4 Odd Marketing Thoughts For Summer

It's summer. The middle of summer.  My view of the lake is pretty much perfect, so this blog entry is going to be light and easy.  Just like the days of late July and early August.  So, here are four little bits of info to ponder while you have a cold drink.

1. Lists with numbers in them are a growing trend in Internet blogging.  A recent quick scan of my twitter account turned up the following examples (it took no more than two minutes to find these):

• 14 Types Of Stories You Can Tell On Your Blog
• 9 Latin American Accelerator Programs You Should Know
• 5 Advantages to Using Google Plus For Photo Sharing Over Facebook
• 10 Leaders And The Surprising Ways They Stay Productive
• 20 Extremely Good Online Ads
• 12 Finer Points Of Email Etiquette

I'm told this is a new trend based on the fact that we want bite sized information served up to us in this modern age.  There is just too much out there so we crave short lists.  

I'm not all that sure this is a new trend.  I think this has been used before with some success:

• 10 Commandments
• 7 Deadly Sins
• ...heck there are even 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.

2. It may seem impressive to have lists that have 10 to 20 items in them, but really most of us can only remember three things.  I don't really recall all the 10 Commandments, the 7 Deadly Sins, and beyond getting on a bus I don't really know all the 50 ways to leave a lover much less the 6 Ways To Successful Sponsorships.  

Do yourself and the world a favor - make your list three items long and make them really good points.  

3. The word "The" is a really complex and weird word, especially when associated brand names or cultural icons.  Here are 3 "the" examples.

• Referring to the Internet as "the Internet" sounds just fine.  But saying "the Facebook", well that's something your grandmother does.  
• I always found it odd when people referred to BlackBerry as "the BlackBerry".  "Do you have the BlackBerry?"  Who says that?  Why?  
• Oddly, putting "the" in front of sport team names always happens and it sounds perfectly fine.  The NY Yankees, the LA Lakers...and Da (the) Bears!

Can someone explain all that to me?

4.  Ahh, forget it.  You'd never remember the forth thing anyway.  Go have a nice cool drink and a swim.  

Content Is King, But Context Is The King Maker.

I have a simple belief.  The context of what you have to say is often more important than what you say.  The power of words is often overlooked or misused when it comes to communicating...be that in an ad, meeting or even a tweet.  
Words carry emotion. Words carry pictures. Words carry a whole world of symbols and universal meanings that engage an audience's heart and mind.  Words do not just communicate - they can also cast spells.  
Mothers often tell their children, when the wee ones are over eager and not thinking clearly  - "Use your words!".  Sometimes I think the marketing world needs to be reminded to "use your words" as well.  
I believe marketing copy in Social, Digital and all places needs to be powerfully thoughtful, simple and most of all - designed to create engaging context for what we are trying to say.
Ironically, the following link to a video says this so much better than my own words can.  
The Power of words.
People say content is king.  True.  But, context is the king maker.

The Most Important Marketing Skill: "Getting it".

Last week I was in Chicago, between meetings and in need of free WiFi but not in need of a double espresso.  A perplexing problem.  So in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon I did something I haven't done in over 10 years - I walked into the downtown public library. I found an empty table, opened my laptop, hooked into the WiFi network and made a valiant attempt at being productive.  It didn't last that long because I was quickly distracted by the world around me.  I was fascinated by the group of disenfranchised people within the building.  I was saddened and inspired by what I saw.  I wanted to write about the experience, but my blog is about marketing - not a sermon about humanity.  Later in the day I walked among the crowds of shoppers on Michigan Ave.  It wasn't quite so inspiring.  Determined to find a way to fit my library experience into my blog I went and had a drink and pondered.  Two drinks later I crafted an idea...

The Marketing Message:
I may not be doing much "marketing" at the moment, but I am a marketer...and will always be a marketer.  That afternoon in a downtown Chicago public library I was doing what every marketer should do - I was looking at society around me and trying to understand what was going on.  I wasn't engrossed in my own importance. (To be clear, I'm am as engrossed in my own importance as anyone - but I set that aside for ever so brief of a moment.)  I wasn't projecting my view onto the crowd or attempting to change the crowd. (Two of the biggest and most common mistakes in marketing.)  Instead I was captivated in the lives around me and what did or did not motivate them.  I was fascinated to see how they interacted with each other and what, if any, rules and norms they followed.
It is my belief that if you work in marketing - this desire to understand what is going on in the world around you should be your number one driver.  It should come ahead of wanting to be creative, having a VP job title or anything else we have come to believe as being important.  We marketers should be constantly looking around ourselves and asking "What's going on?"  It's so vital that we "get" what is shaping the behaviors of society around us.  Without a fanatical desire to "get it", we fail as marketers because there is one thing I know for sure - society does not need to "get" your brand and certainly does not need to "get" you.

The Inspiration Message:
So, what did I see in the Chicago library?  All around me was an abundance of people with time on their hands who were trying.  Some were old.  Some were in their early 20's.  Many were black.  But, unlike the disenfranchised that we see on the streets - these people had not given up on life despite the fact that stores, streets and social patterns outside that building had no real place for them.  Almost every computer available was being used.  Older people trying to learn yet another new bit of technology that will allow them to stay connected to an ever distant world. Younger people using the computers to find jobs.  I watched people struggle their way through newspapers in search of some form of hope.  And, I watched a young black man teach an old white woman how to google.  Everyone was busy trying to do something.  Trying to improve.  Thank god the city gave them a place to try.
There is a T.S. Elliot quote on the wall of Chicago library that sums up what I witnessed and felt:

"The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man."

I was inspired by what I saw.  I was inspired by witnessing the act of trying - not the act of succeeding.  Trying, as I am learning, is far more relevant to our lives than success.  And, by trying to understand the patterns of the room around me I also honed my most important marketing skill - the act of "getting it".