You've gotta be hungry to win... and have (or get) a sharp set of teeth! - InsightsCaffeine (No.14)

They say the right kind of attitude can get you anything, or anywhere.

You want to solve climate change (or at least shame the policy-makers into doing something about it)? Greta Thunberg is a formidable example. You want to create a forum where people can share enlightened ideas in radio talk-show fashion? Paul Davison (Clubhouse co-founder) is showing us the way.

Whether it's start-up founders trying to solve problems in food production, the circular economy or FinTech, established brands working towards their ultimate goal of one product unit sold every second of every day, or an agency which provides services to either of them, there does need to be a hunger, a drive, which creates the optimum conditions for a momentum that propels you down a path of self-discovery, distinctiveness and of course growth--as you gobble up those around you.

Dave Trott, English advert copywriter and NYC graduate of the famed Pratt Institute has been creating advertising campaigns and criticizing campaign-makers for the the last half-century. In his second published work, Predatory Thinking (which has a corner bitten out of the top right hand cover, very on-brand), Trott shares various intriguing and comically graphic anecdotes from around the world and across industries to make several points about the advertising industry from both the "client" and the "agency" point of view. While entertaining and incredibly simple to read, it is also incredibly difficult to clearly identify the morals of all these stories in any coherent or self-applicable fashion. You can read the book in an evening and aside from remembering some excellent stories for the next cocktail party (#WhenWillThoseEverHappenAgain?), you'll be hard-pressed to remember what the point of it all was. So we'll highlight some of the more interesting lessons you could take note of while not revealing too many of the interesting anecdotes mentioned so that you're still inspired to read the rest!

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1) THE CONSUMER IS YOUR LIFE. NOT A (PAPER-BASED) TARGET. Trott recants us with an anecdote about an advertising exec who flies in from his New York office to London and tries to park his car in the garage of the office building which bears his name: Wundermann. The security guard doesn't know him, has never seen him, and so is reluctant to let this stranger into a secure parking lot.

“Do you know who I am?” asks the offended and red-in-the-face ad-man.

“No” comes the reply.

“I’m Wunderman” he says, tapping his chest emphatically.

“I don’t care if you’re fucking Superman. You ain’t parking here.”

Aside from this encounter being quite comical--and some of us concluding that Mr. Wonderful may have been a somewhat conceited in assuming that everyone spontaneously knew who he was--it is indicative of a bigger phenomenon which plagues brands and all the agencies the market them: the natural assumption that consumers know about and care who they are. This leads to whole product lines and communication campaigns being created under the assumption that consumers will be fully informed, fully engaged, and fully capable of assessing these propositions in a rational way and making the "right" decision to buy your product versus competition's. It is the same assumption that underpins the entirety of modern economic theory: that all agents are informed, rational human beings (and we can see how the global economy has developed thanks to that fallacy).

Trott cites research done on UK adverts revealing that 4% were remember positively, 7% negatively (so at least these two sets of brands had clear positions and reactions), while the remaining 89% were not remembered at all. It's not that famed quote about ad-spend on "which 50% of my advertising is wrong?"... it's more which 90% is not even remembered. Consumers have better things to do than analytically decipher and decode every word of your copy, claim and ingredient list like an FBI serial killer profiler would. And if you launch a product they know nothing about, they will reach their own conclusions about what it does and how to use it. Another wonderful anecdote is about the grandmother who used to put 3-5 tea bags into her tea-mug thinking that each tea-bag was a "spoonful of tea", the measuring device she had used for 60+ years before tea bags were invented and a box of the stuff found its way into her home. Just because you know how 'amazing' your product is doesn't mean consumers do. You actually need to turn the 'consumer telescope' around and rather than zooming in on your microcosm of product and its micro-utility, understand the bigger picture and how it may (or may not) fill into her life. And if your methods of communication are unmemorable to boot, you will have even bigger problems.

Speaking of grandmothers, they serve as an excellent torture test for all marketing ideas. In short, if you can explain what your product/service can do and why to your grandmother in a way that she can understand, you have a shot of winning with everyone else... if not, you're doing something instinctively wrong.

2) IF IT'S IN 'GOOD TASTE', IT'S NOT CREATIVE. It is amazing how many product designers or advertising gurus set-out to create something 'disruptive', only to launch yet another version of the already seen and already well-liked concept of a competitor's which also scores well in research. The simple, hard truth is that if something is that universally understood and liked, if it is in 'good taste', then it is already average. It has already gone through the Diffusion of Innovation cycle and reached the Laggards (see #InsightsCaffeine No.5: Start With Why).

The point has been made before across industries: "What works is being different. Don’t try to be liked. Find out how you’re different. Then be that. That’s where the power is. That’s what’s new. That’s what’s wanted." Criticism and shock will surely follow, but it only reinforces your positioning.

Of course this is a useful, even necessary, business tactic for the newcomer, the start-up, the founder. But big brands don't like rocking the boat because it presents too high of a perceived risk. One could argue how much risk when 90% of your consumer won't even know that you've done something truly "different"--at least not anytime soon. But big brands are governed by big boards that are protecting their quarterly dividend payments as opposed to being innovative for the sake of the consumers they claim to be serving. And in the end, many of them do pay the price for this stoic, Titanic-level posturing when the unassuming, unfinished and still developing iceberg of change comes their way. Kodak has sunk to the depths of irrelevance: they still sell vintage film, but it seems that this "technology company" makes what little money it does from selling photography-themed board puzzles, rain-parkas and hoodies to under-18s (based on the advertising campaign) who are too young to even know what Kodak is/was.

Should you be innovative and different for its own sake? Of course not. But if you expect to be by playing to the tastes of the mass, of the middle, from the onset, you will only ever create something that is potentially viable commercially, but average in nature and ready to be knocked out by the next average product with "one more feature" or the truly innovative disruptor that takes everyone out--and you won't even see them floating towards you.

3) INNOVATION DESIGN IS BALANCE BETWEEN FORM AND FUNCTION, AND A STRUGGLE BETWEEN EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS. For those of you working in the public and charity sectors, or any big corporate's purchasing department, you'll find the following Trott anecdote depressingly familiar: the UK's Ministry of Defense decided to get a new radio communications system. No one bothered to consult all the stakeholders on what was needed and given that the order had to be rushed through (probably to meet some Parliamentary budget committee submission deadline), ￡2.4bn was spent on radios without built-in GPS locators. Why does it matter? Well it seems that since these radios were produced and deployed, 1 in 10 of them has gone "missing". They could be in enemy hands and the MoD cannot trace them. As a result, British soldiers are left exposed and the entire communication network is compromised. 'Form' took precedence over function, and 'efficiency' was rammed through over effectiveness.

Alright, alright. You don't want to be Kodak, nor the Ministry of Defense. So how can you be more like Apple? or Tesla? or even just that interesting (and highly profitable) small business that makes paper from the by-products of alcohol distillation which would otherwise be thrown away? The first step is to stop working in your own mental silo (or department silo), and understand the entire business opportunity as a whole, as well as the 360-degree mental state and needs of your consumer. Proper research and, more importantly, proper understanding of the problem must be undertaken, with as many useful minds as possible brought in to help find a relevant and comprehensive solution which is still manageable and viable, the MVP if you will. Does this mean that you need to spend 10 years percolating over the finer questions? Absolutely not. 10 years was all it took for Kodak to go from top photography firm in the world to an exhibition centre that sells sweatshirts. You still need to find a timely way of doing things. Fail fast and learn quickly.

It's all about putting things in perspective

Predatory Thinking is a wealth of mini insights that span the innovation to the organisational spectrum. While we've highlighted some of the most important ones above, we're unashamedly sharing some other key takeaways as summarised by one of Trott's own creative agencies, the Gate, which also give some additional insights into pivoting (both innovation and communication strategies) and competitive tactics.

Happy munching...

#InsightsCaffeine #ElGrecoInsights #GoodHabits #morninginspiration #booksummary#Ideas #Brand #Branding #Marketing #Kodak #Tesla #Apple #Startups #StartUpMindset #Innovation #Advertising #MarketingTruths #DaveTrott #PredatoryThinking #Clubhouse #Blinkist