PR folks should really pause and consider their messaging strategies in the world we live in TODAY.
Things have changed and with that change you have to assume that the psychology of your audiences has changed as well.
Just how much has the world changed? Zerohedge has a great article back in December that uses charts to show we are truly living in a different world than say 10 years ago.
Some of the charts I found interesting were:
What your are seeing is a society where everyone is getting squeezed.
The impacts of such trends aren't hard to figure out.
- Customers who are very cautious about how they spend their money
- Customers who are leery of 'claims' companies make that aren't supported by proof
- Customers who aren't interested in your 'vision' or wild claims of how you will change their life, but rather, customers who want very specific solutions to immediate problems they have
- Customers that value thrift over flash and who have figured out that the dazzling packaging your product comes in is not free, but rather, is built in to the cost of the product (ie. they are paying for that flash).
Personally I think we are slowly moving toward what I'd call a 'No Bullshit' era of marketing and PR. Which may not sound revolutionary, but think about it, take the bullshit out of marketing and what are you left with? Answer that question and you begin to see that it's very different than the marketing we've known in years past.
When people have disposable income (or at least stable employment) they are far more apt to engage in fanciful thinking... "Maybe that brand that costs twice as much really will change my life."... but when every dollar matters, they actually steer away from over-marketed products.
PR folks should be thinking about whether they are still using words and sentence structures that are relevant more to the world as it was in 2000.
If so, it might be time to re-think things. How does your 'story' play, integrate and reverberate with the 'life story' of your audience? Figure that out and you've got a winning messaging strategy.
Things have changed and with that change you have to assume that the psychology of your audiences has changed as well.
Just how much has the world changed? Zerohedge has a great article back in December that uses charts to show we are truly living in a different world than say 10 years ago.
Some of the charts I found interesting were:
What your are seeing is a society where everyone is getting squeezed.
The impacts of such trends aren't hard to figure out.
- Customers who are very cautious about how they spend their money
- Customers who are leery of 'claims' companies make that aren't supported by proof
- Customers who aren't interested in your 'vision' or wild claims of how you will change their life, but rather, customers who want very specific solutions to immediate problems they have
- Customers that value thrift over flash and who have figured out that the dazzling packaging your product comes in is not free, but rather, is built in to the cost of the product (ie. they are paying for that flash).
Personally I think we are slowly moving toward what I'd call a 'No Bullshit' era of marketing and PR. Which may not sound revolutionary, but think about it, take the bullshit out of marketing and what are you left with? Answer that question and you begin to see that it's very different than the marketing we've known in years past.
When people have disposable income (or at least stable employment) they are far more apt to engage in fanciful thinking... "Maybe that brand that costs twice as much really will change my life."... but when every dollar matters, they actually steer away from over-marketed products.
PR folks should be thinking about whether they are still using words and sentence structures that are relevant more to the world as it was in 2000.
If so, it might be time to re-think things. How does your 'story' play, integrate and reverberate with the 'life story' of your audience? Figure that out and you've got a winning messaging strategy.
Comments
Post a Comment