Simplicity In Marketing

Posted by Parke Ladd on Feb 16, 2009 in Business As Usual, Featured {Article} | 1 comment

 

Darwin just had a birthday.  I have been asked to explain Darwin’s theories on numerous occasions (I know, me of all people!), especially during  my college years.  ”Parke, what do you think of evolution?  I just don’t get it.  Can you explain it to me?”  Well…sure…

Two minutes later the conversation ended in further frustration. Why?  As a science major, I had heard the message of Darwin hundreds of times before over the course of 4 years.  I had become an expert on The Theory of Evolution (and by expert I mean that I knew more than the average college student only taking intro biology because she had to).  Even though I knew more than the average, this didn’t make my explanation of evolution or Darwin (or anything!) any easier to understand.  My message was too complex. My “student” had heard her professor’s lecture, she didn’t comprehend it the first time, yet there I was trying to give her the same information in the same way all over again.  Silly.

Marketing follows the same rules.  Any message that is worth giving must first be packaged properly in order to be heard, seen, understood, payed attention to or remembered.  Here are some rules by Chip & Dan Heath from Made To Stick that will help.

You can choose one of the first two, or you can wait for #3:

1. Choose accuracy first at the expense of accessibility
2. Choose accessibility first at the expense of accuracy
3. Choose neither.  Instead, understand this:

If a message can’t be used to make predictions or decisions, it is without value, no matter how accurate or comprehensive it is.

Did my message help my fellow student make good decisions come test time?  Probably not.  I sacrificed accessibility for accuracy.  A less complex message would have been better.  My message had zero value.

What messages are you sending out?  What messages are you buying into?  If these messages are useless, it won’t matter how accessible, how entertaining, or how complex they are; they will get lost in the crowded world of unlimited messages.  I think Darwin would agree.