The Red Pill
The Red Pill
If you’ve ever found it difficult to consider how to think creatively because you are dominated by logic, objectivity, and analysis; or if you’ve ever wondered how anyone can get anything done on intuition and lack of complete data, you might now better have a pathway to understanding your customers. F. Scott Fitzgerald, who penned The Great Gatsby, once said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Truly, one aspect of taking the red pill is honing the ability to balance your brain between your default thought patterns that typically let one side of your brain described above rule out. Think about your customers for a moment. You have on one hand, the shopper who buys from you because of the experience of the service or the value of the product. They pay a little more on you because they know the consistency and service is there and they know what they can count on. On the other hand, you have the shopper who buys from you because the price is good. They do their own homework and have arrived at this decision because even though value is important, the price point is in their budget and that matters more to them. How do you speak to both of these in one marketing plan? Does it make your brain hurt? It’s hard to give up one for the other. And with a deeper conversation, Media High Ground can help you either choose the right customer for you or balance the attempt at winning both. The answers are in the media you buy and the balance of the messages. Whether you have or want value-driven or price-driven shoppers, you shouldn’t get a headache in the decision. Let’s talk.
Despite what we are told, people still marry each other because someone made themselves vulnerable enough to pledge their individual will for their lives to the will of another. We can argue the realities of contracts vs. covenants in today’s types of marriage, but no matter the long term, that marriage kicks off with a wedding that can be traced back to someone making the first move and initiating a conversation. Many marketers fumble around at starting a relationship with their customers. They’ve tried online dating, speed dating, and hanging out at the local bar or social venues where singles congregate. But it’s not the medium that’s the main problem. It’s the message. One favorite romantic comedy is Hitch, where Alex Hitchens helps Albert and other guys attract the love of their respective lives. These are well-meaning, kind-hearted men who can’t get out of their own way enough to connect with the right message that they are a worthy pairing. “Hitch” helps them do just that with a little magic and intentionality. At Media High Ground, if we are your guide, it’s our job to help you take what you have and use it to attract the customers you want for life. We are looking to help you get into a lifelong love affair with the customers who understand your value in the relationship. If you can make yourself vulnerable enough to speak to them where they are about the parts of you that are relevant and credible to them, there may be wedding bells in your business future. We promise not to proverbially slap you for having done the “Q-tip” or “kneading the dough”, but if you want some help to attract the love of your company’s life, let’s talk.
It’s one thing to know that you have to rise above the noise to start a relationship with your future customers or to keep those loyal customers coming back, but it’s another thing to know how to actually make that happen. The secret is that it starts with a great story, but not just any story. It’s a story that audiences love. If you can tell that story right, they will throw their money at you. Do we have your attention? Every great blockbuster film gets its revenue by making a story that the movie goer likes and repeating it over and over. It’s called the hero’s journey, and we’ll dig in deeper on that story type at another time. For now, let’s cut to the chase…your customer is the hero in the stories you tell and we marketers are the guide. That’s the arrangement they are looking for. If you can speak to them in those terms, they will like you enough to consider you again. Too many times, marketers fall into the trap of touting their years in business or providing information alone that may or may not look like beating one’s chest. But it’s a trap. Those don’t get them to pay to see the same story again. It’s connecting to their problems, their needs, or their opportunities, and that you can help them overcome and achieve. Call it inspirational, but it’s what they want. They put themselves in the stories until as marketers we take their role from them to give it to ourselves. At Media High Ground, we are YOUR guide as marketers, and in turn you become the guide to YOUR customers. It’s simple to know but difficult to achieve, but it’s why we exist. If you want help getting the story right to rise above the noise, let’s talk.
Those with the red pill in their system immediately recognize a problem with advertising: their customers are literally bombarded with ads. You may be surprised to learn the number is between 4,000-10,000 times a day. Stop and think about it for a second. If it seems impossible, it’s because we are really good at ignoring most of it. We’ll explain why in a minute. From the time you grab your branded coffee cup in the morning to the time you check the scores at bed time, brand messages are all around you like you are Tom Cruise’s character in the Minority Report. The TV, billboard, radio, and print ads are easy to remember they are there. But don’t forget emails, websites, or your social media feed. And this is just a small portion of how the information can overwhelm you. It’s information overload. You can sell all you have in the world and live off the grid until you need a service or product and can’t remember any, or you can do what everyone does to maintain focus…tune out anything that isn’t relevant or entertaining to you. This is why we don’t realize there are that many ads exposed to us each day. And this is where your job begins as a marketer. How do you make what you say stand out as relevant or entertaining or both? This is why we do what we do at Media High Ground. It’s our job to respect the farmland that is your customer’s brain and plant seeds and prune as time and need provide water and sunlight. If you are willing to cultivate relationships with your customers instead of trying to bypass the work and reap a harvest in the near term, let’s talk.
For decades, small business owners and marketers have had the wool pulled over their eyes by every marketing and advertising vendor they have access to. To be fair to the vendors who will possibly read this blog, it’s not all their fault either. Their vision is clouded by someone else too. Imagine a circle of people where one by one they cover the faces of those in front of them with a wool sack, not realizing they also will fall victim to the person behind them until everyone is blind. In the hit movie The Matrix, Neo is confronted with two options in the form of a blue or red pill: stay blind to the realities around him but comfortable, or choose to see and know the truth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE7PKRjrid4 The reason for our existence at Media High Ground is that we chose the Red Pill. Our quest for Truth has led us to look deeply at marketers, their customers, and the ways they communicate with each other with the ultimate goal of creating a relationship also grounded in certain realities as observed by people who have no wool over their eyes. It may come at a severe cost, but we are bullish about serving the Red Pill. How can we take this pill together? Challenge everything you think you know, and we’ll do the same. Be willing to put down your cognitive bias toward your business and look at it like a customer does. We make it our mission to show it to you, no matter what it reveals. You built a worthy offering to your community. You should know what it will take to make your goals a reality. We know it won’t be easy. We force ourselves into this decision every single day. But it gets easier, we promise. We’ll start with challenging the way you think your customers find you, choose you, and share you with their community. We’ll finish with creating a plan to reach them the way they actually should. You won’t be pulling any wool over their eyes because we won’t be pulling any over yours, and the circle will be broken. And they’ll buy more of what you sell. If you like the idea of balancing opposing ideas in your head without melting down, we’re your tribe. Let’s talk.
