Keith Bates Blog

October 23, 2017

Creativity is what makes the world go ’round. But you need to understand how it works before employing it for content.

It’s in your hands whether your prospects simply listen…or talk.

The challenge for creativity is to overpower, or alter, the belief cluster (sometimes referred to as the bull**** factor)

The real target of marketing efforts is not defined demographically (statistics), or psychographically (lifestyles) or even syncrographically (timing)…the target is the brain…and the challenge is to change attitudes, which in turn change behavior. Attitude changes occur through changes in brain chemistry … so think of yourself as a chemist… working on brain penetration and retention.  The paradox: The quirky unknown doesn’t stick unless you successfully help your reader relate it to the believable known. The four most feared words in marketing communications:  I DON’T BELIEVE YOU!

Consider the rising influence of social media aka public megaphones? It enables repetition.

And repetition of emotion evoking messages is the only known way to assure penetration of the belief clusters that serve as cognitive dissonance filters.  Message retention, and distribution, is dependent on the use of a variety of media vehicles and social media is a small piece of that. What’s more pictures are far superior to words when it comes to altering the brain chemistry required of both penetration and retention …so if you’re contemplating a boring visual, or depending  on all copy messages you’re in trouble.

Beware of taming the lightning of a great idea

This contribution comes from Tom Hall of O&M

Lightning is a metaphor for two contrasting experiences: sudden illumination and sudden death. Ben Franklin tamed the sudden death aspect. He gave us lightning rods so that we could admire the light without fearing the consequences.

Sudden illumination is not a new phenomenon to marketers. Many a competitor has grabbed the lead with a brilliant marketing ploy… but more often brilliant ideas die with barely a whimper because of human lightning rods …people with a knack for grounding great ideas … people uncomfortable with change/new ideas… people who fear a burst of inspiration will wipe out the way they’ve been doing things, people who don’t want the bright light of your BIG IDEA to make theirs look dim by comparison.

Be patient with lightning rods. And be prepared to use the irrefutable logic made possible by the Content Engine.

For a free copy of “Creativity—the critical gap between Messaging & Media” simply visit www.kbates.com home page for the link.