The Curse of Knowledge: How Expertise Can Hurt One's Own Start-up!!!

As a full stack entrepreneur, and someone who revels in the build as much as the scale-up, for you finding the words can seem easy. The trick however is landing at this point...

As someone who has worked in branding, communication and innovation across sectors since 2001, I am finding that Indian start-ups are either unable to build a trustworthy brand or unable to hold onto their idea of a brand.

This is my attempt at giving back, by sharing the sharpest tip of the hidden iceberg (the one below the water), these are is use for communication, branding, and marketing (not sales) since early 1900s and more ubiquitous since 80s.

I call this approach pioneered by the USA as "SEMIONTIC MARKETING".

This approach is the knowledge available to the masons and carpenters of yesteryears. It has been used by the West and Japanese digital, media, art and design masons and carpenters to ensure that there is no disconnect or dissonance between their audiences and the company's goal to communicate as simply as possible.

Every mason and carpenter knows - one can't build anything out of thin air. Bricks need to laid one after another, joints need to be made one after another and brick by brick, or one joint after another one can build homes, castles, and even empires.

In 'SEMIONTIC MARKETING' these castles are built in the air of perception, and in people's minds. Once built well and strong, audiences become customers that convert to loyalists. Who will really want to live in, and pay to buy or rent these Castles in the air even on time share.

WHY call is "SEMIONTIC"?

Since we are now in the AGE OF VISUAL & DIGITAL MEDIA CHANNELS. SEMANTIC MARKETING now also has SEMIOTIC MARKETING added as an approach - hence the term i used earlier of SEMIONTIC MARKETING.

This combined approach has been used by Fashion, Food, Marketing thanks to the Human Psychologically savvy, Academically Linked Consulting Big-Wigs and or Sophisticated Financial Wizards and or Politicians and or Bureaucrats and or Public Relations. Their intent is clear, they are looking to sell old wine in new bottles or to build demand for a new discovery, theory, or slice of an old idea (Much like you are in your start-up).

All of these to succeed - need a frameless or referenceless customer mindset, this is the first step for slipping a seemingly new word/thought into the stack of things already being touted as the 'next best thing' - to gain control on one's life, business or some such construct.

Here is an over-simplified Step by Step break-down of how SEMIONTIC MARKETING and communication is done well:

1. First activity is what i call 'collecting bricks' for making the 'Visual Dictionary Wall'. This is just a list of ALL known variables that are linked to your start-up. This usually has a minimum of SE7EN sub-segments, in some cases you need to map up to Twenty8, depending on the scale of impact you intend to create. (This requires a deep and honest relationship with your audiences, grasp of the markets and awareness of the point your audience and your sector are in, along the 'Semantic Marketing' timeline relevant.)
2. Convert this 'Visual Dictionary Wall' into a '3D Social Dictionary', it's best done as a three dimensional link tree or a mind map of the concepts/ words you have discovered in step 1. Organise these by attaching weightage based on the beliefs, values and prejudices your target audience attaches to them already.
3. Now, deconstruct the '3D Dictionary Wall'. Search for the Weak-links and the Strong-Bonds. The Weak-links are your way IN. Strong-Bonds can become your anchors or the challenges. The easiest and idea; scenario is to find Strong-Bonds your start-up can associate itself with and ride.
4. A '3D Dictionary Wall' strongly and soundly built, will reveal the sliver which can be sliced, for your market entry and entrenchment.

All these approaches which I call "SEMANTIC MARKETING" ideas, and business model are best summed below... If you look around your own life, at-least in India - you will discover that USA does it the best across the globe, and that knowledge and the machine which propagates propels it across has been their marketing super power, and the internet was like an atom bomb, whose pipe is dominated and controlled via cloud servers or data pipes or digital media platforms from the USA.

If you read the article till here, here is the payoff:

1. I have introduced a new term SEMIONTIC, which i came up with today in the morning. Its been made using wordplay between 'SEMANTIC & SEMIOTIC'.
2. I have used words like SEMANTICs and SEMIOTICs, which are the bricks used in my world of branding and communication and marketing. Not necessarily the vocabulary in your industry or education.
3. These bricks are not easily understood, so i have alienated some of the possible audiences, made the communications difficult and written an article which is counterintuitive to my own headline.
4. Thanks for reading till here.