Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I have a couple of posts (all in stages of undress and not quite ready to come out on stage) triggered from Hugh's post on Validation Marketing and while I was rummaging around also came across his Future of Advertising post. So rather than finish them up right now (the time thing)...I'll give the reader some food for thought and let your minds play with it awhile.
Hugh uses Gerber in his example to illustrate: Molecules (products) are secondary. What the customer wants is to be a better mom.
Creative tension drives marketing and drives innovation.
Creative tension? Don't the two words cancel each other out? Isn't tension something you don't want to create in your life? The American Heritage Dictionary defines tension as the act of stretching or the condition of being stretched. Yes, tension can also be mental, emotional and nervous strain. But what might happen if you consciously used the stretching condition that tension creates as a compelling force in your life?What if you took a life lesson from the rubber band? If you stretch a rubber band, the tension will seek resolution. It will seek to relax. And, as it relaxes it creates a momentum that propels it forward. Aim the rubber band at a specific destination, and it will have a focused forward momentum. What might happen in your life if you had the same kind of focused forward momentum a rubber band has when its aimed at and then released at a target?
Remember, the definition of tension as it is being used in this context is a stretching condition that produces forward momentum. It is not the use of stress or strain or deadlines to push yourself forward. ...
Knowing the difference between where you want to be and where you are at this moment in time creates a healthy tension that seeks to resolve itself. Like the rubber band, knowing where you want to go and where you are creates a tension that moves you forward in a targeted manner. It is in the gap between where you are and where you want to be that the tension resides. It is in the gap where choices are made and the actions are taken that can propel you forward. - Creative Tension, by Lea Brandenburg
Marketing leverages: Creative tension between where you are (or have) and what you want to be (or have)
Innovation leverages: Creative tension between what is and what could be
If you've already there, what's there to do or buy?
There's creative tension between Tom Peter's message and the day-to-day world of the folks in his audience. Or else they wouldn't be sitting there, they'd be too busy out hiring women and mavericks and upending cubicle-world and... The propelling force of creative tension inspires (but can't force) action - and it definitely rings up sales.
On validation, one could have all the validation in the world and but if you deem yourself unworthy or not enough, it will still come up short.
I think that Peters, Roberts, Oprah, and yes, even Martha are in touch with people's desires to be "better" fill-in-the-blank. They're not selling molecules. They're reminding you of the creative tension. And then they're selling possibility to get there. Few can envision being first...so they show what could be.
The difficult part in creative tension is not to leave anyone feeling like an inadequate loser with where they are right now - otherwise they just feel crummy and depressed and hardly inspired or in the mood to dig for their credit card.
That paradoxical ability - to ignite our desires through creative tension and compassionate acceptance for the present is a mostly a matter of perception. I'll make a bold statement: It's marketing genius.
Genius
A writer arrived at the monastery to write a book about the Master."People say you are a genius. Are you?" he asked.
"You might say so," said the Master none too modestly.
"And what makes you a genius?"
"The ability to recognize."
"Recognize what?"
"The butterfly in a caterpillar; the eagle in an egg; the saint in a selfish human being." - Anthony De Mello, One Minute Wisdom
I often think of creative tension as "holding the vision". The potential of an hearty oak tree is inherent in the acorn. Focus on the tree even if it's an acorn sitting plainly in the palm of your hand. But that's a whole other post.
I'm way behind on posts around these themes to comment on Hugh's newly improved Hughtrain Manifesto - but I like it - very much in this incarnation and that may be all the comment I have. Recommended reading. It's interesting to watch ideas being chiseled if you stay a steady reader of any blog.
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