One of my favorite movies is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (okay, now you know how old I am). There’s a funny scene where a high school teacher stands in front of his class droning about economics without realizing no one is listening. Every student tunes him out while he continues lecturing the room asking, “Anyone? Anyone?”
This movie clip resembles the monotonous effect too many marketing campaigns have on consumers. All too often, publishers, business owners, authors, and marketers create promotions that mimic the boring high school teacher. For example, we get overly preoccupied with our own ideas and products. We think our message is desperately important. We deservingly believe everyone should love our marketing. Yet, we’re shocked to find out that hardly anyone is paying attention.
As executives, why do we make these mistakes? Why do we allow boring marketing campaigns to be funded? Why do we publish boring books? Why do create boring advertisements? Maybe we forgot what marketing is really all about:
It is not people’s job to listen to you. It is your job to make people listen.
Are we so arrogant to believe that people must listen to our marketing? Just because we spent $100,000 on a promotional campaign, do people really owe us their attention? People who’ve never heard of our company, never used our products, and have no basis for comparison.
Marketers can be quick to spin the truth when a campaign is unsuccessful. “We didn’t reach the right demographic…Facebook changed their algorithm…Our staff didn’t have enough bandwidth to maximize resources.” The excuses are endless. Yet, at the end of the day, a simple truth was overlooked:
It is not people’s job to listen to you. It is your job to make people listen.
Let me be clear. It is YOUR JOB to MAKE people listen. People will listen when you exercise your creativity, meet a felt need, employ humor, provide immediate value, display attention-grabbing imagery. Marketing departments should be judged by this primary goal: “Figure out how to make people listen.”
Consumers are never bound to give us their interest. They’re busy. They’re distracted. They’re skeptical. Before you release that new ad campaign, that new book, that new product promotion, or that upcoming newsletter, remind yourself and your marketing team, “No one has to listen to us. Our job is to make people listen.”
I hope you found this lesson helpful…”Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?”
