Marketing: September 2006 Archives
If a 3 year old can buy something on ebay, I'm sure the vast majority of humankind can do so as well.. The BBC has this story of a 3 year old called Jack Neal in the UK who bought a Barbie pink Figaro. This is going to be my next goal when designing something. "Playskool it" - Make/build things and services so that a 3 year old can understand and use it.
I read this post by Adam Bosworth on his blog, and I find it refreshing and MECE (Mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) and appropriately sloppy :-). The Takeaways are
- Simple and Sloppy wins over Exhaustive and Formal
- Information overload is here to stay - Judgement and Reputation will form the basis of the solution to this problem
- No Prince2 / PMI inspired formal engagement process
- Plan outcomes and work back through outputs and still further back to efforts
- Get just enough information to get to the next effort/output
- Quick and dirty processes: No Memos or email please; Call or Skype the right guy/girl, then walk to the source
Seth Godin points us to this 17th Century monk, who apparently understands modern marketing.. Or rather, do we understand 17th century marketing properly? The point is: Ideas endure.. they get repackaged with nice acronyms or brandable words, but they're just the same over and over. But if the new version gets you to think or better still ACT... WOW.. Here's 17th Century marketing as seen by Baltasar Gracián y Morales:
"Know how to sell your wares, Intrinsic quality isn't enough. Not everyone bites at substance or looks for inner value. People like to follow the crowd; they go someplace because they see other people do so. It takes much skill to explain something's value. You can use praise, for praise arouses desire. At other times you can give things a good name (but be sure to flee from affectation). Another trick is to offer something only to those in the know, for everyone believes himself an expert, and the person who isn't will want to be one. Never praise things for being easy or common: you'll make them seem vulgar and facile. Everybody goes for something unique. Uniqueness appeals both to the taste and to the intellect."
