Simple Isn’t the Same as Dumb
Dawn’s post over at The Journal Blog, That Vision Thing, well illustrates the marketing challenge we all have - how do we get our message across, quickly and effectively?
Dawn (and the rest of us) shouldn’t be expected (or want) to appeal to everyone, “dumbing it down” for mass appeal (1). It’s simply impossible - and attempting to do so only results in mass mediocrity. Yet, our potential clients/customers/readers have thousands bidding for their attention every day, in some form or fashion, from the ads on the doors of toilet stalls to drive-time radio to RSS feeds to pop-ups on web sites.
The Bottom Line: The key isn’t “dumbing down” - it’s simplifying so the people with whom we want to talk and work quickly get the point(s) why they should want to talk/work with us. Making it simple (and compelling) is complicated.
Of course, this is always difficult to do for ourselves - that’s why I occasionally ask friends and colleagues to throw a few rocks at the “Schmidt brand” and ideas. No magic answers here, but mebbe you should go make some calls and stock up on some rocks…
(1) Of course, “marketing mass to the masses” can be very profitable - if you’re Wal-Mart, or want to be the equivalent of Wal-Mart (shudder). And, Wal-Mart has certainly gotten “simple” down to both an art and a science.
View the Blog Roll
July 21st, 2006 at 4:18 pm
[…] Mary the Marketing Maven advises that I needn’t try to be all things to all media consumers, or even all small business owners, by dumbing things down to appeal to the lowest common denominator. What’s needed, she says, is to simplify — “so the people with whom we want to talk and work quickly get the point(s) why they should want to talk/work with us.” […]
October 11th, 2006 at 9:57 am
[…] Here’s the thing: Keeping it simple doesn’t mean dumbing it down (as I’ve noted before) – and people appreciate you talking to them as if they have some sense. You don’t have to be an Einstein to “get” product benefits or political points. And, do you really want stupid customers? Of course not. […]