I wrote an email this morning to someone in the health insurance space referencing an axiom I love “leaders educate.” I learned it while working at McCann-Erickson on the AT&T business. AT&T had some seriously smart marketers back in the day. Post-monopoly.
When consumers are confused and change is in the wind, they can make bad choices. Uninformed choices. The sturm und drang favors upstarts and competitors. It is for this reason that leaders need to step up and organize the explanation. To remove the confusion. Simple is memorable. Simple stories, simple examples, simple “if—thens” are what consumers need. With this out of the way, marketers can then provide the ability for a deeper information dive. (Think iPhone. Not iMultipleDevices.)
Some businesses benefit from complexity. Law. Finance. Privacy. Accounting. And insurance. Nothing is too hard to explain and make understandable. Sometimes marketers are too close and can’t see the simple explanation. This is why technology companies have a hard time branding.
As for the use of education in advertising and marketing, we need to do more. A Dorito chip bouncing around a room on a Super Bowl ad is not educating anybody. It’s much like sitting in the same class over and over again. Leaders educate. Let’s lead. Peace.