« It’s the way you word it | Home | There’s a price on your head »
Perception is Reality no. 18
By Charles Martin | February 21, 2008
It came to light once again at Hothead Headquarters that it doesn’t matter what you think your customers and friends think of you. It only matters what they think they think of you.
How do we combat the unknown in business and personal relationships? How do we really prove as humans that the EXACT message we are trying to produce is received as paid in full, 100% exactly as we created it? The question is age-old and will keep busy marketers like us thinking until the end. The Hothead will die thinking of this for sure.
The truth is there is really no way to know really. Some friends of the hothead are successful screenwriters and many talks get around to the subject of audience and story. It’s how its laid out. It’s how it can be tweaked the umpteenth time by the umpteenth studio (equivalent to what goes on in kitchens across America when a family discusses an issue) and still only get $4M at the box office day 1. Would Juno not be over the $100M mark today if the writers had chosen abortion for Juno instead of birth? People obviously got the message loud and clear and they told their friends (the best indication of an accepted message) when they sat in theaters across the world so why isn’t that so easy every time?
One of many ideas is to re-communicate from as many perspectives as possible. Advertisers know this. The many iterations of one ad or message are seen on TV, in magazines and in other ways.
Do your customers read you loud and clear? Are you making the equivalent of $100M at your box-office or are you hoping for $1M? The act of creating your message is probably as important as delivering it.
Think before you act.
Topics: Odd file | No Comments »