There's a lot of hand-wringing going on right now about an economy that doesn't respond. The economy is us. And we are not responding.
We don't respond to more advertising on the TV at home nor on our computers at work or school or on our smartphones "en route" or while at play. We don't respond because we don't believe it. It doesn't matter how much you've spent on packaging, keywords, social media experts, morning drive time, primetime rotations, or late night news when no one believes the message.
Imagine if you had a really irresistable new breakthrough for preventing cancer but no one believed it?
There are many reasons why we don't believe.
Too many businesses have used up all their "benefit of the doubt" chips. Too many next big things turned out to be NOT. We've been disappointed so many times we've even lost the "want to believe" unless it is about something we really care about.
Innovation today is inherently sophisticated, requiring some knowledge to appreciate. So we need to do more than hear about it, we need to learn about it.
Finally, no one can control the message. So it is best not to generate awareness until enough people really care about it, are educated, have tried it and can educate others from experience.
Mass advertising is for products which don't have something to prove.
The world needs a different form of marketing and media designed to find those who care enough to learn and build mutual confidence. A different marketing expertise and media vehicles designed for innovation today. The return on investment will be market growth.
