A friend of mine looked at me one day not long ago as I dragged in my daily five or six pounds of mail and said, “You and your media.” He was referring to my daily dose of magazines and newsletters that flood into my “snail” mailbox everyday– a heaping helping that at one time, required me to “make time” to get through it all.
But– as I often say and people often hear but don’t really hear AND I find myself saying more these days– “The simple truths are the greatest truths and things need to be a lot more simple.”
So, I have considerably cut down on the unending flood of literature that I used to think I needed to get through a week, month, quarter– whatever. And I look a lot more at what’s around me and at the simple things we often overlook. Let’s look at one very simple thing now.
“It’s a recession!” How many times are we going to have this drilled into us daily? Indeed, as a country, we are experiencing a perfect economic storm; the Wall Street meltdown and subsequent bailout, the $10 billion-a-month Iraq War, the mortgage implosion, budget deficits at every level of government as well as historic levels of layoffs and business closures. I think everyone is feeling it; even those that asked a few months ago “how is all this affecting me?”
In this very grim environment, a young, first-term, African-American senator from Illinois had the chutzpah to strategically position and conceptually frame his long-shot run to the White House with the audacity of hope. And he won by a landslide — so maybe there’s something to this hope thing. His very big idea has energized a cynical and weary nation with the notion of meaningful change that will enable the rejuvenation of a former undisputed champion, America. Hope is defined by Webster’s like this: 1) to desire with expectation of obtainment; 2) to expect with confidence.
The obvious lesson for marketers is: we are in the hope business.
We enable and even empower our clients to talk to and interact with customers who are still in the marketplace, who are still consuming (albeit at a lesser rate) while hoping things will bottom out soon, then spike.
Like the new President-elect, we have a unique opportunity to innovate and add value in this down market.
And just like the new President, we’re going to have to show resilience, fortitude and ingenuity to continue to add value to our clients, partners and customers.
The million-dollar question is: Will we be able to “sell” hope in a similarly effective manner as the President-elect? Will we be able to inspire our clients and their customers to think about winning while acknowledging, and responding to, a very grim reality?
Hope. Let’s keep it alive…
Tags: clients, customers, hope, marketing, Obama, simple things