Just as farmers are toiling now with herbicide resistant weeds, members of the marketing community are having trouble connecting with advertising resistant consumers.
Roots.
Roots is a concept I discuss with my consulting clients; the return to a simpler, more prideful lifestyle. Don’t throw away your million iPazzles — not that type of simple. But do watch old black and white, finely crafted movies on them. (Etsy is a hot web property that plays to the roots phenomenon — catering to the hand-made crowd.)
Because of herbicide resistant strains of weeds, many farmers are back in their fields plowing and manually pulling weeds, a practice hey had long forgone. Roots. Advertisers, on the other hand, rather than creating more meaningful and sales-appropriate messages — also roots — have decided to take their selling messages to new places. Advertising is now all over our favorite web applications and phones and and and… As we become more resistant to sales message we don’t need to invent new media to carry those messages; we need to reinvent the messages themselves. The introduction of account planning to advertising was the first acknowledgement of that. It’s use in digital media is growing and not a moment too soon.
Marketers, here are some words to live by: don’t overly complicate, message the benefit, avoid sameness, read Maslow, and smile (whistle) while you work. Peace!
