What the World is Waiting For
Make their lives interesting. Please.
Posted Jun 22, 03:35 pm in business, business models, consumerism, marketing
The world is a boring place. Don’t get me wrong, there is a bottomless reservoir of very interesting things to learn about, countless unmade inventions to make, and fascinating people to know, but to 95% of the planet, the world is something they deal with. They’re bored with their lives, they’re bored with their options, and their only outlet is fixating on something like television or celebrity gossip.
Maybe in the grand scene, this attitude is not a very reassuring one. But it’s one that is beneficial for you, the entrepreneurial businessman.
Why?
Because it means that people are waiting. Just waiting for something amazing to come along and earn their attention. And frankly, it doesn’t need to be something mindblowing or something that forever changes the world. It just has to be better than a rerun of Seinfeld. They’re waiting for something to make their lives interesting. They are looking for suspense. Excitement. Mystery. Something to divert their attention to. But they won’t turn their attention towards something run-of-the-mill. It has to be extraordinary. Something that warrants their attention. Something that engages them, something that stimulates a passion, something that gives them a reason to wake up in the morning.
Think about the things that got your attention— nay, obsession— over the past few years (there probably aren’t many, as few things in this world actually live up to their promises). They may have come to your attention in the form of media ‘hype’, from the recommendation of a friend, or maybe something you discovered on your own.
What separated this thing from the other things on your radar? Chances are, it wasn’t like anything else around it. It wasn’t empty hype. It resonated. It was honest. It had authenticity. It showed you something other than what was in the mainstream. It was different. There was little else to compare it to. In a class of its own.
But, you might argue, there’s so much noise out there that how can I get people’s attention? A truly remarkable product or event generates its own attention with very little effort on the part of its maker or sponsor. Yet, it is tempting to create an artificial hype when your product can’t generate one on its own. This is a dangerous move that can leave people feeling annoyed, betrayed, or suckered if they realize that your product isn’t everything you claimed. You really do not want that, as it puts you in a position that is very possibly worse than where you started (remember how you’ve been warned by marketers that people supposedly tell 17 friends about a bad experience, but only 5 friends about a good one?).
However, surprisingly, phony publicity can be effective, but there’s a catch. You’ve got to make sure that whatever you are promoting actually lives up to attention that you’re demanding. People will forgive you for ‘suckering’ them, if you make it worth their while; just make sure that in the end, they feel better about being suckered into something than if they hadn’t. And for that matter, make that journey of being suckered a unique and interesting one.
Remember that when you’re working on your next big idea.