A loud voice cannot compete with a clear voice, even if it's a whisper. - Barry Neil Kaufman
I read a marketing book a few years ago that contained an image that stuck with me. It was called Attracting Perfect Customers. (The book is partially based on the popular New Age meme of the 'law of attraction' which I could spend too much time to explain why I don't 100% agree with it.)
What is etched in my memory is this image in my head of marketers running up and down a beach frantically and desperating waving flashlights to every single passing ship, while the lighthouse shone clearly and brightly and ships needing its guidance come to it. The image of marketing being a powerful focused beacon rather than being frantic, scattered and diffuse - and that everything is not for everyone - still remains with me. Clarity begets focus, commitment, and resonance.
When your brand doesn't stand for anything, you have to compensate by increasing your marketing expenditures. - Al and Laura Ries, The Origin of Brands
If you're not clear in what you stand for, you inevitably stand for nothing all the while wasting resources and weakening and diluting your impact. And while it seems cheaper than ever to market, this networked media age has its own set of challenges.
Networked media like the internet lower the barriers of distribution for all comers. Lowering the distribution barrier inversely affects the need for visibility. One needs higher signal strength (marketing) in the presence of higher noise (mass of choices). Today with 20 million-plus websites [and 4 million-plus blogs] out there, how does one raise oneself above the noise? David Israel equates putting up a website with "having your name in the Manhattan phone directory. I think I'm now advertising, so I'll sit around aggressively answering the phone when people might randomly choose to call me." - Jim Banister, Word of Mouse: The New Age of Networked Media
Marketing with a "higher signal strength" among the cacaphony of choices isn't grabbing the loudest megaphone and standing on the highest platform. Re-read the opening quote: A loud voice cannot compete with a clear voice, even if it's a whisper. If what I'm saying sounds absurd to you, you're entirely underestimating the power of the mind.
Being an electrical/computer engineer by background, I've learned quite a lot about signal processing (quite faded now) including filtering and signal amplification and frequencies and whatnot. Filtering out noise is simple mathematically.
Our brain constantly filters out noise. The first time you see something it might register as a big spike, but the next time one is exposed the effect is dampened. Pretty soon you can tune it out altogether. I've heard (not verified) that schizophrenics have a hard time doing this type of filtering and everything comes in as a brand-new signal - and that's a bit jarring in an over-stimulated world. (This is precisely why I like to travel to foreign locales to feel that whack! - and vital aliveness - of being exposed to the new - but it can tire and it's called culture shock for a reason.)
The real issue is that most marketing is of itself noise. When all is said and done, if your signal isn't rising tall and high above all the noise in my mind it will be equivalent to invisibility. The challenge is that the marketer isn't the filterer. Alas, as much as some may try, the marketer is not in charge of my mind.
Everyone is their own expert in what pulls them in and what leaves them cold.
Well, as both a Mac enthusiast and motorcycle rider (I don't have a Harley - yet! Soon, I hope!), I can tell you that some of us can't even explain what it is. The word that comes closest for me is 'resonance' -- there's something about each of these brands that just 'resonates' with me. I can 'feel' it. - Scott McCulloch via his comment on GapingVoid.com
[Speaking of the allure of Silicon Valley:] When I drive down 101 from the airport, I still feel a buzz of energy, as if there were a giant transformer nearby. - Paul Graham
Resonance, not entirely visible to the untrained heart, is a palpable, gravitating force. There do appear to be perennial, unequivocal calls that pierce through all clutter straight to one's heart. I'll drop a few hints in this post for you to contemplate.
About a year ago, I was intrigued with Muhammad as a person and leader - not only because of geopolitical events - but because he was chosen to lead the list of The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, by Michael H. Hart. One more hint:
This is not the age of information.
This is not
the age of information.
Forget the news,
and the radio,
and the blurred screen.
This is the time
of loaves
and fishes.
People are hungry,
and one good word is bread
for a thousand.
- David Whyte, "Loaves and Fishes" from The House of Belonging
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