Big buzz around the
Airborne Entertainment offices—“Five Myths of Consumer Behavior” co-author
Paul Allen Smethers is coming to meet the staff and impart words of
wisdom next week to help us as we develop our new mobile product lines.
Five Myths is one of my fave bizbooks for the year for
two reasons—its merciful brevity and its laser-beam relevance to everyday
consumer marketing. While all five “myths” are pertinent, the most Surprising of the
bunch is #5, the one about product features. Daily advances in technology allow manufacturers to squeeze more and
more of everything into just about anything.
But it seems that
it’s all for naught.
‘Cuz we don’t want ‘em.
Not in our cellphones,
our PVRs, our TVs, or our cars. Our
products, while shrinking in size, are bloating in complexity. Even the iPod, the celebrated consumer
product of eternal happiness and goodwill, isn’t immune to this.
I guess I shouldn’t
be Surprised. One of the non-negotiable
rules of marketing I learned from the late, great Don Tobin back in
junior college was the “KISS” rule—Keep It Simple, Stupid (although
I had my own interpretation of the KISS rule at that time, which
included partying every day…but I digress).
This concept
morphed into another adage I coined during my days producing TV and Live shows at
Just For Laughs:
"The Audience isn’t as hip as you think they are, or want them to be.”
In other words...go
deep, but not over their heads.
Sometimes, even as
the world changes so rapdily, old time wisdom is still relevant.