As an Account Planner, I've always been schooled to "boil it down to the simple essence." Because brands should stake out their turf and defend it, right? Because creativity begins with a single-minded proposition, right? And because consumers like it simple.
The K-I-S-S principle (Keep it Simple Stupid) is a substantial part of our culture, including marketing. Just to show you, there are 34,911 books associated with the term "keeping it simple" on amazon.com. Sorry for the Kama Sutra book on the front page...who knew? And before the Internet revolution, marketing was pretty simple. It was really easy to reach a hundred million people with a sales message...expensive too.
Enter web 2.0, the empowered consumer, the abundance of good products, the fragmentation of consumer interests, the proliferation of content and the scary influence of social media. Now, the message is "embrace complexity."
So which is it? Simplicity is key, but complexity is reality.
Albert Einstein suggests: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler."
You know, that guy is pretty smart. Doubt if he had any intention of effecting how we look at marketing brands, but then again, he had little intention of effecting half of the things he indeed did. As marketers, we have to embrace complexity, but keep it simple because that's how people are naturally behaving. Consider my kindergarten-looking chart below:
I know it's complicated (ha) so I'll walk you through it...
