I heard just this morning that shoulder pads for women are back! I’m also reliably informed that I’m totally “out of it” because flared trousers have been back for a year or so. Everything old is new again! Some things, of course, never go out of fashion but when it comes to our industry, I often wonder what we need to throw away and what we need to keep?
Explore our historical blog articles for nuggets of wisdom (and random musings) from our crew.
In my more youthful days, I was accused by a friend of being too ‘deep’. On further enquiry I was given an example. She said, if I saw a beautiful tulip growing, I would want to dig it up to discover how it grew and why it performed so well. Rightly or wrongly, she was right. I am perhaps guilty of destroying something to discover the truth about it – it is the scientist in me.
After forty odd years as a marketer, one would think that I would have become used to marketing’s misunderstandings – I haven’t. I need to say from the outset that this is due, in the main to my own intolerance more than to client behaviour. You see after such a long time in the business the disciplines of marketing become so second nature that one, quite wrongly, assumes that everyone knows what you know.
I confess! I had my first experience just two weeks ago. It was something I had anticipated but they swept me off my feet and seduced me. Someone else planned it all and I went along as a willing, but innocent participant. I joined the club and at 39,000 feet enjoyed every moment of it.
Recently, I read Dan Millman’s intriguing book, ‘The Peaceful Warrior’. Amongst his many profound statements he writes, “There is no such thing as an ordinary moment”. In my experience Dan is absolutely correct, there are no “ordinary moments”, however there are some that are more magnificent than others.Last weekend I experienced such moments. Moments that will long serve to remind me that humanity transcends all formal behaviour and thankfully favours our species with a most wonderful characteristic – that of tenderness.
On the back of my business card is a quotation from Nick Nagraponte. It goes like this, “Incrementalisation is the enemy of innovation”. It’s the cause of much conversation and not because people think it’s a conventional piece of wisdom but more because they want to know what ‘incrementalisation’ means. I placed it on the card because in terms of marketing it is an issue close to my heart.
To most parents the familiar cry of, “Are we there yet?” is a common echo from the back seat of the family car. It may be painful but if you stop and think about it for a second, it’s absolutely human. Kids, like the rest of us, want to get there without taking the trip. It’s human nature! I have absolute sympathy and can strongly relate to the ankle biters because I too am now asking “Are we there yet?”