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Marketers are bystanders.

In the words of Peter Drucker:

The bystander sees things neither actor nor audience notices. Above all, he sees differently from the way actors or audience see. Bystanders reflect, and reflection is a prism rather than a mirror; it refracts.

As a marketer, you operate in this middle space, at a slight remove.

Your job is—to continue the metaphor of actors and audience—to manage the fourth wall. The vital point where performance meets audience and the magic happens (or doesn’t).

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From the Don’t Say Content ladies:

There’s nothing to fell when it’s mass produced

Remember when you’d go to a how to article and part of what you loved about it was the personality of the brand who wrote it?

And what is gen AI if not the newest tool of mass production?

(This is not an anti-AI post. I’ve been playing with AI text generation since before ChatGPT.)

You can’t mass produce personality. But you can mass produce the stuff that doesn’t meaningfully contribute to personality so the humans can double (and triple) down on it.

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The 9 F's of Attention

The digitally-mediated world today is a competition for attention. Attention being the currency culture-making platforms trade in.

So how do we gain it?

Why We Buy has a great primer on the 9 F’s of attention:

  1. Food

You know, survival.

  1. Fears

Monkey brain survival.

  1. Faces

We’re communal animals.

  1. F#cks

Sex sells!

  1. Fables

We’re storytelling animals.

  1. Foreign

Embrace the weird.

  1. Familiar

Trust shortcuts mental processing.

  1. Fascinates

Open the curiosity gap. Then deliver.

  1. Future Me

Purchasing is an act of aspiration. Buying a future state.

The next time you’re searching for a hook, try reaching for one (or more!) of these.

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Brand value. Brand equity. Brand strength.

All fancy words for how much customers care.

Or, as Seth says:

The accurate measure of brand value is the premium that consumers will spend over the generic.

What time, money or risk will they take for a valuable brand compared to the very same offering from an unknown?

Familiarity is not always a proxy for high value.

In short, brand value is a narrative, not a formula.

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The second Good Life 2030 report highlights that what’s missing in our age of comfort and convenience is connection.

People are yearning to be more connected to themselves

People are dreaming of being more connected to others, too. They want to strengthen and protect family relationships, build more nurturing support systems, and share routines and rituals with others.

people are dreaming of being more deeply connected to nature.

The people want community.