in our minds so that the instant of need, recognition, association and closeness to our message and our Brand is maximised.
